If we can make it to December ...

The nicest thing about individual sports over team sports is there's much less posturing. You're competing against your own personal best really, and while there are times of external motivation -- running against a particular rival, say, that might inspire you to kick it up a notch -- mostly it's just you and the moment. Competing with self.

For some, that's the best competition in toto. You're not limited to somebody else's game plan, training regime, or dangling carrots. Nor do you have to trade in your own values every so many miles. In the end, you've pushed yourself, paid for it yourself, and chiseled out your own niche. Worth it for the internal pricetag, not accepting the outside value they'd hang on you? -- the imperfections others are still defining, concentrating on, curing.

I'm sure there's a lot of reward hanging in crowds. Feeding on each other's excitement. Running with the pack. Standing inside the fire, so to speak. But some tend to do better, are more elevated en masse, while others are freer to slip away quietly and pursue outside challenges. That they choose... and are willing to pay for.

Maybe in the end, that's the more worthwhile course, the best comfort in old age, kmowing that your own measuring stick holds true while others are bent on sharing their costs, spreading their own losses throughout those ever eager to band together. Better to rely on yourself to make your own home, rather than be beholden to those others seemingly eager to lend a hand.

Of course, running long distance probably you have a different strategy than those whose race consists more of hurdling or sprinting. So take it for what it's worth depending on your own race, your own personal best. Remember how many short-term thinkers were so bullish on GWB too? We've shared his pain -- some more than others -- and paid the price. But the cleanup's just beginning really...

Accountability, babe. America is a great place for second acts -- reinvention -- but like elephants, some are better at memory games and think there's a lot of telling detail in the past worth examining. So while some might be dazzled by short-term attention spans and sexxy dizzles -- it's the wave of the future, dontchaknow? -- some are still thinking long term: aiming to pay their own ways, carry their own loads, and stay away from the madness of crowd-think.