800 Meter Run

For the first time in about 15 years, I laced up the shoes to run 800 meters, (that is 2 laps around an outdoor track). This was my best event in high school and a few weeks ago my 29 year-old brother-in-law gave me an opportunity to see what the creaky old legs could do. His high school runners bet him that he could not run an 800 in under two minutes. Now, he is a bonafide track stud, but even for him this was somewhat of a challenge. So, a friendly gathering of high school track athletes, a few college ones, and a handful of ,well, old people took to the track to see what they could do in 90 degree heat.

In preparation for the event, I spent a few weeks doing some old track workouts. As intimidating as they were, the body and mind soon began to remember how much they loved and missed this torture. The feeling of running four to six 200's, and coming out of the turn with a burst of speed (or at least what felt like a burst of speeed) and heading down the homestretch was like drinking from the fountain of youth.

The gun went off, and trying desperately to keep the ego in check, I immediately found myself in last. That was all part of the strategy though, a strategy that involved not biting off more than I could chew and finishing in respectable elder statesmen fashion, that is last, but no so far back that I obtained the dreaded sympathy clap. The strategy paid off and I finished with a decent time of 2 minutes and 19 seconds, about 20 or 21 seconds slower than my all-time best. Moreover, I didn't finish last, I finished second to last and Eric didn't break 2 minutes (he did run a nasty 2:01 though). I guess father time catches up to us all, but I'm still encouraged. I think down the road, I might see if I can try and test the limits of mind and body and try to run a mile in 5:00 or under.