Thursday, October 12, 2017

Getting Old

I heard through the grapevine about a cross-country race this past weekend and as Kenny and I didn't have anything planned, I decided to enter it. I think years back I may have done one once but it was a many years ago and I had forgotten the pace that these college kids start the race at. 

Well some of that could be the lack of fast running I've done in the past couple years. I used to do 5ks and track workouts fairly regularly but have slacked off big time. And some of it could be that I am older than I've ever been, and still getting older. Either way, I found myself at the first mile solidly in 40th or so place out of only 50 runners. Despite the above excuses that I listed, I don't like being in the bottom half of the runners, but I knew some of the kids ahead of me would fatigue, which they did. Over the next couple miles, I passed about 20 guys to finish in 21st place. Definitely not a great showing, but it was a fun race and nice to do a little speed work.

But the real reason I am writing about this otherwise unremarkable race! On 3! separate occasions, as I was passing one of the runners, their coaches yelled out "Don't let the old guy pass you!". Three Times! Geesh! I didn't realize I looked that old. Then I realized I was probably older than the coaches as well as over double the age of some of the runners. 

Definitely a funny experience but not quite as funny as when my friend's daughter asked me where Kenny was by saying: "Where'd your daughter go?" Yep. I looked that old.

Until next time,

Danny