That Ship Has Sailed

With greater frequency I am forced to add another item to the list of physical activities I can no longer do.  Swimming 100 yards under a minute, running a mile under five minutes and dunking a basketball come to mind.  There is an even longer list of things I could do, but choose not to due to modesty, decency or because they are just plain stupid.

One such item came to mind as I was doing a Google search for “the running of the green in Denver”.  Somehow I ended up in a small town in the Basque region of Spain. 

Google feeds my short attention span.  Like chasing rabbits, I start down one train of thought and end up in some chat room and I’ve forgotten what I was looking for to begin with.  I was trying to determine a good place to park downtown; a spot close enough for me to gimp back after the race, but not too close so I could avoid traffic.  Given those parameters, I found the perfect spot on Lawrence and 17^th Street. 

I started typing “running of the’ and Google thoughtfully gave me the option of “Running of the Bulls”.  The most infamous “Running of the Bulls” occurs in Pamplona, Spain and is an annual ritual which involves many cervezas and the risk of death.  Just the things I was into – when I was 22.  Now, as I stand at the threshold and peer into the abyss of my 50s, running a 7 kilometer race in Downtown Denver is about as dangerous an activity as I can handle.  

What took me down that rabbit hole was the recollection that two guys I used to pal around with actually survived The Running of the Bulls in Pamplona.  There is a bit of alright and I remind them of my unqualified awe at that accomplishment.  I can say with certainty that they ran faster with the bulls than I did at today’s Running of the Green.  They had to.  Their lives depended on it.  

For the record, I finished the 7 kilometer course in 26:16 (~6:03 / mile) - 52^nd overall – 6^th in my age group.  It was great to see so many red singlets from my fellow mates on the Runners Roost Race Team in front of me.  The weather was perfect for the 26^th Running of the Green.  While the temperature was 26 degrees when I awoke, by race time it had risen to about 50 degrees.  There was barely a whisper of a wind.  There is something really cool about racing through city streets.