When Captain Kirk was a mere Starfleet cadet, the Kobayashi Maru drill was a test in coping with a no-win situation. In the scenario of the 2280s, a distress signal comes in stating that the Kobayashi Maru has struck a “gravitic mine” in the Neutral Zone and is rapidly losing power, hull integrity and life support. There are no other vessels nearby. The cadet is faced with a decision:
- Attempt to rescue the crew and passengers, which involves violating the Neutral Zone and potentially provoking the Klingons into hostile action or an all-out war; or
- Abandon them, potentially preventing war but leaving the crew and passengers to die.
As desperately hopeless as I felt in my last post, I did go on to run the Peoria race and did as horribly as I expected. However, I ditched my timing chip at the first water stop and turned off my Garmin because I was tired of carrying the weight of my own mental pressure.
I slogged through the following week, doing much less than I should have, and confronted the next big test yesterday: the Rock & Roll Seattle 1/2 Marathon. Undertrained, overweight and with a body depleted by 3 days of intestinal flu, I hauled my tired old carcass to the start line and did the race. Yes, I walked most of it. Yes, I was slower than I’ve ever been. Yes, it was a great lesson in humility as well as a testament to determination I wasn’t sure I had. But it was not a Kobayashi Maru because I feel like I emerged a winner regardless of all else.
Boldly running where I've never gone before 
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