Uh, I'm Disgusted.

I try to hide the fact that I am a quitter. I'm a great quitter though. Perhaps the best. And I do it so well, that it's rather difficult to tell I'm a quitter. But I've recently decided (kind of sort of or at least in a couple facets or just specific instances of my life) that I'm not going to be a quitter anymore.

Sitting on my desk for the past few weeks has been a book I deserted. It's called Why We Run and I picked it up a few months ago while browsing the aisles at the local book branch because I've enjoyed the two running books I've ever read. Two books; one author. Time to expand the horizon. So I bought it. And I forced myself through the first 40 pages of it and I considered the horizon well ablaze and time to put it aside and let it cool off---or burn up to the remains of ashes....either one, it's not important.

But, as I discovered last week (in a completely different incident that will be discussed in about a week when the resulting impulse purchase arrives on my doorstep), I WILL NOT BE DEFEATED. And so I will defeat this book. And, seeing it resting on my desk, I decided to take it out for a workout---you know, take its pages for a spin. And today I read some 60 pages of it....at the end of which.....I came upon this.....

"....contestants on a race in over 80F heat on the Bowdoin College track in Maine. Every couple of laps, the racers dunked their heads into a barrel of water the race director, Bill Gayton, had set thoughtfully alongside the track. The water evaporating from the contestants' heads and backs kept them cooled and running despite the heat. Surprisingly, bees that have collected nectar have a variation of this approach. They regurgitate their stomach contents from the mouth and spread the liquid all over themselves with their forefeet. Once they are back in the hive, colony mates lick off the residual solids (sugar) that are left after the water has evaporated. However, relying on regurgitation for evaporative cooling is probably not a recommended option for us.
"Some storks and vultures cool themselves by a reverse, yet similar, strategy. They defecate runny feces down their legs. The blood in the bird's legs is cooled by the evaporation, which reduces overall body temperature by as much as 2C. A turkey vulture sitting on a fence post in the sun on a hot day, calmly and deliberately defecating on its naked legs, is behaving in a way that makes sense. Anyone who has ever been running hard on a sweltering day will be able to identify with such behavior."

How does one respond to this??? I mean, obviously beat out the gag reflex and give in to the "EWWWWWW" reflex but other than that....... ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. And apparently I just can't get past that part.

It disgusts me. It disgusts me. It disgusts me.

I'm disgusted.

But I will not be defeated. I will persevere. I will read this insect-infested, regurgitation-marinated (ewwww), densely defecated book supposedly about what causes man to run but appears to be more about what causes him to regurgitate and defecate himself. What an experiment!