Stories
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Struggling with the United Nations
The Culture of Peace News Network continued
Beginning in 2009, after splitting from Lindsay, I started road racing again, and as of 6 years later I had collected scores of trophies shown below in races of 5 kilometers or 5 miles. As a general rule, no one older than me was ahead of me. An exception was Fairfield in June 2015 when Mike Goldman from New York and John Howell from Seymour were ahead of me, but I ran well and there was only 15 seconds separating the three of us. On the other hand in other Connecticut races there were a few terrific runners just a bit younger than me: Bill Borla from Torrington, John Courtemanche from Hamden and Ed O'Connell from Branford.
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Of course, this new burst of activity was another way of facing death. Years ago, I used to say to my running buddies like Bob Harford that we were running because death was one step behind us. And, in fact, for Bob, who died at the age of 40, it was true! I would always get faster and faster as the season progressed, with my fastest times in November and December. However, year by year I could watch them gradually get slower: 8:29 minutes/mile in 2009; 8:36 (2010); 8:57 (2011); 8:44 (2012; 9:00 (2013; 9:11 (2014); 9:16 (2015); 9:51 (2016); 11:03 (2017 after surgery); 11:50 (2018): 12:30 (2019). |
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I would lay off during the winter and have to recondition myself each spring. Also I didn't run in July and August when the asphalt was too hot. Instead of running every day, as I had done when younger, now I limited my training to once every other day.
Each time after a race, I would send my text messages, and sometimes photos of the trophy to Margarita and Kiki.
When in France, I would run a favorite road near Grandcourt, often with Kiki biking, and sometimes Armand as well.
For running details from 2014 on, see running2014-on.
At the end of 2015, a fellow runner and excellent reporter for the New Haven Register, Randall Beach did a very nice article about me, headlining a photo of my feet.
Here is the photo that I hang in my bathroom: Haile Gebreselassie yielding his running domination to countryman Kenenisa Bekele at the Athens olympics of 2004
Before moving to France I continued to train with my fellow Bikila runner, Larry Inge, who had not lost any of the spring in his legs at age 69, but who didn't want to compete any more. And I was one of the older runners featured in the book of fellow runner John Silver, "The Ageless Runner."
My last races were at the age of 80. If the results of the New Haven Road Race can be used as the test, I was the third ranked runner of this age group in Connecticut. After that my back and hips could not tolerate running any more.
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Stages
1986-1992
Fall of Soviet Empire
1992-1997
UNESCO Culture of Peace Programme