Oskar Blues Race to the Taps

The Post Covid Fatigue I wrote about in my last post has begun, I think, to diminish.  My running is still languishing, but I have been able to get some work done in the yard.  In fact, I even mixed up some mortar by hand this week and worked on the stone patio at our new entrance, although a day of running and a day of physical work means a third day of needed rest.

We had signed up for the Oskar Blues Race to the Taps in Brevard long ago, so I decided on Monday that I would see if I could run 3.l miles non-stop at a fairly good pace (although these days I don’t know what that means anymore).  Martha kept telling me, “You don’t have to run this race if you don’t want to,” which I appreciated.  But I had managed last week to run two miles non-stop without ill effect, so I was optimistic and ready to test myself.  I was encouraged to finish the time trial, albeit on familiar roads, in 42:41, a little faster than my time way back in June at the Braveheart in Franklin.  So now there would be no turning back!  As Hamlet says:

If it be now, 'tis not to come;
if it be not to come, it will be now;
if it be not now, yet it will come.
The readiness is all.

It was a perfect morning for a race, cool and crisp in Highlands, warming up to the low 60s in Brevard.  I could not have asked for better conditions for my first Post Covid Race.  The course was mostly on the Greenway that begins and ends at Oskar Blues Brewery, but the middle mile was on roads in a quiet subdivision that we had driven a couple of weeks ago and knew it contained some steep hills.  Martha and I both walked a few steps on the steepest of these, in fact, but we both picked up the pace in the last mile and it was our fastest mile.  And it was good to be racing again, joking with fellow runners and spectators.  No matter how slow my finish times become, competing in races is an experience I hope I can continue to enjoy as long as possible!

Martha ran a great race in 30:26, finishing second out of five runners over 65.  I finished in 41:22, faster than my time trial on Monday, and therefore better than I had anticipated despite those formidable hills. 

After the race, we drove to Asheville and had dinner at Nine Mile, a Caribbean-inspired restaurant which we had visited only once before (Nine Mile is the town in Jamaica where Bob Marley was born), and it was absolutely delicious.  After dinner, we drove the half-mile to the Montford Park Players outdoor amphitheater and watched a performance of Hamlet, a play which I have seen and read countless times but which is always different with each showing because of Shakespeare’s unparalleled genius and because it is a play, a living, breathing work of art that relies on players and directors and audience to come to life.  It was an ambitious performance for this small company of players, now in their 50th season, but they played it well, with especially strong performances of Hamlet, the Ghost, Polonius, and Laertes. 

Our next race is scheduled for two weeks from now, and I hope I can continue to improve with every race this fall.  Martha, meanwhile, has gotten herself to a place where she is in top condition.  I well remember what it is like to be improving with every race!  Still, we do what we can, no matter how slow or how fast.  And we give thanks after every race for health and fitness and the joyful challenges of competition - of proving once again that we can be ready!