Relentless Forward Motion

As you may know, I am training to blow away my half marthon PR on 3JUN12. Adam from http://www.theboringrunner.com/ has been putting me through some rigorous training, and I am a much better runner because of it. Looking for a good, personable, online coach? Check him out.
Yesterday I had the dreaded (read: much anticipated) 12x400s on tap. I had planned to do them at a local high school track, but things being what they are, we ended up going about half an hour north to watch our nephews play baseball. Turns out it was in the town where I went to school (1-12) and right across the street from the school (yes, one building. but more than one room, so we're good, right?) in a newly created field. I'd cleared it with Tracey, and headed over to the school to try to create a .25 mile loop on the playground. There is a service road that runs around the outside, and I found that if I ran that, looped around the swing set and back onto the road, the entire loop made for .25~.26 miles. Instead of a 200m rest, I stopped the garmin and walked along the covered....walkway? that surrounds the school. Lotsa memories there, good and bad. I think that I set off TOO FAST on my first three, so decided to scale it back a bit for the middle six and then try to blast out three fast ones at the end (sounds like my last trip to Taco Bell). As you can see, the last 3 weren't as fast as the first three, but lemme tell you, the effort was all there!!! Yowza!
There were many times during this workout when i just wanted to quit. I mean, really. Those stupid "why are you doing this" demons kept creeping back into my mindset. But I did not let them. I focused on each lap, my breathing, my turnover, the memories of having played on that field for so many years. I rescued 3 balls from the swampy ditch that borders the playground, too. That was fun. On my last lap i was really reaching for the stars, trying to get that same 1:30 that I started had managed at the beginning; but it was not to be. I left it all out there on the playground as I had so many times in the past playing 'boys chase the girls' or soccer, or kickball.

Never quit. Never give up. Relentless forward motion.