Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Remembrances…and Ultrarunning

November is a time for remembrances. 

  • On a global scale on 11 Nov we had Armistice Day (renamed Veteran’s Day, but the original name is better).  The “holiday” (if that’s the right word) commemorates the dead of WWI, the so-called war to end all wars.  That hasn’t worked out all that well.

  • On the national scale, 19 Nov was the anniversary of President Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.  He was speaking at the dedication of the new National Cemetery at Gettysburg, where Union dead from the battle some 4 months prior were being reinterred from their temporary graves scattered over the battlefield. The short speech has become iconic for its succinct and eloquent capture of the spirit of remembrance of the sacrifices of the Union dead.

  • On the local scale, this morning on my early run on my beloved Harshman Road loop, I paused again at Janet Christiansen’s grave in Browns Mill Cemetery.  Janet was murdered back in 2005, and her exhumation last year to obtain forensic evidence really touched me (see previous post here).

I probably won’t ever get there, but the link to Ultrarunning is a somewhat famous memorial plaque in CA dedicated to Barbara Schoener.  She was a trail runner killed by a mountain lion in 1994 in northern California along the American River Canyon Trail, in the Auburn State Recreation Area.  This trail is part of the Western States Endurance 100-Mile Endurance Run trail.

  

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