Twenty Minute Attempt: Part One of Two

Woke up this morning. It was the day. I was going to accomplish the cumulation of five weeks worth of work. I was going to run for twenty minutes straight. No stops. No breaks. No mercy. I cook myself some bow tie pasta. Cut my finger open on the box. Drank some Gatorade. Waited a few hours to digest my meal then hopped on the train and heading down to Copley. I was going to make this a special run. No circular jog around the track. No. I would run around the Charles River. Checking out the hot babes and nice river breeze.

I walk from Copley to the river. My left leg is sore. I am psyched. I am pumped. I am ready to accomplish this. I will not fail like I did with the 100 pushups. I will not repeat this week. I will conquer and move on. I head over the bridge and I am there. At the river. I merge into the bike/jogging lane and I start running.

I am determined not to check my watch. It is the small death. I will not succumb. I am doing it. I am jogging. I look like the other joggers. Well, they are not wearing Hawaiian leaf bathing suit and a Llama shirt. I am close enough to them though. I look good. I am tired. I feel good though.

I pass the first bridge. I pass the second bridge. I decide not to look at my watch until the third bridge. At that time I will run across the bridge to the other side. It will be pretty cool. I see the next bridge. I am running towards it. I am tired. I decide to peek.

11:00. Eleven minutes into the run. I only have nine minutes to go! Holy shit! I am doing it! I am crushing it! WOW! I am doing good. Um. Why am I suddenly so tired? I keep jogging. I will not check the watch until the bridge. I am not there yet. Fuck I am getting tired. I need to check my watch.

15:00. Ok. Getting there. Only like five minutes left. Wow. I am getting tired though. I keep running. I must have run five more minutes right?

17:00. Oh. Only two minutes. Well that leaves what three minutes left. Oh shit am I tired. I am slowing down. I can not do this. Wow. I have nothing left. You can not make it my inner voice says. I know I agree! Wait! You are supposed to disagree. I start playing that pop song solo in my head. I must be dying. Stupid song.

18:00. Fuck dude. Only two minutes left. Are you still running? Um. I think so. Foot. Next foot. Moving slightly faster than walking. Yeah. I think I am running. Goddamn my side hurts like hell. I can not breath with this pain. Focus. Breath. Step. Step.

19:00 Holy shit man. You can not quit now. I am dying though. Dude your fucking there though!! No. No. I am dead. I finally went to hell. Dude! Look! You are there!

19:20. Oh. Not yet. Fuck. I can not move another step. Um. I am moving. Pain. Can't breath. Solo song. OMFG! Ugly people making out. WTF! SHIT! THIS IS SO HARD! I am still moving? Yeah. Breathing? Yeah. Good form? Yeah. Can not fucking stop now. I have come too far.

20:00. I am done. I did it.

I was thinking of the solo song. I have to tell you there may be a god. He may have built me with good muscles and fortitude. He may want me to succeed in my runs. It is not free though. He wants me to go solo. He wants me to dig down deep inside myself and pull out some reservoir of effort and desire that I had no idea existed. I did that today and it felt really awesome.

Part Two Tomorrow.