From Around the Park; The Newsletter of the Prospect Park Track Club

July 2008

I know that last month I ended my column with a cliff-hanger, I planned on writing about my participation in the 1980 NYC Marathon. I am not going to do that this month. I will save that for August.

I would like to continue writing about my high school running experience. I do not think I made it clear last month that in 12 seasons of running, that is 4 years of cross-country, 4 years of indoor track (at the Washington Heights Armory, before they fixed it up) and 4 years of outdoor track, there is one thing I never did; I never medaled, I never scored a point. I never contributed to a victory of the Sheepshead Bay High School Track Team. (I don’t think we had any). I did not care, I did my best and that is all that mattered to my teammates and me.

I never expected that to change when I resumed running as an adult. I enjoyed running, racing and the friendship of my teammates.

But it did change; there was a new way for me to contribute to victory. It was 1997 or 1998; the New York Road Runners gave a cash award to a running club if they had 50 members finish the Marathon under 5 hours. That year we had exactly 50 runners finish under 5 hours, and I was one of them. I did not make a big deal of this, but it really blew my mind. The fact that I contributed to the success of my team made a big impact on me. I did not think it would be a big deal, to me but was.

I have come home from many races with medals. All of them were for finishing or just showing up if you finish the Marathon you get a medal, if you finish an ultra you get a trophy. Sometimes at the Speed Series everybody gets a medal

But, tonight was another big deal. It is July 2 and I just got home from running the Al Goldstein Summer Speed Series. I have been really excited because I just moved into a new age category. In May I was 44, now I am 45. Back in May I realized my time as a 44 year old was at the slow end of the list. But, if I made it to my birthday, and into the next age category, I would come home with some hardware. Well I did. Al gave out medals to the top 3 finishers in my age group and I came in 3^rd. The big deal is that there was a 4^th, I actually beat somebody and earned a medal. Sweet!

Thanks to http://brooklynruns.blogspot.com/ I just realized the the Speed Series results were posted from the 5K on July 5. I just found out the runner just behind me was in my age group. Also if I were still 44 I would have finished 8th out of 8.

It is good age, I can't wait to be 50!