Weekend Reads 2.3.19

This post is just in time for [checks watch]… the very end of the weekend! Better late than never, I guess. Also, I just realized the Super Bowl is happening very soon, which explains the long lines at the supermarket that I saw before turning around on my heels and choosing instead to shop later. Actually, I recall going food shopping last year smack in the middle of the Super Bowl and the supermarket was so fantastically empty, I put the photos on Twitter.

Anyway, here are some interesting reads I came across this week (or before this week)!

• You probably saw this charming story if you were on social media at all this week: a woman running a marathon in Thailand found an abandoned puppy on the side of the road at mile 7, picked it up, and carried it all the way to the finish line! I guess if Khemjira Klongsanun can carry a puppy for 19 miles then I shouldn’t have a problem with a 16 oz. water bottle attached to my hip.

• If you’ve been paying attention to the sport for the past couple of years, it’s no secret that American women are kicking ass in the marathon. And, as the article goes on to say, we’re not just talking about Shalane and Desi. As of January 24th of this year, there were already a record 282 American women eligible to run in the 2020 Olympic Trials Marathon.

• I always love articles about exclusive, high-end, expensive clubs that I will never nor would ever join, and this was no exception. Would you pay $900 a month for a gym membership? Some people would.

• I don’t always stay on top of the cross country or track world (or less-than-marathon-distance world), but this was pretty amazing: Shelby Houlihan not only won the USATF Cross Country Championships 10,000-meter race, she crushed it in 32:46.8, picking up the pace at an insane rate over the last few hundred meters. She’s also a killer at the 1500 and broke the American record in 5000 meters last summer in 14:34:35. Damn. (If I can run my next 10K race 12 minutes slower than her, I will be absolutely thrilled.)

• This story came out in August 2012 but for some reason I only recently discovered it. You may already know the story of Michigan dentist and infamous race cheat Kip Litton, but if not, I implore you to read this. It’s long – but so well worth it. It’s an astounding story on so many levels. I won’t even say more about it. Just read it.

• Finally, an article I stumbled across months ago and kept it in my bookmarks with the intention of writing about it at some point – again, better late than never. A study set out to determine how people’s feelings about gym class impacted their exercise habits as adults, and the results were both interesting and unsurprising: most notably, they found a strong correlation between “unpleasant memories of P.E. classes and lingering resistance to exercise years later.” This is a really interesting topic to me. I might be in the minority here, but I LOVED gym class. I have zero negative memories of gym. I’m interested to know how other people feel about this!

Happy reading! Or Super Bowling. Or both! As usual, I do not have a photo to accompany this post so please enjoy this pic of my dog seeing a peacock for what I imagine is the very first time.