Today I ran with a couple of older runners and it was a blast. One of the guys (Pat) I've known for years but we've never trained together. As a matter of fact, we both ran the Columbus marathon in 1989 and finished the race almost together. We laugh about it, because we didn't know each other and ended up in each others finish line photo.
Even though it was a slower pace, these guys had their own routine. Every mile marker, Pat would sprint for thirty seconds, his form of fartlek training.
Every hill we encountered, I would charge the hill and wait for them to catch up. This went on for our six mile loop, mixing in more old stories and a lot of laughter.
Most of the stories were of
runners that we each knew and how we always considered the faster
athletes the 'good runners'. We always thought that through attrition, we would one day be the fast runners in our age groups.
It got me to thinking about how many friends and other runners we had known that were no longer running. Just the fact that we were out there moving forward made me smile.
We left each other agreeing that our view of the 'good runners' had changed just a little.
Even though it was a slower pace, these guys had their own routine. Every mile marker, Pat would sprint for thirty seconds, his form of fartlek training.
Every hill we encountered, I would charge the hill and wait for them to catch up. This went on for our six mile loop, mixing in more old stories and a lot of laughter.
Most of the stories were of
runners that we each knew and how we always considered the faster
athletes the 'good runners'. We always thought that through attrition, we would one day be the fast runners in our age groups.
It got me to thinking about how many friends and other runners we had known that were no longer running. Just the fact that we were out there moving forward made me smile.
We left each other agreeing that our view of the 'good runners' had changed just a little.
3 comments:
It's nice to catch up with friends and fellow runners. :)
I am hoping that if I am good at maintaining fitness and speed that one day I will just age into qualifying for the Boston Marathon, LOL!!!
attrition, that's what I'm counting on.
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