"I Went to Church Today!"

Or at least I went close to one. This is in a little town called Tepotzotlan just on the outskirts of Mexico City. Apparently it was built in the early 1700's.



Unfortunately I didn't have a chance to go inside it, but from the outside I said a little prayer for my left hamstring. I know that no one on this earth gives 2 shits about my leg muscles so I hope that maybe the man upstairs at least cares.

A good friend told me yesterday that he can tell from my blog that I am obsessed about this Ironman thing and if you knew how little my leg really hurts you would know he's probably right. Nevertheless it is worrying me a great deal. It first started last saturday and has not improved since. I know it's my own fault because I don't stretch enough! Hopefully with today and tomorrow completely off it will get better. My whole program peaks a week from Sunday and any time off right now would totally upset me...obsessed or not!

Today I had the opportunity, and not for the first time, to drive through significant stretches of Mexico City. For some reason however, on this day, the incredible mass of humanity living in this place floored me. From what I can gather on the net there are over 20 million people living in a space smaller than the greater Toronto area. The entire population of Canada is just over 30 million!

When I seen a couple of kids the age of my grandchildern playing in a dirt area about 5 feet wide between 2 decrepit old apartment buildings with not a green spot in sight for kilometres, I realized that this is probably all they know. There is no grass to run on, no trees to climb in, no water to swim in, and they might spend their entire lives like this, breathing the yellow air. In an effort to reduce the air pollution there is now a law in the city that disallows driving your car on certain days, your particular days determined by the digits of your license plate. Apparently the solution most commonly devised by the citizens is to sell your good car and buy 2 older stinky bones instead, and then just alternate driving them! That worked well eh??

It shames me to think how I live, how my childern live, and even more so, how fortunate I am that I can enjoy watching my grandchildern run and play to their hearts content, breathing good air all the while! When I get home I'm gonna lay on the grass for a while and give thanks.

I wish to dedicate day 309 to those 2 kids in the alley.

...think this one out...

“Pollution is nothing but the resources we are not harvesting. We allow them to disperse because we've been ignorant of their value."---Richard Buckminster

....and I think this one justifies my obsession a bit...

“Passion is a positive obsession. Obsession is a negative passion."---Paul Carvel

love
peter