Salt Lake City, UT

Decker Lake Loop

Run Time: 64:34 + 2-minute kick

I had to go to Utah to run. It had been a month without running, mostly due to frigid temperatures in our home state of Michigan, plus a week in the Bahamas with no decent running routes. This was a revisit – I found this loop trail on a previous trip. It was perfect. Mostly dirt/gravel, some elevation changes, close to the hotel, a pastoral setting in spite of I-215 very nearby, and a smooth running surface which allowed me to safely navigate it after darkness fell.

Running in the dark is a risk that I do not endorse. Normally I run only on tracks in the dark, which is relatively safe. Only once have I had an incident running on a track in the dark, years ago at Centennial High School in Oregon. It was winter, and a narrow cover had been placed on the track for the football players to cross it to get to the field in the center. I was leaving the track to run bleacher stairs every time I came around to that section of the track, so I did not see the cover. Plus the wind had rolled the edge of the cover over slightly. As I did my kick at the end of the run, I stayed on the track rather than enter the bleachers, and I hit that rolled up cover at full sprint (or as close to a sprint as I get). Never saw it. Lost some skin.

I do not enjoy risk for risk’s sake. Taking a calculated risk makes sense to me — something with a high potential upside and a low potential downside, when the numbers seem to indicate that the return can actually be greater than the investment. Taking a calculated risk is not gambling, where collective outcomes are controlled to ensure profit for the house.

For a long time, after the Kaepernick controversy, I stopped watching football. I mancotted. Over time, my wife started watching games that started at a reasonable hour, usually playoff games. Now we watch many, if not most playoff games. We do not watch college football generally. We do not watch regular season games. Even Kaepernick is probably watching the playoff games, my wife reasons.

We also watch some hockey. In 2023 I got the MLB package and watched a fair amount of Red Sox games. One thing that you notice when you watch sports on TV now — it’s only mildly irritating, sad more than anything else — is a lot of Kevin Hart and Jamie Foxx and other “cool” celebrities promoting sports betting.

I’ve never enjoyed gambling. My parents used to go to the dog races, and once we (me and my brothers) reached age 12, at which age you could be admitted, they would sometimes take us. We couldn’t bet, but sometimes if we brought a few dollars, the adults would place bets for us. Even if I wasn’t betting, I enjoyed looking at the programs and trying to figure out which dogs would win, based on size, recent race times, where they placed in recent races, what classification that had most recently raced under, and, of course, color and fur patterns. Or which long shots had a decent chance. No one wants to bet on the favorite. There seemed to be more of a wild card aspect because the human element was reduced. It was dogs chasing a fake rabbit, or a fake bone. But it did not remove the fact that the overall payout would be less than the money bet by the humans. One human, or one human corporation, would get most of the money by running the whole operation, and the “investors” would split the rest, or get nothing and somehow be happy enough to give more on the next race.

My parents also used to travel to Reno to gamble. There were not casinos in every state back then. I have been to Reno and Vegas many times for trade shows. I have never even wanted to pull a handle, or push a button. When video poker came to Oregon and Idaho back in the 80’s, I never partook. My decision-making at that point in my life was not particularly sound, yet I managed to stay away from gambling. I had a good friend who played video poker and ended up losing his job and going to jail as a result of his affinity for video poker.

What is the obsession with gambling? Sports betting, lotteries (I have bought lottery tickets for gifts), Super Bowl pools, casinos: I have news for you all. Gambling is rigged. The payout is always less than the intake. That’s how it’s structured. That’s why it exists, for someone to make a profit. It is possible for the gambler to make a profit, but not likely. Yes, you might get lucky, but luck is random. Over time, you are not going to come out ahead.

What is disturbing to me is the embracing of the illogical. Everybody knows the game is rigged, but there is still a chance you’ll win, and you’re so desperate for something good to happen, you’re willing to probably invite more bad to happen. It’s a metaphor for our shortcut/strike it rich/game the system/get away with murder culture. It is risk-taking, yes, but it’s more than that. It’s chance-taking, which is not logical.

Was there an evolutionary advantage to risk-taking in our distant past? Was it strong enough to account for this unfortunate conversion from exploration of one’s environment and dangerous food acquisition to fantasy football? Gambling culture is a scourge. What does it say about you if you like to gamble money? I will leave the other gambling out of it — gambling with your love, with your job, with your life. If you like to gamble money, ask yourself what you value. Do you really value a random reward more than earned desserts?