Finished goal of running the distance of 2,080 miles from Lafayette, LA to Washington D.C and back!!!...plus 339.1 miles


0.0 miles run this week.
Daily running average for the week is 0.00 miles per day.
Total amount run in the past 800 days is 2,419.1 miles.
Daily running average overall is 3.02 miles per day.

Day348 Friday 08/12/11

ran 4.7 miles
The past couple weeks have been daunting, running in this heat and humidity. My weekly running averages have been dropping as July and August have become more and more smothering. If you have never visited Louisiana, particularly the southern part of the state, the heat and humidity August blankets us with is nearly intolerable. I’m not trying to take anything away from the heat waves that have recently covered so many American states, and set so much of Texas on fire, but when the mercury hits 105 degrees in a state like Oklahoma, that is nothing compared to 95 degrees in south Louisiana. The humidity is so thick it beads up on you before you even start sweating. I have lived in Oklahoma and felt the state’s dry 100-plus degrees and it is far more tolerable than the sweltering humidity we have here at lesser temperatures. The heat indices here are off the chart.

But that’s neither here nor there. I don’t post about personal stuff too often and I thought I would rant about how unbearably hot and humid it is here. I guess what I am getting at is this: I have been physically incapable of running at the pace and distance I am used to for the other 10 or 11 months of the year. But I anticipated a lull in my running average for the summer and created a surplus of miles during the rest of the year. I have managed to stave off large losses in my running average by planning ahead, but my average has slowly been declining. By investing in a slow, patient surplus of miles ahead of time and running within my means I have created an opportunity to redistribute distances from my miles bank to keep myself afloat during these hard times. I invested in my own future and planned for any shortcomings, which may or may not have occurred in the near future of my miles balance. Unfortunately, a deficit has occurred; however, by anticipating it I have prevented panic and chaos. I did it by myself and I would never, never ask any other man or woman to give me some of their miles so that I may stay afloat with my own goal.

Redistributing miles, or money, from one party who worked so hard for what they have, to another is fundamentally wrong, petty, and something to be ashamed of. But so many in this country don't seem to find virtue in their own self-sufficiency.

If I fail to achieve my goal, any goal, I would never ask another to give me some of what they worked so hard to achieve so that I could falsely feel a sense of pride and accomplishment. If I fail at something I take stock of what lessons I learned in my journey and I find a better way to do it, or I move on to another goal.

I’m sort of trying to express through rambling about these miles I’m running how fundamentally I differ from everything Barack Obama stands for. When he says some of us are only lucky and we need to share, when he puts a cap on how much money I can earn before it is no longer worth it because it all goes to the federal government, when he mandates government health care and forces me to pay for others when I can hardly pay for myself, but I’m out there trying while so many others are not, so many others are watching day-time television all day and going to the emergency room twice a month just because they can---I fundamentally disagree with this guy. I want nothing more than for him to simply leave us alone and I don’t want any other person’s money unless I earn it.

1,046.0 miles to go.