Cashew Nut stepped forward. This was his first trip to Ponyville and it was sure to be a memorable one. He looked to the sack of potatoes he would be carrying. He was a farm pony, not unlike the orange cowgirl pony that had gone first. She had been very confident that her strength would be enough, though she did struggle in places. And Cashew was still a colt, not a stallion. He gulped with apprehension. His neck muscles weren't strong enough to lift the sack himself, so an assistant helped him with tying it on. The weight of the sack nearly pinned him to the ground. He'd never experienced anything like this on the nut farm. Nuts could be heavy, certainly; in fact he was reminded of steel nuts, a type of rare magical nut that was the size of a walnut, but with the weight of a bowling ball. He'd never grown them himself (after all, who wanted to eat a nut that would literally pin them to their seat?) but the idea of lifting a sack of them put a grim smile on his face. "I sure hope I'm up to this." he said to himself quietly. "I don't want to look like a fool in front of so many ponies." He quickly reminded himself that this was all just for fun. Many ponies were participating just for the sake of it, and he could already see that not everyone had made it to the end. The whistle blew and Cashew moved forwards. His pace was slow. There was no way a colt of his size would set any records, so he had resolved to go at his own speed. One step. Then another. And another. His back was already sore and he was only half way to the flag. He took a quick breather to readjust his pack, making sure to move again quickly afterwards to avoid disqualification. After what seemed like an age had passed, he made it to the flag. He made another brief stop, just for three seconds, just to breath. He slowly made his way around the flag, and set back off towards the finishing point. It was still slow going, but he'd managed to fall into a steady gait now, the pain from the heavy pack having reached its peak. By the time he hit the three quarter mark, the crowd were cheering and shouting for him. He gave them all a big smile as he trudged along. The encouragement helped boost his determination. He picked up the pace a little to try and get the lap over and done with. He needed to dump this bag as soon as possible, have a lie down, maybe find a place to get some juice or milk. He was nearly there now. "I... can... do... this!" he said, though with the creaming of the crowd he could barely hear his own voice. "Just... a little... more!" As his last hoof passed the finishing line the whistle blew and Cashew fell to the ground immediately with a loud grunt. The helper ponies from before arrived to undo the ropes and remove the heavy sack from the exhausted pony, as applause rang out from the onlookers. "Never doing that again." he said, not getting off the ground. "But I'm glad I did it once."