I started counting when I turned 60. Birth years/running years. As I've mentioned recently, this past year was a difficult, both in life and in running. I won't go into the detail, they are in previous entries if you want to know more.
The reflection here is optimism and concern. I'm optimist for my personal future. Rachel is retiring, running is slowly returning, grandkids are motivation to keep moving. I'm concerned for our country. We have leaders who don't believe in our Constitution, who have brought back the McCarthy years to an excess. I'm not a political writer so I won't go into details, but just remembering the lessons learned about our government in high school and how those in the current administration reject the concept of Equal Branches of Government and Checks and Balances is disturbing and leaves me concerned for the future that my kids and grandkids are facing.
I don't want to leave a depressing note. It's been a good day. 6.7k run on my 67th birthday, many birthday greetings from friends, birthday pie with the grandkids yesterday, dinner with Rachel tonight. Can't get much better.
I'm adding to this about a week after my 67th birthday. I was the starter for a high school invitational today. A meet that started at 10am and ended around 4:30pm. A very long day. But a fun day.
Running is the essence of play when we were kids. We could run seemingly forever without getting tired. It was play, it was chasing, it was getting to our best friend's house to share important information. Running then was necessity, joy, fun.
As I started races today, I saw kids running for multiple reasons. Some were running to win, some to set personal bests (PB), some because their coach told them to run. The personal bests were the most fun. A PB may not win a race, but it validates the work that the runner has done. A PB means you have run faster than you have ever run before. That is an accomplishment to celebrate whether you are a world class athlete or a high school athlete who really did not want to run this race your coach told you to.
We glamorize football, basketball, baseball but in life what sport are we most likely going to participate in as adults? Running. Because it is a healthy activity that we can pursue in our adult lives. I'm thankful I was able to create a running habit at 14 that has continued into my 60th decade. Forming the habit is the hard part. Once it is formed, it is like an addiction. You need it to feel whole. I'm not whole unless I'm running.
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