Well, that was fun.

Haley and James reported on team National Review‘s performance in the ACLI Capital Challenge, a 3-mile race held for charity in which members of Congress and judges, their staffers, executive branch employees, and journalists compete. (For more on the history of the race itself, see here.) They were kind enough to mention that I won the race. In 2022, the last time NR fielded a team, I was merely the fastest journalist.

“But at what cost?” wondered Judson Berger, NRO’s managing editor, when he filed his 2022 dispatch on our performance then. Haley and James were so kind to me that they did not even mention the cost. I have been seriously training for and competing in races for 18 years. I am used to rousting myself at odd hours, getting myself to a starting line, and then actually doing the darn thing. All of this was a relatively new experience for my teammates today (in addition to Haley and James, Dominic Pino and Natan Ehrenrich). They consented to suffer through my chosen sport’s idiosyncrasies and inconveniences nonetheless.

And they did a great job at it, if I do say so myself. So, as I have done before, I must give a hearty thank-you to my teammates, who made today a special experience. I hope that I gave you a sample of what this sport means to me, and of what this kind of activity can and does mean for others.

And I hope you had fun.