She was already sweating and the race was hours from starting.

Nervously she paced around the enclosure with all the other runners and their coaches. As a force of habit, her hands kept smoothing the wrinkles in her red jogging suit. Smooth, smooth, smooth. Everything – her clothes, her stride, her race – it all had to be smooth.

“You need to calm down, Berta!” her coach barked at her. “Save some of this energy for the race.”

But, it was no use. How could Gerard expect her to be calm on the biggest day of her life? The pressure of being the favorite was weighing down on her mentally. At times, she thought that she could feel it physically, too.

“Where is your I-Pod, Bertie? Where is that thing?” asked Gerard. “You need to hear some tunes. Remember, music calms the savage beast!”

Berta smiled; it was good to have Gerard around. His jokes and biting humor always seemed to keep her even-headed, a feat that was not especially easy in situations like this one. Deep down, she knew that she would get through this day and race, just like she had gotten through all the rest.

“My I-Pod. Good call, Gerard. I’ll get it out of my bag. It should help,” she called to him.

Hands fishing around in her bag, she came away with her prize, unwound the headphone wires, and placed in the ear buds. She was just about to hit the play button when a thought struck her.

“Hey, Gerard!” she yelled.

“What?”

“If I listen to my I-Pod now, it won’t have enough battery to last me through the race. What do you think I should do?” she asked.

Gerard shook his head, “You forget everything on race days. We went to iPodJuice.com and got you a spanking new battery just last week; that thing will last for hours! Don’t you worry, Berta, I-Pod Juice gave us one of the longest lasting batteries around.”

“I-Pod Juice! How could I have forgotten?” she wondered.

—————————————————————————————————————————————

Many of the marathon runners wore their I-Pods during the races several hours. As the race wound on, Berta found herself in second place, a few seconds behind her longtime rival. Both women were tired, but kept up a brutal pace, knowing that the finish line was coming all the nearer.

Still trailing in second place with only two miles to go, Berta decided she had to take a chance. She knew that it was now or never. She quickly changed to her favorite song on her I-Pod and put the music on full blast. The sound came through loud and clear, energizing her.

With a few hundred yards to go, Berta could tell that her rival was running out of gas. Smiling and listening to her I-Pod, Berta passed her and kept going all the way to the finish tape! The music had kept her spirits so high that she had easily won the race.

At the finish line, with all of the reports around her, one of them asked her a question.

“Berta! Berta! How did you find the energy to overcome your longtime rival in the final stretch of this grueling three hour race?” the reporter asked.

“Grueling?” Berta asked smiling. “Maybe it was bad for the other people, but it wasn’t tough for me. I had my juice, my iPodJuice.com, that is!”