Tuesday, November 15, 2016

The challenge

A simple bike ride to a public meeting
My favorite frenemies show up ( fear and his/her/it's twin anger)
They remember the good old days when we raced and battled for supremacy in the dark on scary runs alongside la lotto a in the arroyos of my native Agua Fria
Ttherapthey feel confident and want a rematch 432 years later as they feel I willam old and weak and will succumb easily to their blandishments and threats
As very few know about me I have a difficult time turning down a challenge even one with little chance of victory and very little upside
The rules are simple we pick a distance and I must put forth full effort for that period or lose and suffer a spiritual death
Today we agree to best out of three
I am fresh and strong 💪 and have a secret ingredient
Easy wins two to zero
Of course fear and the referee death are cheaters so they claim I have to win three out of three
Shit
But the refs have final say so now you am getting angry
The next challenge is a long hill
I bust my ass and run out of gas and give in with a just meters to go
Forgot the cardinal rule " don't get 😡...
So a long flat stretch calm and clear for many maters as the end nears I feel fear and weakness wending their way from belly to heart to brain
Hold on by the merest margins gasping for breath quads burning but victorious
They day is won!!!
Not so quick says fear, death agrees that maybe some cheating involved
No bleeping way but the rules are set so remembering the lesson of anger we find the next challenge, a long winding hill
Easy I think and start steady and slow speeding to the exact effort which will get me
To the top of course the top is farther than the eye used to jogging 🏃 reckons so a 100 meters more than expected head down grimacing as the pain and lactic acid build
Victory by a hair!! Exhausted !!!4 to 2 good to go
As life often does the finish line moves it is now best of 9 or on English first to 5
So spent and disheartening two hard steep tricky hills now four four
Death our ref sea a long deceptive hill for the final challenge so I can quit or try
With little hope I bend my will to the task halfway the tendrils of fear and acid begin their insidious work
Just go then that funny thing happens I embrace the pain and fear and work with them as tools of self knowledge and as the quads tighten and the vision begins to tunnel one last long effort and the finish passes by as thinkers wobbles and legs tremble
Death will have to wait at least one more day

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