Once I did that. I can’t run anymore. The end.

Story: I was on active duty for operational support, away from my weekend unit. Both my weekend unit and my active unit required me to take an Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT) in the fall. Clearly they didn’t trust each other.

I had also been training for the Army Ten Miler, and that fell right in between the APFTs. No big deal.

Then I had the opportunity to run the MCM under someone else’s bib, and I went from ‘what? 26.2 miles is a long way to drive, much less to run, especially if no one is chasing me’ to ‘well, if I can run 10 miles, I can run 13, that’s a half marathon and that counts for something, then I can walk the rest of the way if needed, to heck with it, fine I’ll do it’.

So I did it. APFT, ATM, APFT, MCM. I ran the whole MCM, too! Today my back and left knee are too shot to run much anymore, maybe 1-2 times per month, but man I loved that sense of feeling like I could run forever.

I’ll have a bottle of Motrin and a black coffee.