I’ll get my photos up later this evening. It was indeed a fine weekend!

“If it is to be, it is up to me.”

“Life is a daring adventure or nothing at all.”

“Do or do not, there is no try.” (Yep, that’s Yoda!)

“The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it.”

“Whether you think you can or think you can not, you are right.”

“I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is the victory over self.”

“You don’t get to choose how you’re going to die or when. You can only decide how you’re going to live.”

“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.
Talent will not, nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not, unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not, the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”

Familiar with these, aren’t you? My children are as well, since they have been quoting them during breakfast since they could form sentences. I absolutely believe in every quote. They are Law.
So I’m laying in my tent the night before the run when T.J. (aka “The Punk”-thanks Charlie!) asks if he could run the full course. Ummm yeah, sure bud, but wait until next year and I’ll run it with you since I haven’t run much lately. (Don’t want anyone to see my fat flying either!) Then my throughly brainwashed son respectfully informs me at length that I have been saying for years that I was going to start running seriously and now I needed to follow through with actions. Then, to boot, he doles out a few of the above quotes to me! What! I spent hours researching the source of those quotes! Hours hand writing them out! My quotes! Mine! This when I was struck with the thought that I was a dirty hypocrite. Shame!

That is why I ran the North Fork trailing a bunch of sinewy and non-hypocritical people in just 8 and a half hours! You won’t catch me on my butt anymore!
Juli Hooks