Talkin bout my generation

Today I had lunch with a very well educated, well spoken dear friend of mine, Alan and embarassingly heard myself blurt out at one point, “Alan, like that is so cool”. Thank God my brain registered what I was saying before I had time to add “dude” at the end of that completely cringe worthy kind of juvenile speak.

I hang around with a lot of young people. They rub off on me. The benefits are endless, they infuse the world, theirs and mine with energy and excitement. Drawbacks are the often overly exaggerated drama over the littlest thing, a state of being arising from not being worn down enough by the world quite yet.

I was telling my kitchen guys at Roxy the other day about marching in Denver’s central park when I was young in protest of the Vietnam war along with my fiery red headed die hard Democrat grandmother. I remember believing, protest aside, I was the epitome of coolness in my pink crochet vest, hippie head band and yellow bell bottoms. Grandma held my hand the whole time lest someone try to snatch me away while she and I took turns carrying a sign that read - WAR! NO MORE!

One of the guys responded with “Really? You were alive then? You’re THAT old?”

Last month the city of Sacramento hosted the Masters Outdoor Track and Field National Championships. The USATF typically requires that masters athletes be at least 40 years old prior to the day of the meet, however this meet included events for those in their thirties as well.

For any young runner looking for a shot of inspiration this would have been the place to be. While checking out all those beautiful “old” bodies, you just might have had your socks blown off by some of the paces these old runners set.

An example of some past records - In 2005 and at 72 years of age, Ginette Berdard ran the marathon course in New York in 3:46:18 and Sacramento’s own Barbara Miller set the women’s marathon record in the 60 plus age group in 1999 with a time of 3:14:50.

Or how about these guys, Ed Whitlock, from Canada who at 75 holds the men’s mile age group record with a time of 5:41:80 or Joseph King from the USA who at 82 years old set the record for the mile in his age group at 7:09:60.

Darn impressive.

I always enjoy when a new runner pours over the results of one of their first races and comes back to me with the surprising discovery that “I can’t believe 8 women in their fifties ran faster times than I did.” I just laugh and remind them, look what you have to look forward to. Great thing about running is you can keep getting faster and faster as long as you continue to work harder and harder.

Which I do not, work very hard that is, because the competitive bone in my body broke down a long time ago. I run now 100% of the time for the pure joy of running. If I race at all, it is only for the thrill of being out there with our team.

However, I am the biggest supporter of the plenty of others in my generation who with such great ability, devotion to the sport and distinguished sense of pride race passionately and often. I have a whole set of lady friends in their forties, fifties and sixties who have all completed so many Ironman events that I cannot even keep track.

And then there is Jim. The minute he starts to talk you know he is from Boston. And what runner can be from Boston and not aspire to go back there again and again to compete in the world’s most famous marathon. So very happy that Jim qualified to do so once again when he ran the San Francisco Marathon in July. And with that all I can say and please forgive me for this but on behalf of myself and Team Lucca - Jim you are like, really like, one super cool dude. Like just so awesome! So super groovy! Word up man! Word up.

Here is Jim’s synopsis of the race:

Terri,

Thanks for the kind words regarding my participation in the San Francisco Marathon. Becky MacBride and Tam convinced me to run SF when I failed to qualify at San Diego in June by less than 4 minutes. I needed a 4 hour finish. The course proved to be every bit as hilly as one could expect for a race that goes across the Golden Gate Bridge, through the Presidio, Golden Gate Park and then back to the Embarcadero. The weather stayed cool (52 degrees) and no wind. At ten mlles my watch died so I ran the rest of the race trying guess my time. At the finish I thought I was too late to qualify but Tam checked the computers and told me a few minutes later I had finished in 3:59:14. Needless to say it was good news for a very tired runner.

The course is very well maintained and has more than enough support. I know because I visited two of the first aid stations in attempt to resolve the blisters I picked up on the very steep downhills.

Becky did very well also, finishing well in front of me. Tam did the half marathon and really enjoyed the first half of the marathon course. I may actually be crazy enough to do it again next year.

Jim