The Logic of Long Distance

It's with more than a bit of hesitation that I offer some thoughts on the news of the day in the running world. The tendency to analyze the lives of people we do not know seems to me to be one of the most odious tendencies in contemporary culture -- it reduces lives which are always more complex than they seem and usually more incomprehensible than we would like to admit to simple and usually quite stupid narratives. But I guess at a certain point, famous people are reduced to simple narratives. This is the price of fame. Before you read this, I'd encourage you to read this piece written by Brooks Johnson, " But for the gRACE OF GOD. " He actually knew Suzy as a person and athlete. *  *  * "Fear? If I have gained anything at all by damning myself, it is that I no longer have anything to fear." --J. P. Sartre Can you imagine what it takes to be the top runner in the country? To stand on the line and beat all comers? To not just be good, but to be ...

Anzaldúa was a chicana activist. “Why am I compelled to write?... Because the world I create in the writing compensates for what the real world does not give me. By writing I put order in the world, give it a handle so I can grasp it. I write because life does not appease my appetites and anger... To become more intimate with myself and you. To discover myself, to preserve myself, to make myself, to achieve self-autonomy. To dispell the myths that I am a mad prophet or a poor suffering soul. To convince myself that I am worthy and that what I have to say is not a pile of shit... Finally I write because I'm scared of writing, but I'm more scared of not writing.” --Gloria Anzaldúa  Many of the posts I have written lately have characterized running as a practice of self-care, almost as a type of therapy. I have written running as a quest to regain intimacy , as a form of coming to terms with the self , as a way of gaining confidence in the self, and as a way of escaping t...