It's not your aptitude but your attitude which will determine your altitude.

The world is changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air. Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it.
Well, okay. To be honest, upwards of two thousand college students remember it. Vividly.
As you may recall, I wasn't exactly having the time of my life last week, and this was due to the inconvenient sickness that I had acquired, that which we call gastroenteritis. Spanning the time between Saturday the 21st and, oh, about Wednesday the 25th, Middlebury College found itself engulfed in something of an epidemic. Of the thirty or so distance runners (including both genders), the number of unaffected was either two or three; I cannot remember precisely and for that I apologize. But you get the idea. Basically, this thing took over the school and showed no mercy. Even after my recovery I had to hunt for toilets that had not been victimized to the point of being rendered almost useless for those who wanted to use them in the usual way.