<<"...the first thing he [Gov. Walz] told me was that running is a privilege and being part of the running community is a privilege that not all people have access to.”

It is a privilege, one that is effectively closed to most low-income people, sadly.

I grew up in a deeply impoverished situation. I call it a "situation" because it wasn't a functioning "family." In my early teens, I decided I wanted to get into running but had no money for running shoes. So I'd stick adhesive tape to the balls of my feet and run barefoot on the asphalt streets of Charleston, SC. I wanted to go out for the football team, but you had to provide your own cleats, so that was out. I fell into boxing at the Police Athletic League instead and got pretty good at it.

I finished high school in California, where I got a part-time job at the YMCA, which covered my expenses in high-school swimming and track. I loved it.

Time went on. I completed 16 Ironman triathlons, 9 of them in Hawaii.

I'm 76 y/o now, but I'm pretty sure I can kick your ass in a boxing match. I know I can run you into the ground. Last fall, I paddled in a 43-mile, open-ocean outrigger canoe race as part of a crew with paddlers half my age. Earlier this year, I completed a 75-mile quadrathlon (swim/paddle/bike/run) as a charity fundraiser; and last month in Nice, France, I ran 102 K (64 miles) in a fundraiser for children's charities.

All of which is to say, apparently neither you nor the other sad MAGAs here have a clue about the privilege of being able to participate in athletics. I do, Tim Walz does, and he made sure his kids do, too.