Week Two

The 75-year-old friend that I was running with Saturday came with me on Monday, when I began Week Two of the Plan.  This week is identical to last week - six miles of hills on Monday, six miles easy on Wednesday and Thursday, and then 10 miles on Saturday.  The only different was that it felt so much easier this week!  It's the magic of training - we condition ourselves to run long and to run fast, and it is an absolute miracle to discover that we get stronger with smart training (i.e., training that pushes us, rest that strengthens us).  Surely this is the miracle that keeps all athletes training, over and over, re-learning the secret of training, that the body responds to hard work (and rest) by getting stronger, not weaker.  As the Plan continues, I will eventually be doing mile repeats and 800-meter repeats, and comparing them week to week.  And it is always so encouraging to find that what seems daunting today will seem relatively easy by the time I stand on the starting line.  I will always remember what Martha told me when we were training together for her first marathon, and we were increasing our long runs each Saturday to18 and 20 miles on alternate weeks.  One week we were supposed to run "only" 10 miles and she said, 'I never thought I would get to the point where I would think that 10 miles is an easy run!"

My 75-year old friend is Jim Askew, and he is a real inspiration.  Last year he led the way for 10 or 11 miles of a half marathon race that we ran together, and I think I only passed him because his longest run was 10 or 11 miles.  This year he is already posting 5-K times that I ran years ago and could not imagine running today.  And Monday, although he took some strategic walking breaks, he ran all the way up both mountains with me.  I will give thanks every day if I am merely walking at the age of 75, let along running like that.  And then there is Charlie Dotson, my 89-year old friend from Lake Junaluska, who is still running strong!  It's no surprise that these old-timers get the loudest applause from the rest of us at the Awards Ceremony.  We are applauding the kind of men and women we would all like to be at that age.

But what a disappointment this week!  My bear was not anywhere to be seen.  Jim and I were prepared to tell him where to go . . .