THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2016

In 7th grade, Billy ran the mile in 6:52. He was one of our group who had hung together since grade school. The rest of us were amazed at his time, thinking it "otherwordly."

In one of the tests put forth by the President's Council on Youth Fitness, we all had to run the mile in gym class. None of us came close to Billy's sub-7 minute pace.

I vowed that some day I would run as fast as Billy. After all, I had learned earlier as a small kid that rather than fighting, my better option was usually flight. I already had indications that I was a runner.

INSPIRING STORIES

My Dad was a straightforward man. He was not the type who would sneak up on you or undertake a long-term plan of action to influence you.

Yet, in retrospect, that's just what he did to me with running and golf. He had been a cross country runner in school and was a youth golf champion at the country club. That's why I found a golf club in my hand when I was very young and heard fascinating stories of great golfers and runners, the runners including Paavo Nurmi, Emil Zatopek, Jesse Owens, Jim Thorpe and Roger Bannister. Seeds were being sown for pursuits that grew as I entered my high school years.

I caddied at the local golf club, saw greats such as Arnold Palmer and Sam Snead compete, absorbed Jack Nicholas's technique and played as much golf with my buddies as I could afford. But, alas, I was not Tiger Woods. My hand-eye coordination, as shown in other sports such as baseball, was not all that great. I was an average golfer and likely would never be a low handicapper.

My running career began with cross country my freshman year. I finished last in my first race, but over time my speed and results improved. I was not a star, but I was hooked on being a runner and made cross country my sport (along with some golf and pick-up ice hockey, another sport I was not particularLy good at but enjoyed).

OTHER PURSUITS

In college, I ran less and was not part of any program or group. While still a runner, I took up tennis and managed to develop a decent game despite my hand-eye limitations. After college, in my 20s, while still playing tennis on a weekly basis, I ran infrequently. To call me a runner at that time was a stretch.

With my children taking up soccer, I became a coach and got in some running on the soccer field. Then my daughter discovered short-track speed skating and I took that up to be on the ice with her. We both competed for nearly a decade, she as a potential Olympian and me as a much slower masters skater. But while chaperoning at the U.S. Olympic Speed Skating Camp I gained the same advantage as she did from coaching by Olympic gold medalists and a healthy dose of cutting edge information on training, physiology, the mental aspects of competition and more.

I found that I loved the "speed" part of short track speed skating, dubbed "the fastest you can go without mechanical assistance."

THE ROAD BACK

As part of speed skating "dry land" training, we ran, biked and swam. This was my road back to competitive running.

After my daughter stopped competing as a speed skater, I did as well - but I now was a runner again and had added biking and swimming. I started running 5Ks, then 10Ks and then marathons, as well as competing in duathlons and sprint, Olympic distance and Ironman triathlons.

I have been a dedicated runner ever since. And, while my recent devotion to triathlon has of some necessity ebbed, I still am a swimmer and biker.

HOOKED ON SPEED

Thanks to my friend Rich, soon after my speed skating career ended I started running track workouts and being coached by three-time Olympic track competitor Jim Spivey. Suddenly my speed and finishing times became a focus and I started getting faster. I began to place in and even win my age group in races.

For me, speed became a drug I wanted more of. Track sessions offered a highly controlled environment for measuring improvement and achieving breakthroughs. This translated to running races and triathlons. 25 minute 5Ks became near 20 minute races. 4 hour marathons became sub 3:30 races. 16 hour Ironmans became 12 hour and faster races.

I was hooked on speed, not just on foot but also on my bike and in the water. I loved every minute of seeing how fast I could be at a given distance and in a given event.

A RELATIVE THING

My running, biking and swimming personal best times are behind me, after years of improvement and an extended plateau. Yet, I am still jacked by going as fast as I can for the event and distance.

While I can no longer make an assault on my past records, the lure of speed remains. I can shorten up the the time frame and do better than I did last year or last month or last week. And when racing I can use age group results to measure my speed relative to others my age.

A DANGEROUS DRUG

Advice to others who may have a speed addiction: Speed may be harmful to your body.

A great take-away from Jim Spivey's coaching is that "over running" the repeat, set, workout or race is asking for injury. Too often we get so wrapped up in going hard and fast, rather than doing the appropriate training and taking the necessary time to recover, to prepare us to less frequently test our speed limits.

For most of us wanna-be speedsters, this is a hard learned and often neglected lesson. I am a prime example. The road and track runners I run with and coach hear continually from me that they should slow down and run under control.

Yet, at this moment I am recovering from piriformis syndrome, a muscle injury in my buttox that I initially sustained a month ago on the track by pushing too hard on the third turn in a timed 400 meter segment. I wanted to go as fast as I could to see what time I could achieve! I felt a hard twinge and halted the workout, hoping that nothing serious had occurred.

Well, I subsequently backed off my road and track running because the pain returned each time I ran. I did complete the Baltimore Marathon, but only ran the first six miles at a good pace; thereafter, my painful piriformis led to more walking than running and my slowest marathon time ever.

BEATING BILLY

I expect that as in the past my piriformis will heal and I can resume my pursuit of speed - so long as I exercise the common sense that I have been known to ignore. And even if my running come-back is bumpy, I can still get in the pool and on my bike to get my dose of speed.

In any case, I have the satisfaction of knowing that over one stretch in my running career my mile times were faster than the time Billy ran in 7th grade. In fact, I first bested Billy's time in a track workout on August 16, 2000, four decades later!

Pulled from my running logs, here's my progression in reaching and going under Billy's time standard, starting from the first time I recorded a sub-7 minute time:

8/9/1992 6:54.50

10/13/1998 6:53.26

6/17/1999 6:52.96

8/16/2000 6:50.18

10/14/2000 6:47.36

5/24/2001 6:46.95

9/6/2001 6:34.61

11/17/2001 6:29.35

4/7/2002 6:20.17

7/20/2002 6:11.65