A Good Veteran Runner
There is a small running community here in SPring-8, the place where I work, live and run. But somehow I feel that a competitive part is missing, or nearly so. Most times I suspect I am the only sub-40 10k runner around. But sometimes it is nice to discover some rare but extreme exceptions. One such good example was a student from Nagoya with PBs of 29:00 for 10K and 1:05 for the half marathon that I met once jogging at night.
Last Monday I had one more exciting encounter. I was recovering from a week of hard training; 130km from Monday to Saturday, including two sessions of 10 x 1000 in 3:28 with 90sec of walking in between; 38km long run on Saturday with 26k at 4:00 per km pace. On Sunday I was tired and I took a rest. Rest meant 120km cycling with 1500m increase in altitude and a meeting with a bear (yes, a bear! He decided to escape. I don’t think I would be able to tell you what he did, if he didn’t escape).
On Monday, I was still tired and I cycled early in the morning before work and went for a slow jog at night. Just by chance I met a professor from Fukuoka who is here for 3 days of lectures. We enjoyed jogging inside SPring-8 while speaking about running. He started running at the age of 46 and has run more than 50 marathons since, including several sub 2:40 in his 50s. He finished 3rd (age group) at Boston in 2:44 at 55, and 4th last year. He ran 7 hours for 100km at 55. In 2000 at the age of 60, he ran up Mt. Fuji (21k with 3006m increase in altitude), finishing in 4:10—he had to lie and say he was 48 years old, since that’s the age limit. He failed to lie the two following years and could not run it, but he managed to run again last year, finishing in 3:48 at the age of 63. Compare his 3:48 at 63 years of age with my 3:23 at age 28, or with the over 3:30 time by a Japanese marathoner at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Of all the things he said, I most liked hearing: “I hope I can continue running for a long time, not today but in my life”. This says it all. If you are a good runner, congratulations, but what is most important is how much you love it.
(Posted by Alberto De Fanis, August 20, 2003)
