This is a fun movie - it's about a very, very bright guy who really, really needed better career advice. We watched it again this weekend.

Something struck me from one of the opening scenes of the movie - the protagonist's father (played by Christopher Walken, which means "played very well") gave a little speech about two mice (I'd always heard it as two frogs):

                            "Two little mice fell in a bucket of cream. The first mouse quickly gave up and 
                            drowned. The second mouse, wouldn't quit. He struggled so hard that eventually 
                            he churned that cream into butter and crawled out. Gentlemen, as of this moment, 
                            I am that second mouse. "
  
Yesterday morning, I got to the gym (early, as usual) and got on the dreadmill to run some miles. This is my last week before the Lost Dutchman Half Marathon - my "taper" week - so I only intended to run four miles rather easy.

But - as it turned out - I couldn't run at all.

My left knee had been buckling a little bit on Saturday, but on Monday that knee was in such great pain that it wouldn't let me go more than two-tenths of a mile. I simply could not run - it hurt too bad. 

Now, this was six days before my race. It occurred to me that I probably would not be able to recover in time to do the race itself; however, none of that mattered right then, as it was Monday morning, and I had four miles on the schedule, and it had to be done somehow.

So I went and got on the elliptical trainer and put on my headphones and hammered out five miles instead of four.

Then, when I was stretching out those painful body parts, it struck me - I had no reason to keep going, really. It didn't make any sense to keep going. But I did, anyway.

I'm that second mouse.

Upon reflection, I had to admit that it's true - just like that second mouse, I kept right on going simply because I didn't know how to stop. Like that second mouse, I found out that keeping going may have saved me. 

And, just like that second mouse who churned up the butter - the more work I did, the more fat accumulated.