Eddie Pinero

And watching, you know, this probably 200-pound dude continually push towards that finish line, running when he could, walking when he had to, it was a courage that's hard to articulate.

You know, particularly evident, and this stands out to me or stood out to me, on the water breaks where we all would sit together

sometimes in quiet, sometimes talking about the road ahead, having some snacks, the breeze hitting our faces.

But these pauses, these moments of rest, I've come to find here, as well as other physical challenges I've done, these moments in time are what capture most souls because it's like people don't quit while they're moving.

For some reason, they quit while they're sitting down, while they're taking a breather, enjoying the calm, a bag of chips, while they're reminded what absence of pain feels like.

And that alarm sounds, hey, let's go, boys, it's time.

That's when the, nah, I'm good.

The, nah, no thank you, or I'm done.

That's when those emerge.

But I'll tell you, every time that alarm went off,

He'd shut his brain off and he'd stand up.

His feet looked so destroyed that I won't even share images of them.

But it didn't matter.

He'd limp over to the road where we would continue on.

The same way, if you think about...

A feather, right, really has no say if one were to drop it off a bridge.

It's like the second the hand releases it, now it's at the mercy of gravity.

It's going to float down to the world below doing what it has to do.

And, you know, I'll be real.

It wasn't always pretty.