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​Friday Inspiration 479​
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Perhaps you heard that Jasmin Paris became the first woman ever to finish the notoriously difficult Barkley Marathons in 2024. Even if you already know that information, I think this video is worth watching—I was still anxious watching the final lap of her race, and still got a lump in my throat at the finish. But maybe that’s just me. (Just kidding, it’s not just me, according to the number of YouTube views and comments). (video)

​This story has come up in conversation at least three times in the past month (probably because it’s prime basketball time?), and it’s one of my all-time favorite Brian Doyle stories. I first encountered it in the collection One Long River of Song a few years ago, but was happy to discover that it exists online, as it was published in Notre Dame Magazine in 2012. And of course it’s not really about basketball.

When I started talking to the folks from Janji about sponsoring this newsletter, they wanted me to try out their gear first to make sure I liked it—which, spoiler alert, I am not going to put a company’s name in this newsletter if I don’t like their stuff. I did immediately go to their website to make sure they sold a wind jacket, because I basically run through the winter here in Missoula wearing some combination of t-shirt, sun hoodie, and wind jacket, and it’s always just enough insulation for me. Thankfully, yes, they do sell the Zephyrunner Wind Shell (and the Women’s Zephyrunner Wind Shell), and it is exactly what I like to wear in the fall, winter, and early spring here—packs down to the size of a soda can, weighs 4.4 ounces, and I can throw it in my vest for when I get up higher and it’s windy/chilly/spitting some precipitation.

I think there’s a pretty easy response you could have to people who say things like “empathy is a weakness,” and certainly there were probably many, but the phrasing of this one was my favorite.

I wish this wasn’t such a radical idea, but it is a radical idea: A couple in San Francisco found a way to get to know their neighbors, just by (initially) taking their leisurely weekend morning coffee from their kitchen to the street in front of their house. This made me think of how much I talked to everyone on our block last summer when we had a storm rip through, tearing down tree limbs and knocking out the power, and how it was kind of baffling it took me that long to get to know everyone because we’re all inside living our nuclear family lives. Anyway, this is inspiring.

How much information do you need to read this a) very brief b) humor piece c) titled “Famous Authors on Roller Coasters”? Additional info: You don’t really even have to have read most of these authors to get the joke (I don’t think).

​I watched this little video clip a few times,and the second time I watched it, I thought: I bet this kid’s parents will be telling this story until he’s 40—“remember the time you got to go on the court and the Lakers game and shoot to win stuff in that contest, but then LeBron …”

I’ve known Buzz Burrell since I think 2018 (?), and I interviewed him back when we were doing the Off the Couch podcast because he’s had quite a fascinating career working in endurance sports—inventing the hydration vest, creating the term “fastest known time” (and co-founding the Fastest Known Time website with Peter Bakwin, and a lifetime of outdoor pursuits, into his early 70s. I’ve also been following him on Strava for I don’t know how long, but hadn’t realized until reading this recent interview Sarah Lavender Smith did with him that I also enjoy following him there because of the incredible variety of things he always seems to be doing—kayaking, running, cycling, mountain biking, hiking, and swing dancing. The rest of the interview is fun as well.

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