Sprinting at 104

At one hundred and four, Ida Keeling, is a very busy lady.

She grew up "Happily," she says, as one of eight children in Harlem. The days when police opened the hydrants with with sprinklers on them there were wonderful times--dancing to drum music, (boys made pails in to drums). But drugs came, everyone was after the quick money that killed both her sons in drug related violence in 1978 and 1981. Their deaths broke her spirit. She was 67 and began running. Ida says: The more I ran, the faster and stronger I became. It released the hold that death had on me.

Preparing for races--sprints of 60 to 100 meters--I'd go to the gym, ride my bike, work out. Age aint' got nothing to do with it. When you really want to do something for yourself, you go and do it.

She doesn't run as fast as she used to, but this American sprinter still competes, and being the only sprinter in her age group, of course, always wins.


km

(wee issue may 3, Keanu wissue

shd's marvelous

WHY ARE RACE HORSES DYING

After more than two dozen horses in  just three months. died at the Santa Anita track in Southern California, the track officials are suspending operations to figure out why.

Horse fatalities at Turf Paradise horse racing track in Phoenix have spiked recently. No one seems to know why. Browsing around, I learned that 10 horses have died at the four day Cheltenham Racecourse Festival in Great Britain. I visited "Equine Death and Breakdown" on Open Data NY, and was stunned. Throughout America 817 horses are known to have died while  training in 2018. (Activists says the toll is actually 2000.)

Some authorities say the 1,200 pound "equine athletes" are often heavily drugged to mask injuries and fatigue. During training and running a race, horses develop fractures that lead to sudden leg breaks, forcing trainers to put them down.

I think we should keep our eyes on the sports news for May--see how many thorobreds die, before, after or during a race.

• Kentucky Oaks – May 3, 2019
• Kentucky Derby – May 4, 2019
• Virginia Gold Cup – May 4, 2019
• Iroquois Steeple Chase – May 11, 2019
• Runhappy Stakes – May 11, 2019
• Preakness Stakes – May 16, 2019

AND remember the Ringling Brothers Circus--public revulsion over the mistreatment of elephants--it shuttered the circus.

Alas, if horse racing can't halt the epidemic, it too, will disappear