Perseverance

Well, last Saturday DH completed his second marathon. Last year he ran the Air Force Marathon at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. He trained hard for 3 months and set a goal to finish in under 4 hours. He completed the marathon in 3 hours 53 minutes 53 seconds. Earlier this year he considered running this year's Air Force Marathon as well, especially after discussing it with a friend from work who had decided to run it this year. Well, it's been an extremely busy year at work (as well as at home) for both of them and neither had really done any training throughout the year so DH just assumed they would not be running it. Fast-forward to 3 weeks before the race......yes, THREE WEEKS! DH had a conversation with his coworker in which he discovered that he was still planning on running in the marathon even though he had not been training up until that point (he had set a goal for himself....a New Year's resolution....at the beginning of the year and was determined to keep it). So both DH and his friend started training for the run at 3 weeks before the race (for those who are unaware......a marathon is 26.2 miles long!). Well, needless to say, neither of them was truly prepared for the race.....I know DH's longest recent run before the race had only been 8 miles. Quite a difference from a marathon! But they had determination and perseverance! They were able to run the first 10 miles at a good, steady pace. At that point their bodies needed a break so they started walking. Unfortunately, when they started to run again DH's friend's calf cramped up. He did everything he could to remedy the situation to no avail. But this did not stop them! They kept walking at a good, steady clip (15 minutes/mile) to try to make sure they finished the race before the cut-off time of 7 hours from the start of the race. Although their pace fell a tad towards the end of the 16 miles they walked, they were able to finish the race in 6 hours 23 minutes, well ahead of the cut-off limit, and were able to receive their finishers' medals directly from the Air Force officers awarding them to the runners.So even though it was a totally different experience for DH from last year's race, it was a great day.....his friend was able to succeed in fulfilling his resolution and DH was able to complete a race he went into unprepared for. That's what you call perseverance!