Hello From Old Man

Hello from the Old Man.

My much-younger daughter Jennifer and my even younger niece Nadene are convinced that I must run a marathon with them in the next 12 months, but I am neither as young (I am 54; they are 30 and 27 respectively) or in as good a shape (they are already running 2-3 miles a day, while I do 2-3 miles a week) as they are. Therefore, the likelihood that I will be as ready as they will be to run 26.2 miles in February (or even 13.1 miles in October) are slim to none. However, to give them someone to humiliate, I will endeavor to prepare and join them.

I am the lucky-to-have-her husband of almost 32 years of Karen, my eternal sweetie, and the proud father of 4 "kids": Jennifer (married to Jeff and parents of Tristen and Sydney); Steven (married to Jazmin and the parents of Matthew and Olivia); Andrew (single and "finding" himself); and Elizabeth (single and the "baby" of the family).

I am an attorney of 24 years, focused primarily on complex litigation.

I ran middle distance in Junior High and High School and won a few races here and there. I even held the 1500 meters high school record for the Province of Alberta, Canada (for 1 week, until better runners bested my time). I ran some in college (mostly steeplechase) until I realized that I had neither the temperment nor the speed to run with the better runners. I trained with Paul Cummings, NCAA mile champion, and, as I continued to eat his dust, decided that I did not like dust enough to keep running competitively.

I took to slower, longer runs and eventually ran -- and finished -- my first marathon in the mountains around Salt Lake City, Utah. I ran 3 more marathons thereafter, with a best time of 2 hours 42 minutes 30 seconds, running 6 minute 13 second miles. I ran my last marathon in 1984, at the age of 30, in St. George, Utah, at a respectable time of 2 hours 54 minutes 15 seconds (6 minute 39 second miles), but beat my legs and body up so much on the downhills that I took many months to recover and never tried a marathon again.

Although over the years I have run as much as 50 miles in a week, but in the past 3 years I jog only occasionally and less than 10 miles a week. It has been 1 1/2 years since I undertook anything over 7 miles, "running" the Dallas Turkey Trot in a scintillating 8 minute pace. The last 5K I ran was at a 9 minute pace and I was gasping at the end.

So, now I undertake to build enough miles to run the 1/2 and full marathons.

Wish me luck or, better yet, pray for me!

Old Man