EXCERPT FROM 'This is the Beat Generation' BY JOHN CLENNON HOLMES

Any attempt to label an entire generation is unrewarding, and yet the generation which went through the last war [WWII], or at least could get a drink easily once it was over, seems to possess a uniform, general quality which demands an adjective ... The origins of the word 'beat' are obscure, but the meaning is only too clear to most Americans. More than mere weariness, it implies the feeling of having been used, of being raw. It involves a sort of nakedness of mind, and, ultimately, of soul; a feeling of being reduced to the bedrock of consciousness. In short, it means being undramatically pushed up against the wall of oneself. A man is beat whenever he goes for broke and wagers the sum of his resources on a single number; and the young generation has done that continually from early youth.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Toronto Island Triathlon



Five months of training culminated this past Sunday, when I finished the HSBC Toronto Island sprint triathlon in 2 hours and 16 minutes. The course involved a 750 m swim in Lake Ontario (not at all gross as I was expecting), a 30 km bike and finishing with a 7.5 km run. I was in the bottom quarter time-wise, but I accomplished my personal goal of finishing the course which is all that really matters to me.

And, hey, at least I wasn't one of the 53 people who didn't finish!




















The time in this picture is from the start of the first wave. I was in the second wave which started about 25 minutes after the first one.







Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Rants, diatribes, jeremiads, romodomotads and any sort of passionate prose will be welcomed here.

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Followers

annotationz from underground

My photo
chronicler of the bre@kBeat generation