free response blog #3

(These pictures didn't post how I planned, but after reading below it will make sense why I posted pictures also.)

The euphio question, would I do it? Absolutely not.....

Allow me if you will to briefly take you back to 2007. Something I have always wanted to do, run a marathon. Needless to say in order to complete the marathon I had to train. I trained very hard, running 3 to 4 times a week. The marathon I chose to run was the Walt Disney World marathon in January 2008. The marathon itself was in Florida, where it was nice and warm, the training of course, was done where I reside in Ohio during the cold winter months. I would typically run two short runs a week usually 5 or 6 miles and one long run anywhere from 14 to 20 miles depending where I was in my training. I will never forget the day I was supposed to run 16 miles, it was 8 degrees outside and although I wore a mask to breathe through and thermal leggings, my legs would not warm up and my eyes were watering so much from the cold that icicles litterally formed from my eyelashes. I made it eight miles before I decided that if I continued I would only cause injury to my legs. I did make this run up a few days later when it was about 15 degrees warmer. After six months of extensive training January came. We started our marathon day at 3 AM where we were bussed to the starting line. The start of the race came with large pyrotechs and we were off. The first twenty miles weren't nearly as bad as the last 6.2, the last hour or two of the race I was in extreme pain. The muscles in my legs felt as if they were tied into knots upon knots. One of the members of our team stuck by my side, he encouraged me to pull through. Even grabbed my hand at the finish line when I looked up defeated only ten feet from the line and pulled me through. It was a challenge, I trained hard, my hard work and determination paid off. I can not even begin to explain the feeling I had when crossing the finish line. I have heard that most people become very emotional during this time of their first marathon, I would have to agree. Not everyone can say that they ran 26.2 miles, but I can....am I bragging? You bet I am, I EARNED the bragging rights.

I'm sure I would've been just as happy while experiencing euphio, but that is only temporary, and needs to be continually fed into. The fact that I worked so hard and earned this happiness is not a temporary thing, I can look at my pictures of the race, or even think about it and it brings back the memories and the happiness of my accomplishment, so no, I would not try euphio, I have something much better than that.....and it doesn't cost a dime.