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| The Grandpa Factor |
| Thursday, July 31, 2008 |
| It was the 4th and last race in the New Paltz Cross Country series. I had run well at the first three races and won the 60-69 age group in all three of them. Unfortunately, the last race wasn't going as well. For whatever reason the zip just wasn't in the legs. At a little more than half way through the race I could hear runners gaining on me and was pretty much resigned to being run down in fairly short order. As we started climbing a tough hill there was a father and two young kids along the trail picking blueberries. They watched us run by, then a few seconds later started cheering for the runners behind, "Come on grandpa, you're doing great." Or something like that. What a wake-up call! Here comes grandpa and he's gaining on me. What to do? Luckily Chris Giam was just in front of me. I surged a little at the top of the hill to catch him and enlisted his aid, "Chris, you've got to help me. Grandpa is after me and this grandpa doesn't want to get caught." We worked together over the next 1.8 miles and with Chris's help we were able to keep grandpa at bay. It's great to still have the competitive juices flowing even while being a grandpa. |
posted by Steve @ 10:54 AM  |
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