The Continuing Adventures of Toots and Sally: Two Women. One Marathon. A Dream.
This was part of the dedication of my MFA Thesis…it seems strikingly apt to our ordeal:
Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination are omnipotent. The slogan press on has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race
“Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end; then stop.” -Lewis Carroll, from Alice in Wonderland
Mother Nature had pity on me today. Ran solo under grey skies and drizzle, in other words, the weather was almost perfect - a little warm (70’s), but I’ll take it over the sunny 80 plus degree weather we had yesterday. I actually had fun during this run. I mapped my run through downtown hitting some of the touristy sights…San Pedro Park, Milam Park, Market Square, King William Historic District, La Villita, HemisFair Park, and The Alamo. I had never run in front of The Alamo or through the King William area…that was pretty cool. However, running through these parts of town meant a lot of dodging traffic, bicycle cops, and throngs of tourists everywhere…sprink break is here and the fiestas have begun.
Today, I hate.
I hate 18 miles.
I hate everyone on the lake paths.
I hate the rest of the nearly 6,581,649,007 people on Earth–just because.
I hate myself.
But mostly, I hate Pheidippides.
What the frack was he thinking running 26.21875 miles!?! Someone should have taken the hint when he dropped dead from exhaustion after running from Marathon to Athens, non-stop.
P.S. WHAT?!?! He only ran 21.4 miles?!?!? Slacker…I hate him MORE!
This sucked. I probably only actually ran 18.5-19 of my 20. Every weather info place we looked had the wind wrong, and I just kind of petered out once I hit Lake of the Isles. I’m telling myself it’s okay, but I feel like I’m following a pattern. A pattern of failure.
It was rough…lots of puddles, too many people, bad, bad wind, etc. I don’t totally blame the conditions, but I will say that I had to “run” (shuffle, plod, walk) my last four miles with soaking wet socks and shoes. I will come to peace with this run. Some days you eat the mountain, some days the mountain eats you. That’s one of my quotes I meant to put up earlier, don’t have the author handy. So today, the mountain ate me.
“We run, not because we think it is doing us good, but because we enjoy it and cannot help ourselves. It also does us good because it helps us to do other things better. It gives a man or woman the chance to bring out power that might otherwise remain locked away inside. The urge to struggle lies latent in everyone.”
