I am no going to lie, whenever I say the word it is nearly 99% of the time related to me commenting about black people in a negative light, I do not deny this. I can see this is as reason why people, not just black, do not like to hear me or any other white person say it; I am not perfect and yes I make fun of people.

 But the point here is that people need to stop handing out the BULLSHIT that it is wrong because it is associated with slavery and times when black were treated terribly. Reality people, grow the fuck up, if it upsets you that your ancestors where oppressed then you are clearly avoiding something going on in your own life right now. I am irish, my ancestors where oppressed, but go ahead and see if I get defensive because someone calls me a potatoe.

Now, many people will suggest this is not the reason it upsets them, the question then is why do black people get offended from the word? Maybe it is because it reflects the advantage that the white man has always held over the black. That boils down to nothing more than people being upset, not about the past but now. I am not saying that it is right that black people are disavdvantaged but you know what complaining about a word is not going to help.

People read this and say, ” what the fuck this racist dude has no idea what he is talking about,” I say fuck that; but in all honesty, maybe I really do not understand why black people get offended. The word offend, maybe implies everything I said before, maybe it implies something different. How come I can not say it because it specifies a group of people. If I say whore it usually specifies againt women, but no cares nearly much.

Its our abilty to poke fun at people for things that makes us humans, and allows us to understand and reflect upon mistakes. How much time has to pass before the word nigger becomes funny when anyone says it? It will happen, maybe 50 or 100 years from now but it will. I should not have to fear saying a word, there is freedom to speech. Maybe my reasoning for saying the word are not wholesome, maybe it is insensitve, I will say this again, GROW THE FUCK UP. I say the race card is like the joker car, completely useless until some asshole gives meaning to it.

It orignally ocurred around thanksgiving so I took off until about Christmas, which is where I went running with my friend Tyler. Bless the boy for inspiring me to run but I think we took the pace a little to hard and I awoke the next day and my I could not walk on my achilles. I suffered the rest of winter break, running when I could put enough pressure on my left foot and resting for the next five days. I thought nothing of it. I finally began running on my treadmill and I actually felt better from that. I went back to college and ran on the indoor track for about 3 weeks until I tweaked my knee.

Between February and April I was completely inactive besides swimming around 4 days a week. I went out and got a heel life and I started feeling better; so, last week I went out and did a short mile and a half. Sore all over again. Even though my achilles feels better, it is still tight. I did some research and from what I have read it an take up to years to fully heal. I live and die with my ability to run. It is by far what I am most proud of in my life; it is what I describe myself as to people, a runner. All the fondest memories, all my achievments, running.

Once a runner always a runner. Midsummer night’s run, that is where I am at peace with life, the world, God. What I am most afraid of is that I am going to lose that. My summer will be quite imcomplete without running. For now I have to settle for a bike or elyptical machine, where I look like the slightly over weight heterosexual man who is not quite straight enough to use a treadmill.

The way look at it is this way: I love running with all my heart, and with anything we love we would suffer for, so my achilles tendinitis is simply me suffering for what I love. If anyone knows anything about achillies tenditis, or why my knee still hurts please comment. Especially if you know anything I could be doing on my own besides icing to help quciken recover. I would also like to know if achillies tendinitis every heals, I’ve read it stays with you for life. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

In spirit of writing about the mile in my last two post I have decided to continue this trend with one of my favorite stories about the mile. Hicham El Guerrouj is the current record holder of the mile with a time of 3:43.13. On July 7, 1999, almost ten years ago, the race took place in Rome. El Guerrouj ran one of the most legendary miles of all time. The race which can be seen is an example of the extraodinary capabilities of the human being. But this article, as indicated by the title is not about the winner.

Noah Ngeny is a Kenyan runner who has had his share of success as well. He won a gold medal in 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydeney in the 1500m, against Hicam El Guerrouj in fact. But in the 1999 mile race he was less than a second away from having the world record in the mile himself.

At the start of the race Hicam El Guerrouj was expected to make an attempt at the world record. He had two pace setters with him; and, he established himself far in front of the pack from the beginning. As the race progessed he began there there was one runner, niether pace setter who was intent on keeping up with him. It was Noah Ngeny, a much younger runner than El Guerrouj. It was exciting to see two men competing for the world record. It came down to the final lap and Ngeny was just out of the lead. Both runners held close as they rounded the final turn and onto what might have been the most important straight-away of their lives. Ngeny made and attempt to pass El Guerrouj with a little less than 50m left. He gained the lead for a second or so. Ngeny passed the line at 4:43:40, a mere 0:0.27 seconds after Hicam El Guerrouj set the world record. Ngeny never even broke the world record. He broke the 2nd place time though.

Why is does this matter. The chances for me or anyone I know to set an athletic record is almost none. But imagine watching your own world record get erased 0.27 seconds before you even set it. Noah Ngeny will never be able to say he held the title of world’s fastest mile, even though he may have. I would have driven myself crazy if I were in his position. The margin for failure is small but the margin for victory is even smaller. Although, there is not a large group of people who will remember either name, the course of history was changed in 0.27 seconds, literally the blink of an eye. I will remember Noah Ngeny for giving one of the best races ever though.

After doing cross-country my senior year and falling in love with it, I was exited for winter track, a chance to get to run a timed mile . Even though I would rather run a 5k any day, there is something special in running the mile. Maybe because it is a standard of measurment, or because its at the perfect distance, but it just begs to be ran. For all the mental and physical effort put into the mile, it always repays in the glory it can give back.

The mile is when sprinting and lond-distance reach perfect harmony. It is short enough where you are always running hard, but long enough that you have to manage the pace and not push so far as to ruin your race. While I am always putting more work and more time into my 5k and half-marathon efforts, nothing feels more rewarding the finishing that fourth lap around the track. Out of every single PR, I have or will ever have, my mile time is the only one I have hung on my wall. See my post on breaking six.

While many may not agree, I am suggesting that the mile is the toughest race out there. It combines every aspect of a runner’s being and requires a balance. Roger Bannister’s 3:59.4 is the culmination of human atletic endeavor.

One of the most popular music bands among my group of friends is the recently reformed Blink-182. I was a late comer to the scene. I only began to go farther than the surface a little after the break-up. I had always known songs like “All The Small Things” and “What’s My Age Again” but when I heard a wider selection of their music is when I began to fall in love. Although they may not have the lyrical depth of some bands, or the muscial complexities of others, it is in their simplicity that we find their greatest strength. It may be hard to create solos and lyrics that we considered to have depth, but it may in fact be harder to create such simple songs which such power. This brings up one of the main questions to be asked. Was Blink-182 just on the right side of the musical timeline. They did help to invent the pop rock, punk rock, pop punk, w/e scene along with bands like Green Day in the mid 1990s. Could it be done again and will the boys of Blink go in that direction? Maybe it is just for the fact I actually listen to music now, but it seems to me that there are an infinite number of bands that seemingly imitate the good old blink formula for success: a catchy riff, some rhyming lyrics, and the application of the simple three chord theory. Blink-182 became the masters of using these tools to weld together songs of teen life than anyone could apply their own meaning too. That is something important to note, what they sang about seemed to relate to everyone. People love to jump on the fact that a song seems to describe them. As I understand their cd Enema of the State went 7x platinum, and their other cd Take Off Your Pants and Jacket went double platninum. Both very successful albums. The newest one which is supposed to be coming out this summer will have hard shoes to fill. While publicity will not be a problem for blink-182 it may work against them. They have so many expectations to live up too; thousands, maybe millions, myself included, have anxiously been waiting for this day. Who knows what the cd has in store; it could possibly take the direction of the  self-titled album; or, it could be a return to the golden days of Enema of the State. I just fear Blink fans may be disappointed. Some of my friends act like it is the second coming of the Messiah in the form of a cd. Do not get me wrong I think this is the best thing to happen to the pop/punk scene since they adopted Falloutboy to represent them. I just think we need to keep an open mind and be ready to like whatever blink hits us with. This is call to fully support what they put out there, we are lucky enough to get to see them back together. For all we know they may want to make the greatest polka/punk cd ever. Would you still support them? Luckily that is most likely not the case. A lot of pop/punk had been around since the break-up but I think Blink-182, and Blink-182 fans are up to the challenge of putting the kings back on their throne.