It’s July 4th, the day we’re supposed to celebrate freedom and the founding principles United States when we are currently at our most divided. Though, I suppose Independence Day has always been a complicated day for many people even if I wasn’t one of them. (Read or listen Frederick Douglas’s thoughts here.)

But given that, what am I choosing to talk about? The humidity. I ran a 10K this morning on Governors Island and I felt like I was a ninety year old four pack a day smoker running through soup. I was soaked in sweat just waiting for the subway this morning at 6:30AM to get to the Governors Island ferry.

Running the race I was soaked halfway through. People were walking, then running, then walking, then running again. I think everyone was feeling it. I just kept telling myself, “don’t stop don’t stop don’t stop,” and I didn’t.

I snapped the above picture on the ferry ride back. I took a similar one when I ran the same race last year. That’s the thing about running the same race year after year, you can see your progress. Last year was my first 10K and it was the longest distance I had ever raced. This year I ran a half marathon. Even though I felt like I was running through wet concrete for the last two and a half miles today I still managed to beat last year’s time by two minutes.

I think the race took something out of my this morning and I’ll sleep well tonight. I didn’t do any traditional July 4th things today. I did take a walk in the park with my girlfriend and got a barbecue contact high. But, like a lot of people, I don’t feel like celebrating today. I’m too tired to enumerate the reasons why.