The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner.

Oh well. But hey -- did I ever mention I ran cross-country, and the two miles in spring track season, outdoors and in? Got better as the distances increased, when everyone else was slowing down, I was just getting going, and always had a strong finishing kick *...

The speaker of Maryland’s house, Michael E. Busch, said that the bill, the Civil Marriage Protection Act, had fallen short of the 71 votes required for passage and that Democrats had decided to withdraw it, instead of allowing a vote that would fail.

“This is a distance run, not a sprint,” Mr. Busch said. “We’ll come back next year and take a strong look at it.”

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* The coach always questioned my pace, if I was dogging it too much early on. No, that's just how I naturally ran my races: took it out as hard as my legs would carry me at the beginning, catching them sometimes at the end, with a final sprint kick.

You never know what you still have left in you, until you see what's left of the field ahead and how badly you want it. Fwiw.

For weeks, the bill’s passage was thought to be assured. Maryland’s House is overwhelmingly Democrat — 98 out of 141 members, more than enough to pass the bill over Republican opposition. But the closer it got to a final vote, the bumpier its path became, with a number of Democrats from districts with strong religious constituencies saying they would vote against it.

Two of its co-sponsors, Tiffany Alston of Prince George’s County and Melvin Stukes of Baltimore County, withdrew their support at the last minute, under pressure from their constituencies, which both have powerful religious communities.

Ultimately, about a third of the Democrats in the House opposed it.

Luke Clippinger, one of the House’s seven openly gay members, whose voice had cracked while giving a personal speech during the debate, said he felt “tired but not broken” by the turn of events.

Walk it off, Luke. Walk it off...