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Tortoise greets you with a beautiful vista featuring soft pre-sunrise lighting from the Confluence Trail junction with Tortoise Track, part of today's 4.01 mile walk with 280 feet climbed in 1:15:12 hours.  Tortoise rating was 4.8; calories burned were 628.  For a map, pictures, a thought from Marvin J. Ashton, and more, please click below to continue reading ...

Cheerio!

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I love the unique lighting of sunrise and sunset, especially on
colorful landscapes ... hope you like them too!

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2014 Stats:

670.55 miles walked, which is 66.99% of my 2014 goal.

211:54:44 hours walked, which is 67.70% of my 2014 goal

31,659 total feet climbed 

106,984 calories burned
64.54% of the year has passed

I've walked 11 consecutive non-Sundays since my last missed day on August 11, and overall have walked on 190 of the 202 non-Sundays thus far in 2014, a 94.06% consistency rating.

The purpose of the percentages is to have a higher percentage of distance and time walked than of the year. This tells me I am on track. I'm sure this is more numbers than you are interested in, all I can say is I'm really good at setting high goals and having them slip away because I don't do them every, every day.

Many years ago I had the opportunity of witnessing a state-championship high-school track meet at Brigham Young University. The lesson I learned as I watched the mile run was most impressive. I know I shall never forget it. About a dozen young men had qualified to represent their schools. The starting gun was fired, and these young men who had trained so long and so hard took off. Four fellows, closely bunched together, took the early lead. Suddenly the runner in second place spiked the first runner’s foot with his shoe. As the leader was about to make the next stride forward, he found that he was without a shoe.

As I noticed this, I wondered what the leader would do because of what his competitor had unintentionally done to him. It seemed to me he had a number of choices. He could take a few extra quick sprints and catch up to the fellow who had put him out of first position, double up his fist, and hit him to get even. He could run over to the coach and say, “This is what you get—I have trained all my life for this big day, and now look what’s happened!” He could run off into the stands and say to his mother, father, or girlfriend, “Isn’t this horrible?” Or he could have sat down on the track and cried. But to my pleasure, he did none of these things. He just kept running.

This was halfway around the first lap, and I thought to myself, “Good for him; he’ll finish this first lap of the four and retire gracefully.” But after he had completed the first lap, he just kept running. He completed the second lap, then the third lap—and every time he took a stride, cinders were coming up through his stocking, hurting his foot. They ran on cinder tracks in those days. But he didn’t quit. He just kept running.

I thought, “What an outstanding display of courage and self-discipline! What parents! What a coach! What leaders who have affected his life enough so that in a situation like this he would not stop running!” He finished the job he had to do. He did not place first, but he was a real winner. When I walked over to him at the completion of the race and congratulated him on his courageous performance, he was composed and in complete control. He was able to carry on when it would have been much easier to quit.

-- Marvin J. Ashton  https://www.lds.org/ensign/1989/11/stalwart-and-brave-we-stand?lang=eng  #ShareGoodness

The tortoise is smiling!