17 mile single run out here. Ran it in 1:55 (6:45 pace), but did the first 13 at 6:37 pace and then self-imploded in the last 4 in the languid, unshaded sections of the canal, where stagnant water and sunning turtles made me want to go hide underneath a tree; I am completely fried now. This part of the country and parts of this canal are pretty damn close to the African Congo in the Heart of Darkness. You got Nile-esque cataracts, prehistoric reptiles, mysterious water with strange bubbles, and dead things laying in the middle of dusty trails, frying, decomposing, smelling. For some reason, I ate Chili for lunch and barfed it up in heartburn-induced spurts along the secret byways of this fine towpath. ----------------------------------- Whoever is leaving anonymous, 9th grade scatalogical baboon comments on this blog, knock it the fuck off. Your anonymity is as certain as the time stamp correlated with my stats. I'm a few keystrokes from disabling all comments and a few more from shitcanning this whole blog because I don't have time to play the role of the shop teacher to you, the monkey with the real maturity problem in the back row. Take your bullshit to the bar, take it anywhere else, but here. ----------------------------------- This incident of immature punks leaving letsrun.com b-board snippets out here was inevitable, and it's almost like I'm now pulling out a speech that was written about this very moment, in my head, a long time ago. Ode to Growing Up. Something has become unhinged these days--more so with men, than women. Sure, there's always been idiots and asses since the dawn of man. History is replete with them, and so it is a broad generalization to state that things were 'different' or 'better' in the old days. But when it comes to maturity vis-a-vis gentlemen there is compelling evidence nowadays that juvenile males are simply ceasing to mature into men. A very trusted person in my life has recently told me and several others in front of a broader audience, while reading a prepared speech, that we've simply forgotten to become 'men.' Middle school sexual immaturity begets high school experimentation begets wanton collegiate savagery. All that is normal--nothing has changed since the dawn of man despite the revisionist 'Happy Days' mantra that your Gollygee Leave it to Beaver-1950s parents may try to shove down your throat. But a period is then supposed to happen in your life, a new sentence is supposed to begin, yes, a new paragraph should then take hold with a new idea: a new thesis--cleaner, fresher, calmer. For the most part, once you leave college, it should be expected of you to conduct yourself in certain affairs in a certain manner. You are expected to demonstrate a moderate amount of civility and decency, and to at least hold yourself up to a relatively moderate standard; children should look up to you; your image in the mirror should be one of dignity and some semblance of chivalry. Not chivalry in the archaic, pre-feminist movement sense, but rather chivalry in the modern sense where your actions and calculated restraint now speak volumes and your mark on the planet is more constructive than selfish, more example setting than scatalogical, ad hominem high fives, wet tee shirts, WAAAAHOOOO! and Comedy Central sewage. So this is directed at all the 'guys' out there: be a man.