Do you remember a time when you felt like you were becoming obsolete?
This is it…the moment I stopped being the coach…mentor…, and became antiquated. It was the end of a half marathon – the second one we ran together. John was only 14yrs old but showing promise as a long distance runner. Until this moment I was the one who was always slowing down so that John didn’t fall too far behind. My race time was always longer than I wanted, but running with John was more important than any PR. Today was different. Mile 10.5 of a 13.1 mile race, I was fading. My left knee was screaming. I had to stop and walk. John kept running then noticed I wasn’t with him and turned back. I yelled for him to “keep going! You have to accomplish your goal of completing this in under 2hrs!” He turned and finished the race in 1:52! It was the first time he was finishing a race of this magnitude by himself. I wondered what was going through his mind…
That was the last time we ran together. Now he runs a mile in about 5 minutes at age 16. I was never that fast. It seems like just last month I was introducing him to this sport. His very first race was at age 2. We only had a 1/2 block to “run”. When the gun went off, John froze and started to cry. I quickly picked him up and we ran “together”. Now my wife and I watch as John runs his races in Cross Country and Track. In a blink of an eye, everything has changed. I knew this would happen, I just was not prepared for it. It’s all good though and it’s been fun to see how he went from stopping and looking at flowers and bugs on runs to being a focused, determined runner with other goals in mind!
This is an adventure after all. The torch has been passed and now John has his own running “career”. I am back by myself, running alone. It can be quite enjoyable, until I think back to when I had a partner…
The adventure continues…