Slang's Anti-Singularity
  • Slanghome
  • Slangblog
  • Slangpuzzles
    • CurrentPuzzles
    • ScholarPuzzle
    • PastPuzzles

To Those Who Were My Peers: I Salute You…

1/22/2013

2 Comments

 
… and bid you goodbye.

It's been a great run (pun intended) since Fleet Feet in Carson closed and we forged our own running group. It was great discovering new trails together, training and running in some of the most spectacular scenery around over the last five years or so and thousands of miles.

Unfortunately, I must leave you all behind. I simply can no longer associate with a group that runs  marathon distances as training runs. One that runs 50K as training for 50+ mile races. One that routinely cranks out a sub nine minute/mile pace on 10+ mile trail runs and laughs and chats while doing it. Yes, I must leave you all behind, because  you've left me behind. 

You've all gotten stronger, faster and better. And, for what it's worth, I brag all of you up every chance I get. Unfortunately, I've gotten older. Slower. And injured. I'm unable to keep up, and I am unwilling to ask you to wait. Forcing you to wait twenty minutes in sub freezing temperatures (as I recently did on a six-mile run, since I had the keys) is selfish and wrong. I'll not make that mistake again.

However, I'm not ready to hang up the Inov8s just yet, I just need to be realistic about my ability, and need to align myself with people who are my likely running peers now, not the peers of my past. Any eleven to twelve minute trail mile pace folks out there who want to run in this area, give me a rattle. 

I'll still see y'all in street clothes and occasionally I'm sure I'll meet you at a trailhead. When that happens, you can be sure I'll bust my ass trying to keep up with you. Who knows, maybe y'all will have an off day, and I'll have a good one, and I'll finish a ten mile run only ten or so minutes back. 

I say all this now in the warm afterglow of a truly horrific string of group-run debacles. Who knows, maybe I'll get myself all trained up solo, and come out at some race/run in the future and shock everyone, just like Daniel-san in the Karate Kid. Maybe. But despite the commonness of the feel-good comeback in movies, I find it rarely exists in the real world. We'll see, but I'm not terribly confident of the odds.

So to all my former peer-peeps here is a heartfelt poetic message: 
Here's to trails and here's to you. 
If you keep running, I will too. 
If you stop, I'll catch up,
Can't pass you by, though I might try.

Run and laugh, and sweat and smile,
Always look ahead to that next mile.
Keep up the pace, cross the scree,
Don't look behind, for there I'll be...

STALKING YOUR ASS.
2 Comments
Tammy Salyer link
1/23/2013 08:03:15 am

Don't worry, Slang. I'll be right beside you. Great poem!

Reply
Jeffrey Smith link
1/23/2013 08:12:20 am

woohoo! inov8's!

i'm right there with ya, slang. i think the 30+ mile training runs are a thing of the past for me.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    RSS Feed

    Author

    Just a guy out exploring the world. Former world-class never-was endurance runner.

    ​Hit me up, and we'll catch a beer or coffee in your town.


    Follow @slang4201

    Archives

    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    May 2021
    October 2020
    September 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    July 2019
    October 2018
    September 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    June 2015
    August 2014
    January 2014
    October 2013
    September 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    August 2011
    March 2011
    October 2010
    July 2010
    January 2009
    December 2008
    October 2008

    Categories

    All
    2011
    Alfama
    Alternate Energy
    Android
    Angela Sullivan
    Animals
    Antiques
    Apple
    Ash Canyon
    Astronomy
    AT&T
    Australia 2022
    Bailout
    Battery
    Bicycling
    Biometrics
    Books
    Brisbane
    Cairns
    Canary Islands
    Carrier Iq
    Carson City
    Cascais
    Centennial
    C Hill
    C-Hill
    Christmas
    Climate
    Clothing
    Coding
    Colorado
    Columbus
    Cramps
    Curiosity
    Dad
    Dardanelles Lake
    Dell
    Dick's Lake
    Dilbert
    Diving
    Eagle Lake
    Earworms
    Eating Problems
    Eclipse
    Economy
    Ecuador
    Education
    Eldorado Canyon
    El Valle
    Energy
    Errors
    Espionage
    Europe 2019
    Evi
    Fallon
    Family
    Fontanillis Lake
    Food
    Gamboa
    Garmin
    Geocaching
    Goals
    Google
    Google Earth
    Grouse Lake
    Hiking
    Inov8
    Investing
    Ipad
    Iphone
    Iron Mountain
    Lanzarote
    Legislatures
    Lisbon
    Mac
    Market
    Market Drop
    Mars
    Mctarnahan
    Medicine
    Microsoft Word
    Motivation
    Mountain Biking
    Moving Minutes
    Music
    Nevada Day
    Nfc
    Ohio
    Olympics
    Openoffice
    Opportunity
    Panama 2018
    Panama 2022
    Paper Airplane
    People
    Playa Coronado
    Politics
    Portugal
    Prison Hill
    Privacy
    Puts
    Puzzles
    Quito
    Race
    Rant
    Reno
    Retrospective
    Roosevelt
    Running
    Running Dynamics
    Saddest Cities
    Safe & Sober
    Science
    Scuba
    Shoes
    Shopping
    Sicily
    Sierra
    Sierra Canyon
    Sintra
    Slangsploration
    Snl
    Soccer
    Software
    Spasms
    Spirit
    Sullivan Canyon
    Svn
    Tahoe
    Tahoe Rim Trail
    Taormina
    Taxes
    Technology
    Transit
    Travel
    Trees
    Vba
    Velma Lakes
    Venus
    Verizon
    Violin
    Watches
    Weather
    Wolframalpha
    Words
    Wrestling
    Writing
    Xkcd
    Yawbe
    Yoga

This is ALL MINE, I tell you! copyright 2010-2022