Walked Three Difficult Depot Parkrun Laps This Morning

 This morning was another installment of the DepotParkrun 5K odyssey that Melissa and I have been undergoing here in Gainesville in recent weeks.  Getting through the entire event was something I knew would be quite challenging.  I wanted to complete the four laps required to get my wristband scanned and my finishing time read and posted online.  Only thing is that in order to accomplish this, I needed to complete the four prescribed laps, either through walking or running.  In previous recent Parkruns, a completed event has been very elusive for me because I have tended to tire out too quickly to finish.  Today I started out all right, but felt crowded out by other, more pushy contestants...they wouldn't leave me alone!  And then some stern-expressioned dude comes up right behind me and Melissa and introduces himself as "my"tail walker! I think his idea was that I stood out as an impaired, incompetent walker, whom he was babysitting...that didn't hit it with me!  I managed to struggle through three laps (2.3 miles), and although I felt it (barely) possible for me to walk that last one, I let it ride after three laps and got into the car.  Maybe I'll swing the whole course next week, after today's particularly annoying Parkrun. I wondered if the others creeping on past me would ever let me go in peace, instead of inflicting themselves and their children on my presence and threatening to knock me down in the process. It seemed that although I deliberately held back on my walk today, I was constantly being approached and passed throughout the course...very irritating, and scary because I dared never to veer at all in any direction! I did get some exercise from the Parkrun experience...maybe things will turn out well next week.  In all, I did the three walking laps in exactly one hour, and Melissa helped me a lot by providing some electrolyte hydration after each completed lap.  My intention is to enjoy the outdoors for a little while this afternoon, inserting some backyard walking and/or light jogging into the mix, which I plan to keep short for the unseasonably hot weather.  Later on I'll check my Facebook to see if one of the Parkrun folks got a pic of me in that race...my suspicion is that they're deliberately shunning me. I'm still getting the chemo treatment for my brain cancer that was identified last October...let's see how the Lord gets me through it all...He's in complete control...