“Be like a rocky promontory against which the restless surf continually pounds; it stands fast while the churning sea is lulled to sleep at its feet. I hear you say, "How unlucky that this should happen to me!" Not at all! Say instead, "How lucky that I am not broken by what has happened and am not afraid of what is about to happen. The same blow might have struck anyone, but not many would have absorbed it without capitulation or complaint."   -Marcus Aurelius,  Meditations I rolled out of the Dogwood Motel an hour later than I had intended and was rewarded for my sloth by arriving at Walmart just a few minutes before it opened at 7 a.m. I resupplied water and snacks and bought reading glasses that I slid down in the camelback pocket next to the sunglasses that hadn’t come out since Day 3. I continued riding north out of town past the signs advertising various productions of Ozark folk music. I knew from having ridden this part of the course in the other dire...