Briefly touching on yesterday. Hard for 99% of you to understand the depth of my Cub reverie. Those of you having grown up with every imaginable distraction. I’ll tell you about a different time. The 60s. Before social media. Before the internet. Only 3 tv channels, all black and white. How in the world did lower middle class boys from Central Illinois wile away the hours? In the spring/summer it was wiffle ball. In the fall/winter it was two hand touch below the waist football. Our heroes inspiring us via grainy 12″ images, their feats now enshrined in halls of fame, our mimics in our memories. Undiluted by the current and constant bombardment of extraneous information.
Daintiest moniker for a race? All flowery and frilly and lacey and cutesy? Images of rainbow bright and marshmallow stars? Good Life Halfsy!
Allow me this. My running heroes were forged in the 60s and 70s and 80s. In the mold of Bill Rodgers, Frank Shorter, Billy Mills, Gerry Lindgren, Steve Prefontaine. Undiluted by the current and constant dumbing down of Real Racing. More importance now placed on revenue and costumes and participation than Real Racing. I swear our sport did not start out this way, it really didn’t.
Having said all that. Look for some runners from out of state (Iowa Run Ablaze) and at least one C level Kenyan to make the race. Best Nebraskans will be 1:09:16 for the men and 1:21:02 for the women. Hopefully good enough for top five on both sides.
Looks to be a perfect morning. Good luck to y’allsie!