Author Archive
Before boxer Jack Johnson and Jackie Robinson paved the way for African-American athletes, Major Taylor cycled his way through Jim Crow-era America, overcoming racism and enormous obstacles, to become the fastest cyclist alive. In the 1890s, the nation’s promise of equality had failed spectacularly. While slavery had ended with the Civil War, the Jim Crow…
Youth is a dream, a form of chemical madness. – F. Scott Fitzgerald Here’s the “Training Diary #1” entry for July 1, 1972. Saturday 1 p.m. Ran 6 miles at about an 8-min. pace. Went to Bethel (site of next Tuesday’s race) to run the course. Found it okay but typical me ended up running last…
Avoid the flourish. Do not be afraid to be weak. Do not be ashamed to be tired. You look good when you’re tired. You look like you could go on forever. Now come into my arms. You are the image of my beauty . – Leonard Cohen Tower of Song by Leonard Cohen Well my friends…
And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed—if all records told the same tale—then the lie passed into history and became truth. ‘Who controls the past’ ran the Party slogan, ‘controls the future: who controls the present controls the past. – George Orwell, 1984 Many many people are asking, is Florida the world’s first…
Zen prayer includes intimacy with the ground of Being, making yourself whole through honest self-reflection, clarifying your deepest spiritual intentions, wishing for the welfare of the world, and affirming the essential goodness of people and life. Prayer can release you from your habitual self-centered tendencies and can open the gates to your miraculous and wondrous…
In a new study published in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology, regular walkers turned out to be healthier than their running counterparts. Risk for hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes, and heart disease all dropped more significantly among walkers, compared with runners. My goal when I first began running was to go as fast as I could at all distances up…
Not sure all these White Christian Jihadists – bent on regime change at home – are going to be as happy with authoritarianism as they think they are. – Barker Ajax The Ginni Thomas Supreme Court this morning took away a woman’s right to physical autonomy. As if the rape itself was somehow insufficient. When…
History is written by the winner, so it largely depends on who’s writing the history. – Bill Barr When I first learned about the Old West, it was the 1950s. When America was great and beatniks roamed the earth. My grandparents were born in the 1800s and so it was possible to hear true stories…
Forty-five years ago, the editor of “The Thinking Runner’s Magazine” was likely looking for any hints at getting faster and maybe some free content. The deep dive into the last box of archives offered up a two-page handwritten letter. Two lined sides of a single sheet from a three-ring binder. In ink with corrections. Remember…
Albert Einstein once said that ‘insanity’ was ‘Doing the same thing over and over again, expecting to achieve different results’. He was a clever chap, that Einstein fella. And, according to him, I must have been insane. Because I kept on working hard, and I kept on expecting to be rewarded, even though my hard…