Club nationals was in the area, so one of my old teammates managed to scrap together a reunion, including a two teams for the master’s division plus a bunch who cam just to watch and hang out. I believe we got 15 alumni together spanning the college graduation classes of 1992 - 1999. 10K performances ranged from 34:20 @41 years old (he finished 3th) to ~43:00 @47. Most of us found a bar to hang out at later, and then finished up at a teammate’s house where our 68 year old former college coach paid a visit.
Lessons learned:
-
Its great seeing old friends even though I haven’t thought about them much since college
-
I was so proud of each and every one of them who were able to finish a 10K race, whether it be 13th place or dead last
-
I felt like I was missing out on something not being able to run
-
Even though the race didn’t matter, it was like watching one last shuffling of the pecking order among teammates
-
Steve and I are too broken to run, but were proud of the fact that we can both still bench well over 200lbs, beating the personal best of any other teammate there.
-
As I reminisced on all the goals I fell short on as a runner, my coach reminded me that I had a lot of “good races.” It puts in perspective that a good race is a good race, even if you don’t win, and even if it isn’t some sort of championship.
-
And on that point, despite how proud I was of every runner, I think not one of them was happy with their own performance.
-
I made a comment about how my personality has been described as a 1 or 10 on everything I do, I received the reply, “Yeah, that pretty much describes all of us. Normal people don’t run college cross country.”
-
When Eric would say, “C’mon guys, lets go!” I’d respond, “You’re not the captain anymore. Don’t tell me what to do!”
-
I miss the good 'ol days.
-
There’s a lot of really fast people out there who were way more talented than I.
-
I was sad that one teammate couldn’t be there. Apparently he was in CA watching his daughter finish 11th at nationals (as a freshman)!
-
We ate Lorenzo’s Pizza. Not one person had ever heard of it, but they al commented on how big it was. I had to tell them about the 3rd most famous food out of Philly (referenced in a Will Smith Song)
-
I’m happy with where my life is, but man, right now I really wish I could run.