u/Emp-from-OSC

I unfortunately stopped running for 12 years. In coming back I was looking forward to some of the old races. I did the Deckers Creek Half Marathon in 2012. There were 563 runners. It was perfect. Wonderful experience.

It's gone. Closed due to lack of participation.

I see there's a half marathon October 31st at The Seneca Center. But last year it only had a little over 200 runners. Which means you're probably just going to be running most of this alone, I think.

The Jim Dunn run had 230 people in 2012. Now it has 80. For a five mile race this again means you'll pretty much be alone except for the start.

Why are things dying?

It looks like you have to travel out of state unless you enjoy a lonely race.

I think this is a very underrated book as it hits so well upon an important sociological/psychological phenomenon. In the book it's more extreme with Tazaki being suicidal and it ultimately being because a person was crazy and falsely accused him of a terrible crime. But the more common reason is just simple slander.

I'm curious if it caused anyone to go track down people in their own lives who inexplicably did negative things to them?

I did. After 30 years I tracked down a girl that I had loved unlike any other. She had very suddenly called me up to say she didn't want any further interaction with me. We hadn't actually been dating. She didn't just reject me romantically. She suddenly wanted absolutely nothing to do with me. And she gave no explanation.

And so 30 years later I asked her why. And it turned out some people she was friends with who didn't even know me had slandered me.

This hadn't occurred to me 30 years ago. At the time I reacted more like Tazaki, thinking this was just some bizarre thing people did. Or did to me in particular. Just something about me that caused such a reaction. It really hurt me. Left me messed up a long time.

There's all kinds of slandering going on everywhere. Jealousy with dating. Or nasty workplace gossip. People all the time are treated bad having no idea why. Sometimes instead of suspecting simple slander they will decide something far darker.

In my case the lady 30 years later didn't want to believe she had been lied to. And I think it was probably upsetting finding out how it had hurt me for so long. To face what a mistake she had made was too difficult I guess.