June 28: East Mountain Retreat Center, MA

1519.1 miles.

Raindrops aren't falling on your head. They're being shot at you from Mother Nature's own nail gun. You're wet. You're tired. You're cold. You're not gonna make it.

Or are you?

(an ad for Power Bars in a Backpacker magazine I read at Lois Rose's East Mountain Retreat Center)

I read this and smile. There's a power bar in my backpack that i'll eat in an hour or two when we get back on the trail. It will taste like peanut butter soaked cardboard and fill my belly for another few miles. I can relate to the woman in the picture -she's running, straining, pushing herself. And the rain is coming down as though on a mission to make her workout harder, to test her limits. I smile because I know it's not the power bar that will get here there. It's something else inside. Something you must dig for. Something, by digging for day after day after day, you've come to trust in.

You're going to make it. Not because of what you eat, not even because you're in rock solid shape. You're going to make it because you've decided to, because you've seen what you're capable of, and you trust yourself to keep on doing it.

Many days to go. Many miles to go. But we'll make it. All we've got to do is keep on walking.