The politics of running

My fingers are all aflutter because I don't even know where to start. Ok, Ok, ok. So, Sarah Palin was interviewed in Runner's World this month. I heard a blurb about it on the news the other day and my co-worker Joel just brought it to my attention again. So, of course, I immediately dug in to read it.

First of all, they obviously directly quoted her throughout and did not attempt to correct her horrid grammar and incomplete/run-on sentences. Which I THOROUGHLY enjoy. In fact, I spent most of the article trying to figure out if they were making fun of her, or if she is just such a caricature of herself that she comes across as comedic. Regardless, I can't read her answers without hearing her voice in my head. Which makes me want to stick pointy objects into my ears to ... OH GOD MAKE IT STOP.

Because the article is a straight up question/answer it is a bit mind-numbing to read so I have taken the liberty of picking out some of the gems for you.

When did you start running?
I grew up in a running family. My parents caught the running craze in the mid '70s and we grew up doing family runs. I've been running now easy for 35 years. What does that mean?!? By the way, this is the opening question.

Sounds like your skills were more suited to basketball?
Well, I appreciated the fact that in running I needed guts more than anything. I could do fine just being really determined. I was thankful that I didn't need a whole lot of skills to run. You didn't answer the question. Let's ask it again, in a different way:

And running was your first athletic activity, even before basketball?
Yes. My parents instilled in us that fitness and running were going to be a part of our lives growing up. My siblings and I are all still very active. A lot of days I look forward to getting out to run and think and plan.

If you go a day or a week without running, what do you learn about yourself?
I feel so crappy if I go more than a few days without running. I have to run. No matter how rotten I feel before or during a run, it's always worth it to me afterwards. Sweat is my sanity. Someone should put that on a t-shirt. Gold. Gold I tell you! She then goes on, several paragraphs later to re-iterate with this:

I wish it were every day. I don't like to go more than a few days without running, but yeah. BTW, Sarah, "but yeah" is not an appropriate way to end a sentence.

Also, this entire paragraph here is just awesome. Every word of it:
"But the most precious experience I've had running was a few summers ago when I was training for a marathon and my son Track—and I named him Track for running—would drive out in front of me and plant water bottles along the route. I felt so spoiled, like the queen of the running world to have a kid who was all cool with his pickup truck, dropping off water for me on my long runs. And he'd put a note on the bottles, saying, "Love you, Mom" and "Run hard, Mom." It was just the most precious summer of my life to have that and then to cap it off with an all-time marathon best [3:59:36]. I wouldn't trade it for anything in the whole world."

Then she goes on to start talking about "her rock" and how it helps her dig deep, but she never explains what the hell the rock is, or what it looks like, or where it sits. Is it a real rock? Like a good luck pebble? Maybe it is a boulder she runs past? Maybe it is a figurative rock ... who knows. The mystery of the rock.

Some of my favorite random phrases: "and they live by duct tape covering every exposed portion of skin", "one time I walked into a mama black bear and her cubs in a tree", "—and I named him Track for running—", "When I run, I'm totally incognito because I'm not wearing the trough full of makeup.", "we'd be out there at events or up there on stage just sweatin' like pigs, and I loved it.", "I always wrap it up with a couple of mellow Amy Grant songs."

The amazing thing about her, is that people still actually like her. She is SUCH a joke to me that I just can't imagine how people take her seriously. And for my republican friends, it is not because of her political beliefs. It is because she is a hypocritical, poorly spoken, ego inflated princess who puts back the women's movement about 50 years. To her credit, she only brings up God once, but does talk about the "great state of Alaska" and "the beauty of this 49th state" a lot. But the comments below the article are mostly ... super nice. I am going to wrap this up with two more gems:

Is there anything else the world should know about you as a runner?
The only other thing I'd like to add is I've been very fortunate to be a recipient of all the efforts people put into Title IX all those years ago where girls got equal opportunity to participate in sports and extracurricular activities because sports growing up were my world. I'm so thankful for Title IX allowing equal access to these opportunities, and I'm a huge proponent of girls being able to realize what they're made of by participating in sports, and whatever I can do there I'm going to be doing. Spoken like a true politician!

And I leave you with this:

yowza.

You can read the full article, in case you too feel the need to want to scratch out your eyes and stick pointy things in your ears to ... OH GOD MAKE IT STOP.
HERE: runners world article