When I Get Older

Rumors abound that another member of our Sal's Running Group is soon to be a milestone age. It's an age that doesn't seem remotely possible for this person to be (60). He/she will be moving into a new age group, which isn't necessarily a good thing since there are some fast runners in this group. Usually you can count on one or two good years in a new five year age group as far as the possibility of being in the top 10% or higher of finishers. That may not be the case this time.

Damn those old guys who still run fast! This song is for age 64, but close enough. It's a good version of the Beatles original.

When I was younger people would clap for the old people who were marvels just because they still ran at the age of 50, 60 or, my god, even 70? Now everyone in our group is in those age groups. What happened? I became a "runner" (someone who ran for running's sake, not to get in shape for another sport) at the age of 22 (1979) sort of. I would run a couple of miles, stop for a couple of weeks and try again. Two miles seemed insanely long for a former football/tennis player. But I needed to get outdoors, had a wife and infant daughter and no money and didn't know what else to do. Then I saw an ad for an 8 mile race sponsored by Kodak. It was the spring of 1981. I went out for the horribly long distance of four miles as a practice run and Jan followed me around in the car. I barely finished the run. A few weeks later I did the race and finished around 62 minutes, felt like a slug and wondered why I ever entered.

I haven't stopped running since. Now my 5k times are what I would have felt bad about running in the last 3 miles of a marathon. I routinely do the first two miles of a training run around the time I would race 3.1 miles "back in the day". I've done snowshoe 5k's faster than what I now race a road 5k. It is an internal conflict to realize that and still keep racing.

I think it's the hair. Once that started going my times got slower. At least I'm healthy enough to keep running, most of the time. Staying upright and not falling should help that continue.

To misquote Aragon (Lord of the Rings); "A day may come when you can no longer run, when Sal's  Running Group is no longer a group. But it is not this day. This day we run! By all that you hold dear on this good Earth, I bid you run! Men and women of Sal's!

This is the original quote; "A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship. But it is not this day. An hour of wolves and shattered shields when the age of Men comes crashing down! But it is not this day! This day we fight! By all that you hold dear on this good Earth, I bid you stand! Men of the West!"

I think Aragon was speaking of us, though.