On I went, out of the wood, passing the man leading without knowing I was going to do so. Flip-flap, flip-flap, jog-trot, jog-trot, curnchslap-crunchslap, across the middle of a broad field again, rhythmically running in my greyhound effortless fashion, knowing I had won the race though it wasn't half over, won it if I wanted it, could go on for ten or fifteen or twenty miles if I had to and drop dead at the finish of it, which would be the same, in the end, as living an honest life like the governor wanted me to. -Alan Sillitoe, "Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner"

Monday, May 16, 2011

News from the world of running

First: If you haven't already (or hell, even if you have), please go and vote in my poll from Friday. Thank you to everyone who has voted and has offered amazing comments. I'm weighing them all carefully, although (as promised) I'll go with the majority. As of right now that means I'm maybe running the race.


Second: Drew Carey ran a half marathon yesterday in 1:58. Props to him for his weight loss and running success. If you're looking for fat Drew Carey, he's barely recognizable these days, no? Related: he's evidently pro-headphones.


Finally: Sammy Wanjiru has died. At 24. Terrible. By all reports as I'm typing this, he killed himself by jumping off a balcony, possibly as an accident after a domestic incident. Please - let's not stigmatize suicide anymore than it already is by saying that he "fell off a balcony." He killed himself. Obviously we'll never know why, but what a devastating end to the life of such an amazing runner. Shortly after an amazing race at Chicago, he was brought up on charges of threatening to kill his wife. Whether this was true or whether, as he claimed, it was not true, it hints to some serious trouble in his life.

5 comments:

  1. Sooner or later, gravity catches up to us all.

    I told you Drew Carey was tough.

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  2. Too soon? Okay, fine, I laughed.

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  3. It looks like the comments from Thursday never got restored, I mentioned I finished last out of 57 runners at the Thanksgiving Half and I wished you a happy birthday...I think you just want some encouragement for the race and you don't want to waste the entry fee, so I say you run it. I don't know, maybe you do better than you think you will and that gets you pumped up or you enjoy the course and you get inspired to find other routes to do. If you have a bad time, take some days off and hopefully you discover you miss running.

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  4. I did not recognize Drew Carey in that photo! Amazing job!

    And, yes, Sammy. It's sad. It sounds like it was an accident and not an 'I thought about this and am doing it' suicide. Which makes it even more sad, if you'd ask me. Plus, he can't defend his title. That sucks. Then again: go Haile!

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  5. Gosh! I didn't recognize him either.

    I was so surprised about Wanjiru. Some of the reports I read made it seem like he jumped and maybe thought he would survive... but it was definitely suicide? (I haven't read much about it yet)

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