I think it is forgivable and even appropriate to post unflattering photos of oneself when they show the conclusion of physical exertion. Some may argue that running a 35-minute 5k hardly qualifies, but I disagree. It was hard!

I've had a gym membership ever since I moved back to New York City in 2021 and have had fits of consistent usage, with longer stretches of never visiting. During one of the former, when I thought I was getting pretty good on the treadmill, I set a goal (may have been a New Year's Resolution for 2023) to run a sub-30-minute 5k. Mentioned this to a friend who's a serious runner who has since prodded occasionally to invite me to run one with him.

As I detailed in an earlier post, he extended another invite about a month ago as I was trying to pull myself out of a not-irregular spell of wallowing in self-pity. Like Christ asked the cripple in John 5:6: "Wilt thou be made whole?", better rendered: "Do you want to be healed?" And I had the rare moment of being asked the question and saying "sure".

I started getting up at 5:30 and hitting the treadmill. Did it daily for about a week, then had a rare full week with my son and took a day off and never went back.

By the time race day rolled around on Wednesday I was more or less back in the same state the invitation had found me in and I intended to tell my friend I wasn't going to come, but I figured why not. I can jog a half mile then walk or quit.

But somehow, even though it was a very slow pace, I never stopped "running" even though it sucked.

I was surprised that I managed it, even though my stats are underwhelming... (66 of 70 men in my age group, 314 of 331 men overall, and 492 of 541 for everyone). I'd been hoping for some more casual runners...

Add your own saccharine conclusion of endurance or diligence or else not putting in the work but still managing to get by.