Summer Running Streak, Day #14

After yesterday's race I'm feeling totally beat, and while doing some chores around the house (deep cleaning, getting the mower together so we can start yard work) I'm reading the signs of burnout from my body. For me that means a slightly higher resting heart rate, but also a feeling of fatigue and a very slightly higher body temperature. It isn't really worth calling that a fever, because I'm running between 98.9 and 99.3, but it feels like a really weak fever to me. All that said, I decided to abbreviate my planned long run today down to a mile. Need to be able to maintain the streak.

I have a secondary goal of covering about 1,500 miles this year, and according to my tracker I'm currently 84 miles behind that goal. Shouldn't be too difficult to close the gap on that this summer, when I can run two-a-days and have quite a few more races. Just have to be smart about it.

Lastly, I feel compelled to write a bit about what happened in Orlando in the early hours of this morning. This isn't a political blog, and this isn't a political post. I'm hoping to speak to some basic truths that I hope we can all agree on.

Being a person who was active in Youth Pride in my high school days, I can't help but think of all the events that I went to in support of people I value and care about. It pains me tremendously to have heard the news this morning, but I have to say, I'm also not surprised.

As an American, I have to say I really kind of expect this. I can't expect the exact context or scenario, of course, but statistically speaking, at this point, these events are absolutely certain. I am completely ashamed of our society and the way my country's electorate lacks any sort of value over human life. I find it disgusting and despicable. I won't wash over this with false positivity: yes, it is very nice that people went out in droves to donate blood. But we have a greater responsibility than being reactionary. We ought to begin from a proactive place and prevent these things from ever happening in the first place. If you think that isn't possible, you are kidding yourself.

I mourn for the people who lost loved ones, I mourn for a community I truly value, and I really hope we can start to come together to build a better society for our kids. We really need to do that.