Gil Can Run!A blog on Running and all the crap that runs through my head while doing it

Aug 20th Intersectionality, all is one

I totally neglected the blog on Thursday and Friday. It happens. I did run Thursday. Then I got out again today just before the rain started. So there was news from the US. Someone erected a nude statue of Drumpf, which I’m torn on. I mean it’s funny on a juvenile level. At the same time it has no place in politics. I get it, he’s a giant, rude piece of crap, and he’s been very personally nasty to many people, and he should absolutely be ridiculed and berated for that. His thoughts and words are unacceptable in any society that wants to call itself civilized. But, that should come after the politics are over, this should happen when he moves on from his losing campaign and tries to leverage this into his next project. That’s when you ruin him for all the horribly personal attacks he’s made.
That brought me to my next thought on the road. I know a lot of people. They post a lot of political stuff, in one way or another. No matter what, whether they are correct assertions or not, they all share one thing in common, no matter what the subject is; There is a major dissatisfaction with modern life and the current socio-economic system. I get why some people are drawn to a fool like Drumpf. They hear part of what he says, or they honestly think that White Nationalism is a good idea. They want things to change, and he says things in a way they want it to change. Now, I don’t agree with any of the changes he wants to make, but I understand the draw. And I’ve come to the conclusion that supporting him, even if you don’t understand or accept the underlying racism, the White Nationalism, the bigotry and hatred of his message, that you still need to be held accountable for it. But here’s the thing, no politician is going to change the system alone. Bernie wasn’t going to change it alone, Obama couldn’t change it alone.
I’ve talked about how you need to get the people voted in that agree with you up and down, locally, provincially, nationally. They can set the framework for you to change the system. If we have politicians voting to ban rainwater collection, vegetable gardens in your yard, community solar projects, and stuff like that, then no nothing will change. If you keep voting in people that will uphold the status quo, then you won’t be able to make any changes. President Obama wanted to help change and then was stuck with a Congress completely resistant to change. We didn’t show up to help, so he just did the same old thing, because that’s all he could do. You have to do the work.
But it starts at home. Not just about electing politicians. You want the system to change, find all the ways you can change it. I talk about that all the time. Change your attitude about things, grow a garden if you can, it takes work, but it makes change. It’s all hard work and it’s all connected. Start with the changes you can make. Once you have made it that far, get together with the people you’ve found and see what you can do from there. But you have to expect and accept that they’ve had different experiences and may have slightly different ideas. The trick is to recognize the common goal, and that’s what you strive for, and then you let the rest be. The thing is we’re all in this together, but we never really recognize that.
I see so many people who don’t seem to get that. Look we are all in this together. There’s no escaping it. Straight, gay, bisexual, transgender, european, african, asian, south american, native, pacific islander, aboriginal, indian,whatever. All those different classifications give people different experiences, some good, some bad. Anyone who profits from creating bad experiences for others needs to accept, apologize, and change that situation. It’s not about the aggrieved “getting over it”, it’s about the person profiting from the pain changing their ways. The best apology is changed behavior. People have to accept that. It’s not about the person victimized not feeling like they’re been victimized, it’s about the person who acted to victimize, not doing it anymore.
Case in point, and then I will end for today, the Central Park 5. Their lives were ruined on a false conviction, and at the spearhead of that conviction was a man who loves to blame others, and look down on those he deems “lesser” because he, and his chosen few, are “winners” and he will make you a “winner” too. “They take from you” and he’ll “give it back”. This is not a message of inclusiveness. This is not a message of togetherness. This is a reactionary monster hell bent on hoarding everything it can for itself. This monster has never apologized to these men for what he did. In fact he turned around and attacked the fact that the State of New York settled with them over the wrongful conviction. He doesn’t change his behavior, even when he does say he’s sorry, which he does only sparingly.
If we are to change, this is not the way to do it. Selfishness and greed is what have gotten us to the point where we are. More selfishness and greed is only a ticket to more of the same for society. Socially, economically, morally things will remain exactly as they are, or get worse if we ramp up the selfishness and greed and blaming of others. Things will only change when we accept all differences and work within ourselves for change. So anyone that tells you building a wall, murdering people, keeping people out, or anything else like that is going to solve the problems, and it’s easy and simple and you can just sit back and relax and they’ll take care of it, they’re full of shit. All is one, it’s all part of the same problem, and we all have work to do if we want it to change. That is all I got today, hope you could follow along.

Don’t paint us the perfect picture,
We have visions of our own,
Don’t give us the safe interpretation,
We want, we want to know the truth.
We’re not down to die, and be this typecast culture
We’re not down to die, and be the faceless soldiers
Don’t sell us the perfect image
We’ll struggle to find ourselves
We want the unpopular challenge
We want, we want to test our intellect,
Test our intellect.
We have learned this devotion
We are programmed, conditioned
Senseless, senseless emotions
We’ve lost our desire to think alone,
To think alone,
To think alone,
We’re not down to die, and be this typecast culture
We’re not down to die, and be the faceless soliders
We’re not down.

Have fun, keep running, and remember; if Gil can run then so can you!

Aug 17th A beautiful day for a run

Probably the nicest day for a run I’ve had all year. It was perfect. Sunny, cool, dry, just a really nice day. Meanwhile, I had all my thoughts collected and was ready to write, and that all went straight to hell. So screw it.
Here Capitalism is dying, let’s learn about a theory of what will replace it.

Have fun, keep running, and remember; if Gil can run then so can you!

Aug 16th Had to move a little today

Still a little sore, but I got a very strong 5 miles (8km) in. I felt pretty consistent, and the times look pretty consistent. It’s much easier when you’re pretty much running flat. But I also think that because I was so sore and tired, I was just able to take it easy and I had to stay focused on form and doing things right. It was a bit difficult to stay focused and motivated. But overall I feel good. My hamstring doesn’t hurt, no aches beyond anything normal for the amount of miles I’ve done to this point. So it’s all very positive and very good.
Sometimes, it’s very hard to stay positive, to stay up for all these things. It helps seeing Herr Drumpf so middling in the polls. To see him whinging and crying already about a “fix”. Look, if you’re up 10% in the polls and you lose, then yes, there’s something weird happening. If you’re getting beaten like a rented donkey in the polls and you go onto get beat in such a manner, then you just lost. This will be bad when he looses, the temper tantrum will be epic. Even people in my home state, I have seen, are being shitty over Drumpf already. He had a rally there, and one of my friends was kicked out just for holding up a sign that said, “Ballots not Bullets.” That’s a shitty thing. People sent him nasty bookfaces messages and stuff over it, because you know, we shouldn’t call out politicians on their bullshit. So they’re anti-people who don’t look like them, anti-people who don’t pray like them, anti-people not the same gender as them, anti-people not the same sexual orientation as them, anti-people who don’t have the basic means to survive. About the only thing I can figure they’re for is being angry and ignorant.
The real problem is, Fascism is on the march again. Across Europe, in the US with Trump and others, in the Middle East with Daesh. Fascism is on the rise, and they’re coming for your resources, wrapped in flags, holy books, hatred, and bigotry. Resist them in any way you can. We can’t be afraid of the consequences for resisting them now, we will be terrified of the consequences if they win, because every time fascism rears its ugly head, we’re in for a very bad time. I don’t really care much who is the candidate against the fascist. I can deal with whatever crap they do, but fascism, hatred, bigotry have no place in this world at all. I will always fight it, and I shouldn’t need to defend that to anyone. I’m not saying everyone I am against currently is a fascist, I am saying it’s on the rise, and the rise is embodied in some of these people, and we should be very worried. I’ve been saying for decades that this was brewing, and that this was going to happen. People who know me well, know I have been talking about this exact situation happening for a very long time, literally since high school. So go out and fight.

Have fun, keep running, and remember; if Gil can run then so can you!

Aug 14th Flies

Seriously, and holy crap. So, long run today! I was doing great. While I’m not complaining about a little over 4 hours in my first real long run in months with barely any lead up to it, I have to say I could have and should have done much better.
Started out with some heavy rain. Which wasn’t actually too bad, it kept me cool and I didn’t need to worry about hydration for a fair bit. The problems started when the rain stopped and the Sun started to come out. Now, I am no stranger to adverse conditions, extreme heat, extreme cold, heavy rain, snow, midges flying in your eyes. So as it starts to warm up I see some flies buzzing around. They look like small houseflies, they don’t bite. No problem right? That’s what I thought too! As it dried up more and got warmer, more and more of these things are showing up. I have to start swatting them away before they land in my eyes or go up my nose. Here I am, trying to keep form and keep pace, and I have to swing my arms wildly to keep this swarm of flies off my damned face! Needless to say, by about mile 13 I was done. So it was a hard road back. You can see I slowed down significantly. It was just a matter of swatting flies after that.
So it was a new challenge and an experience. I suppose I can look at it that way, because it was literally maddening while it was happening, I actually cried a little out there. It was so disheartening. Physically and mentally is was draining. It really sucked and I need to look into how to make that never happen again. I’m glad they didn’t bite though.
In a couple weeks I will get back out for a long run, I think 21 miles was enough to get me through with an off-week.

Have fun, keep running, and remember; if Gil can run then so can you!

Aug 13th I was a slacker yesterday

Got 10km in. But then neglected to update. I was busy. Lots to do here I suppose, plus it was just a constant feeling of being tired. I’m waiting to have lunch, take care of some things around here in Denmark, then go for a run this afternoon. It is nice and cool here, it will hit a high of 62F (17C), whereas in Connecticut they have warnings, temps over 90F (33C), people cancelling their long runs and such. What a mess. Although, if it’s raining like it is right now, I may shorten, or cancel my run.
I have not been drinking enough water, and I really need to focus on that, because it is massively important. Not just as a runner, but just generally. I’m not going to claim water has magical healing properties. But it is essential to life, and the things we add into it, sugars, and colors, and flavoring, are not. So that’s my pitch for water, drink more of it. Maybe I will get out to run in a few hours, maybe not. I hope I do, I need it. Whatever your day is bringing you I wish you the best!

Have fun, keep running, and remember; if Gil can run then so can you!

Aug 9th A short one today

And that’s that. I was so tired, I meant to do 5, only did 3.5 instead. I definitely did not drink enough water yesterday. A few months ago, 5 miles the day after a 15 mile run would have been nothing. It’s amazing how quickly you loose that ability to just keep running. When it takes so long to build it up in the first place. The good news is my leg feels good, my knee feels good. So now it’s just a matter of getting that conditioning back.
That’s all I have today, I need to be re-energized. I’m tired, simple as that, it was a tiring run yesterday, the good news is I will be stronger for it tomorrow! At least I don’t hurt much, no real muscle aches, just general fatigue.
Did I share the Rick and Morty video where they present the court transcript from Georgia? I don’t think I have, this is insanity. The person on trial is horrible and the judge is absolutely no better! Good for a few laughs

Have fun, keep running, and remember; if Gil can run then so can you!

Aug 8th It was a challenge today

So I took off today, I need to get back into marathon shape and so 15 miles (25km) seemed appropriate. It was definitely tough, heavy headwind, some rain, very narrow area to run on the roads. Although, for about an hour I got a nice bike path to follow. Even the dirt roads are nicer than some roads I’ve run. One fun thing that happened was while I was running past a cow pasture, the Jersey cows there were all staring at me, and as I got toward the end of the field, the cows all started running with me. It was very odd. Also, kind of cool.
So it seems over the weekend at a hardcore festival in Philadelphia, one of my favorite artists, in making a statement at how amazed he is that all these years later we still have all this racial division in society, and how much that sucks, was met a little wrong. Gorilla Biscuits have always had songs about unity, togetherness, harmony, kindness, basically being decent human beings. Even to animals, not just humans. No matter what he said, his songs have always carried the same message. What he said exactly was:
“In 2016 people still have to wear shirts that say ‘Black Lives Matter’. No shit. Brown, white, yellow, black, we all fucking matter. Everybody here matters. Do not let the media, schools, institutions, influence you. We are one family, one people.”
I get what he’s saying, I think he said it wrong. The key is “people still have to wear shirts…” because he’s amazed that we haven’t gotten over our racist bullshit yet. I’ve met Civ, he’s tattooed me, he will (hopefully) tattoo me in the future. I know he’s someone who cares, and I know that he understands that there is massive injustice in the world and we all have to put an end to it. He’s been fighting these battles for 30+ years, I get that he’s frustrated. I’m not trying to whitesplain this. I’m saying, from a point of view of someone who knows the band, knows the lyrics, and what they mean, it was poorly worded.
Here are the lyrics to Degradation:

Tell me who’s pure. Tell me who’s right.
Tell me the last time you fought a fair fight.
A loser’s way to find some friends,
you look like a skin but that’s where it ends.
True, they’re always at our shows,
It doesn’t mean we fit in with their hatred and racism shit.
They ruin our name, you know what I mean.
Racial supremacists degrade our scene.

You know you can kiss my ass before I read your zine.
There’s no good side to this white power scene.
Kids beat down for standing up.
Your turn will come because we’ve all had enough.
You look like kids we know. You’re not welcome here.
You don’t like music and we don’t like fear.
I guess it’s your right to be proud that your white.
Are you here for music or just to pick fights.

Don’t fool yourself cause you don’t fool me.
It’s not just blacks you hate, it’s everyone you see.
Rich, poor, young, and old, whoever’s in your way.
What a boring life, hating every day.

YOU’VE GOT NOTHING BUT HATRED!

Yep, he got it wrong, but he’s literally been fighting for justice and egging on racist shitheads for 30 years now. I’ll back him up on this one. I don’t want to speak for him, but I’ll bet you that he has absolutely no problem with #BlackLivesMatter except for the fact it has to exist at all. That we live in a world where racism is still a thing.

Have fun, keep running, and remember; if Gil can run then so can you!

Aug 6th (No Title)

Pretty sure I can run around Jutland without stopping. I felt really good today, better than I’ve felt in a long time running. It’s so flat relative to what I’m used to. The air is clean, and all the cars move over for you if they can. It’s amazing, it’s like the most polite, safe, and easiest place to run in the world!
That’s all I really have today, polls have turned, people have started recognizing what a giant piece of shit Drumpf is. Now if Europe can turn away from their fascists we’ll be in good shape. This is important, either participate or drop out completely. But get it done, the new social consciousness can’t wait much longer before we miss our opportunity and get on a path we can’t reverse, a path that leads to our complete destruction. The Earth won’t take much more of our shenanigans.
Just because they played This is Hardcore in Philly today:

Have fun, keep running, and remember; if Gil can run then so can you!

Aug 4th Back to the grind!

I ran the Vorbasse village limits today, and still had to loop around to make it 5km. It’s much cooler here than in the US or in Italy. Still humid though, but easier to run when it’s cool and humid than hot and humid. Managed to get back from the run right before a fairly strong sun shower. It’s not totally cloudy, but every now and then it starts raining.
Today is an easy day, I don’t have a tax number yet so no work, but I can go exchange some dollars for kroners and then to the store! Definitely lots to do around here. Also, sometime before I go, I should go to the original Legoland! I am in the place where Lego comes from.
I had a really nice flight yesterday, on a Boeing 787! New plane, almost had the new plane smell still. It doesn’t eliminate ear popping and my nose was still a little dry, but it wasn’t bad at all. It is much easier to stand up and move around, tons of overhead space make you feel free and not nearly as claustrophobic as older planes were.
Lots of slugs around here:

Have fun, keep running, and remember; if Gil can run then so can you!

Aug 2nd I’m on my way

Going to be super short. Ran this morning, it was the best run I’ve had while in New Haven. Managed to say goodbye to my second favorite statue in town, the triceratops outside the Peabody museum. My favorite is the Amistad memorial outside of City Hall.

I’m off to Denmark, I’ll check in tomorrow from Vorbasse!

Have fun, keep running, and remember; if Gil can run then so can you!