Tell me you’re not excited.  The Olympics defy explanation.  So much of the news around Rio has been negative, about how they won’t be ready.  What city is ever ready?  I like how the US Olympic Committee deals with it.  They simply take their own construction team to fix plumbing and drywall issues in the athlete village.  They don’t complain, they just deal, because the Olympics is about overcoming adversity to achieve greatness.  The Olympics are awesome.

I watched part of the opening ceremony last night.  The parade of teams and lighting of the Olympic flame.  I would have loved to watch more but the event went on past my bed time.  The parade of athletes entering the stadium is always one of my favorite events because it conveys the peace of the games and pure joy on the competitor’s faces.  I know the athlete’s won’t be thinking about the issues Brazil currently faces as a nation.  I hope the best for Brazil as they host these games, which must serve as a metaphor for many of their own struggle of  democratic institutions vying to triumph over the corruption of demagogues.

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I’m ready to watch two weeks of unadulterated sports.  I don’t care which sport, it’s the competition that matters.  I love the background stories on the individual athletes.  I find myself motivated to run and no doubt will pick up the pace of my own workouts.  I’ve been slacking off lately.  Yesterday was my first run after five days.  Work has been getting in my way, but not now that the Olympics are there to drive me.  Ellie and I have plans to run the hills of the East Boulder Trail this morning.  Ellie watched the opening ceremony with me last night.  She’s motivated too.