Someone Is Always Faster – An Older Wiser Runner Knows This

It’s not like I’ve been running around with the illusion that I’m a fast runner, or faster than most, or even faster than many… Maybe faster than some. However, at my best I’m a middle of the pack runner.

During my run today I was reminded of this fact. It was about four  in the afternoon, sunny and in the low sixties. Perfect day for a run.  I was about two or so miles into it, feeling pretty good, I had just started to settle into my run.  Just then, some young guy blew past me, probably running a good minute faster.  To be fair, my day started off at 6am when my youngest got up.  And consisted of laundry, lots of playing with the kids, and cutting the grass. I’m not saying I would of kept up with this guy if I was just starting off my day.  I’m just saying my day had been pretty full and his had mostly likely just started.  Or, I’m just trying to save my ego…

Nevertheless, I stayed on pace and kept myself in my run.  However, it wasn’t so long ago that I would have tried to keep up, or at least would speed up so it wouldn’t look so easy to blow past me.  Just another futile effort to save my ego.   But, if I had, it would have been  to the detriment of my run.

You see,  I was on a six mile run. Which is not a terribly long distance, but for me lately that is a long run.  I’m trying to get my training back on track, it’s been off for probably more than a year now.  The point is, no matter if you’re on a training run or in a race you need to run your run and run your race. If you let somebody else dictate your run and get you off your game, you may not get from your run what you set out to….

Can’t talk about being wise without Yoda!