IDAA Reno 2018 Fun Run

This is my annual cardio exam.  The Fun Run is guaranteed to have emergency doctors and perhaps a cardiologist or cardiac surgeon. I feel safe.  It’s been decades ,really, since Bobby and Carole convinced me to come along and walk with them on that first Fun Run when Cheryl, our sky pilot, flew by at Mach II. Her example inspired me to actually try to run in following years.
Skip sets a mean pace once the run starts.  Cheryl did sort of pull me forward   to give  me some momentum  at the beginning.  I  ran along beside her for a bit quite amazed that she and her running companion could actually talk and run.
She said, “I just started going for a walk around the block whenever I wasn’t feeling right. Then sometimes two blocks. It helped especially when I was feeling angry. Eventually I began running.” She’d done 8 or more marathons by this time.  I didn’t hear any more.   There was a slight incline, maybe 1 %  so I had to reverted to walking. I’m specializing in ‘flat’ running’ and only walk on the incline.  
On the second lap around the lake another couple picked me up.  A plastic surgeon and a dentist.  They inspired me to run for a bit too.  But soon I was walking again.  I begun walking and talking with an emergency doctor who had not got to the level of running and walking at the same time either.  We  walked and talked just fine. .  Interesting guy.  Miles and days passed as we conversed.
Still I ended last.  John then ran around the Virginia in a couple of minutes to check for bodies in the bushes. They gave us red t shirts to assist with this.
Alex and Dorothy guided me back to the hotel.  Dorothy said she’d started an exercise program only months before. She glowed.  I dripped and slouched on.    My body was barely working and my mind was intoxicated with blood and oxygen.  I felt immense gratitude. I was still alive.  I’d  passed another annual cardio exam.
I took 2 naproxen when I got back to the hotel room,  even though a dozen dilaudid and a fentanyl chaser with scotch might have been better. I drank another bottle of water and headed for the hotel hot tub by  the pool.  I expect Neil Armstrong felt a bit like I did then when he said.  ‘one small step for man….".
Since I’m still walking after this year’s IDAA Reno 2018 Fun Run I've  signed up for next year's IDAA 2019 Fun Run in Knoxville Tennessee. Maybe this year I’ll practice. I don't think Sloth and Gluttony are my friends.