In a normal year, this would be the time I’d head over to ESPN Wide World of Sports and pick up my race bib for the Dopey Challenge. But this is not a normal year.
We teeter on the brink of a calamity in our healthcare system, in our political system, and on the global stage. Despite the promise and possibilities of a return to normalcy with proper mask wearing, social distancing, and hand washing coupled with a vaccine roll out, things are not looking good at the moment for the coronavirus pandemic. And in what should have been a ceremonial piffle of Congress rubberstamping the electoral college certification for the next President, too many supposed defenders of Democracy are choosing to endorse dictatorship and the destruction of what makes America great – the rule of law, the will of the people, a peaceful transfer of power after free and fair elections. With mob rule allegations that are entirely unfounded by various state investigations and throughout numerous court cases, there are still conspiracy theorists who hold sway over far too many thoughts and minds of our populace. I’m not sure what the future holds and I’m afraid of today… and tomorrow. I never thought the United States of America would fall so far so fast.
I’ve never dealt with conflict well, nor with failure. I hate losing and instead of taking losing as a learning opportunity I’ve often walked away in frustration, deciding if that path is blocked or leads to failure why would I tread that way again. But because of that, I rarely learned from my mistakes and let them fester. It feels like America isn’t learning from its mistakes and is determined to undermine itself, to thwart itself at every turn. I’m in a dark place because it feels like the world itself is in a dark place.
And yet I have this virtual Dopey Challenge to run. runDisney long ago transitioned their race weekend into a run-at-home event and given the terrible numbers here in Florida, due in no small measure to the Mini-Trumpian leadership failings of our governor, it is wise not to have us all congregate en masse and run together in person.
Disney is still charging me $365 to run this thing at home but if I want to maintain my “Perfect” status being Dopey, well, it’s a price I have to pay.
So too will be the upcoming four days of running. On the plus side, running at home means I don’t have to be shivering in the Epcot Center parking lot for hours before start time; I need not march the half mile or so from the parking lot to the starting line; and I can run the race pretty much whenever I like, in darkness or in sunshine. There will be no character stops, no sideline cheers, no sights to see other than the usual landmarks for my typical training runs (oh, look — the turkey buzzards are out scavenging a dead carcass! … I see the crumpled Pepsi box still hasn’t been picked up from that drainage ditch…). But I will run. Because I don’t know what else to do.
Stay safe. Try and stay positive. These are the words I tell myself and others. It is my hope that if enough of us do this we can eventually overcome the problems that plague us so.
To the start line tomorrow….