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Spinach: Painfully inspirational.

I had a different post ready for today, but then it was brought to my attention that a new record has been broken - namely, that a marathon (which is 26.2 miles for those of you who haven’t seen the window decals) has been run in under two hours for the first time in recorded history.  

Congratulations, Mr. Kipchoge.
  
This has been touted as inspiring, as in, “Look!  We humans!  See what we do!  What we accomplish next?  There no limits!  Ooga ooga!”  But you know what else was supposed to inspire us?  The moon landing!  And look how that turned out - now there is astronaut poop on the moon and people STILL believe it was a hoax.  

No, what is inspiring is this:  An 88 year old lady running the 50 meter dash in under 10 minutes.  That’s beautiful!  That makes you want to go out and run the 50 meter dash way, way, way faster just to prove you’re better at something than somebody.  That makes you want to accomplish, accomplish, accomplish, all while thinking in adorable terms of the 88 year old gramma.  

On the other hand, hearing that someone has run a sub two hour marathon makes you want to slump into a vacuous heap of jello that doesn’t even bother wiping its nose, because there are probably people who can wipe their noses in under two hours, too, and why even bother anymore.  

So forget about world records and super hero, super human accomplishments:  There never really has been an inspiring world record or an inspiring super hero.  
Just remember Agatha, tottering along in her little shorts from the 60s and her striped socks and a headband round her perm, and discover the will to live.  

And excuse me while I glory in being a subpar human and dig up some inspiration of my own.  



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