This Running Life
There are people I've worked with. There are people I know from the race tracks. I spend a couple of hours on Sunday Morning with a church family although my Mom wondered sometimes if it was a church or a family.
And then there are the guys that got up really early on Saturday mornings to run at Parrot Jungle for over 10 years. We started by 7:00 AM and were sitting at a picnic table by 8:30 AM. Ice cold silver bullets were the favorite fluid replacement vehicle.
I'm glad we hardly ever raced on these jogs/runs. Although we all started our watches and clicked them off when we were done the runs were filled with conversation. If we ran too fast it was hard to talk. Maybe the last hundred yards some one would pick up the pace, or if you were out late on Friday night you might drop back and sweat it out knowing that you would get ripped for being lazy or having some other character flaw. Running six to nine miles on Saturdays took an hour to an hour and a half and the treat was cold beer which we almost always took turns buying and sharing.
About Labor Day there were 10 K races somewhere almost every weekend. Back then you could run and get a tee shirt for about $10. Road trips were fun. You might have to stand in line for the beer or ice cream after the race but you ran a little faster, the scenery was different and being part of a larger group event made training sort of rational and gave you a reason to take Fridays off so you could save all your energy for Saturday.
Daryl, Don, Freeman, and Mo and I have run the Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta and we have all run the Orange Bowl Marathon at least once. We ran across the Seven Mile Bridge in the Keys and finished the Tour of Coral Springs, the Jungle Jog at the Zoo and a Turkey Trot where the guy leading the race made a wrong turn and his mistake was memorialized on the t-shirt the next year.
We have all graduated to other activities like walking dogs, riding bicycles, and I walk a lot delivering papers a couple of days a week. Monthly we get together for lunch. Thankfully the real estate market has recovered enough so that topic is in the rear mirror. The guys are looking forward to the races at Hialeah and I pretty much have an open invitation to visit them in the mountains in TN, GA.
Gary Sosniecki from high school is participating in a 10k with his wife this week in Iowa. I hope he has a good time, double ties his shoelaces and the weather cooperates.
And then there are the guys that got up really early on Saturday mornings to run at Parrot Jungle for over 10 years. We started by 7:00 AM and were sitting at a picnic table by 8:30 AM. Ice cold silver bullets were the favorite fluid replacement vehicle.
I'm glad we hardly ever raced on these jogs/runs. Although we all started our watches and clicked them off when we were done the runs were filled with conversation. If we ran too fast it was hard to talk. Maybe the last hundred yards some one would pick up the pace, or if you were out late on Friday night you might drop back and sweat it out knowing that you would get ripped for being lazy or having some other character flaw. Running six to nine miles on Saturdays took an hour to an hour and a half and the treat was cold beer which we almost always took turns buying and sharing.
About Labor Day there were 10 K races somewhere almost every weekend. Back then you could run and get a tee shirt for about $10. Road trips were fun. You might have to stand in line for the beer or ice cream after the race but you ran a little faster, the scenery was different and being part of a larger group event made training sort of rational and gave you a reason to take Fridays off so you could save all your energy for Saturday.
Daryl, Don, Freeman, and Mo and I have run the Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta and we have all run the Orange Bowl Marathon at least once. We ran across the Seven Mile Bridge in the Keys and finished the Tour of Coral Springs, the Jungle Jog at the Zoo and a Turkey Trot where the guy leading the race made a wrong turn and his mistake was memorialized on the t-shirt the next year.
We have all graduated to other activities like walking dogs, riding bicycles, and I walk a lot delivering papers a couple of days a week. Monthly we get together for lunch. Thankfully the real estate market has recovered enough so that topic is in the rear mirror. The guys are looking forward to the races at Hialeah and I pretty much have an open invitation to visit them in the mountains in TN, GA.
Gary Sosniecki from high school is participating in a 10k with his wife this week in Iowa. I hope he has a good time, double ties his shoelaces and the weather cooperates.
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