Free climb of “Dawn Wall”
I'm not a climber. This climb at Yosemite is beyond words.
About sports
This silly video does make some good points about spectator sports.
Race Day
I just finished running a 5K in downtown St. Louis, finishing at 26:12. My concern is that there are people running the race who have runners' physiques--they have long legs and they glide like they aren't even touching the ground. An even bigger concern is that some of the people they allow to enter the race are able to run much faster than me. For instance, the man that won my age bracket finished in 19 min. It's not fair that they let people like that enter the race. Even worse, the race was filled with morning people--They walk around annoying owls like me by being chipper at 7am. I'm going to propose that they begin their next 5K annual race at 10pm, that they screen out all of the larks, and that they ban all of the people who are unfairly fast.
Running a loop the loop
Is it possible to run the loop? This video proves that the answer is affirmative.
On the need to pretend that children are professional athletes
As I watched these guys in the park today, I was reminded of many of the things they didn't need to get a great workout and to play some serious soccer: uniforms, referees, cheering parents, scoreboard, official schedules and trophies.
They brought some orange plastic cones to serve as the goals. These players knew that it didn't need to be "perfect" to be worthwhile. And they focused on the process of playing, not the score. There was great camaraderie between all the players on the field. They didn't need any of the things so many parents and children think they NEED to play soccer in America.
I draw from experience similar to what I saw today. The guys in my neighborhood would put together pick-up games all the time. Soccer, baseball, football and street hockey. No parents, not referees, no scoreboards. We officiated our own games. If there were a dispute, we worked it out together. We picked the teams to make competitive matches. We knew who played well and not so well, and we divided them evenly.
As you can tell, I have some misgivings about how obsessed we have come about the "importance" of having out children play sports the "proper" way, which often includes "select" leagues and 20 mile trips to and from the site of the games.