Running With Champions

Now that I am in my late 60s, I suppose I can admit that I am an "older runner."  The saying I like to use is "The older I get, the faster I was."  We older runners watch our PRs turn into PWs with every race, and marvel at how only a few years ago we used to run so much faster and farther.  I have come to realize with every long run these days that it feels like twice as long as it was; my ten-mile run on Saturday thus felt like twenty miles, that same heaviness and lingering fatigue exactly like the twenty-mile runs I used to complete during marathon training.

Those of us who by the grace of God, good genes, and careful training have managed to avoid serious injury - or even (for most of us) recover from injury - give thanks for small victories, and are grateful for what we still can do.  As Tennyson wrote in Ulysses:

Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'

We are not now that strength which in old days

Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;

So the older I get, the more I appreciate the veteran runners who are even older than I am but are still contenders and champions.  I think of Fred Motz, ten years older than I am and like me training for an upcoming half-marathon, running quarter-mile repeats out there all by himself and logging longer and longer miles.  And especially three members of our club who are also members of the Atlanta Track Club's Master team:  Jim Askew, Morris Williams, and Charlie Patterson.  We don't see Charlie much because he doesn't live in Highlands, but it is always a pleasure to run with him when he is visiting.

Last month, the Club Newsletter that I publish featured Jim and his outstanding performance at the USATF Masters Outdoor Championship in Baton Rouge.   The Atlanta team won the championship, and much of it was because of 81-year-old Jim Askew.  As Morris wrote, "Jim played a major role in helping the team achieve that goal.  There were 109 teams and nearly 900 individuals entered in the meet and the Atlanta Track Club led all teams by scoring 1143 points . . .  That is the biggest margin of victory ever during the 50 year history of the meet.  Jim accumulated 53.5 points while the 24^th place team in the meet scored 51 points.  No other person in the meet scored more points than Jim."

You'd never know how talented Jim was; he is such a modest and self-effacing runner that it is left to Morris and others to write about his victories.

Friday night, our three Masters champions ran the USATF Road Mile in Flynt Michigan and again had outstanding performances.  As Morris reported,  "Jim Askew was again victorious in the 80-84 age division . . . On Friday night, Jim beat his expected time, running 7:47.  Age graded that was 79.64 percent.  Charlie Patterson ran 7:17 and placed 3rd in the 75-79 age division . . . Morris Williams ran 7:08 for 7th place in the 70-74 age division."

I will give thanks every day if I am still running at all in my 70s and 80s, let along running as well as they are.  So what an honor it is when I can run with them, right here in Highlands.

By complete coincidence, I did just that today.  I had arranged to meet Jim early in the morning to give him a copy of the latest print edition of Running Journal with its cover photo of the Atlanta Track Team; you can pick out Jim's trademark hat anywhere!  Only three days after his Road Mile, he was running at a slower pace than usual, and it was good to talk with this modest, congenial man about running and gardening and traveling and anything else on our mind as he completed a one-mile loop with me.  Then, as chance would have it, I came upon Morris on the final mile in my six-mile run; he turned and we ran back to the Park together, chatting and enjoying that special camaraderie that runners have.  

Today I ran with champions.