The problem with discovering that you love obstacle course racing (OCR) in your fifties are numerous. Everyone you know
either thinks that you've lost your mind or that you're going thru a midlife
crisis AND lost your mind (or is that redundant!). You can read about how
this happened to me in my post from last June about the
2012 Spartan Sprint in Tuxedo NY.
The greatest thing about running my first race in 2011 at Tuxedo was that I
found out I could do this! If I had known how hard it really was, I
would never have even tried. It opened up a whole new world of challenge and that
door never closed. Hence the fact that, just like in The Matrix,
The
Truth Is...There Is No Box! Our limitations are almost always self
inflicted. We are all capable of having life changing events. This
race was mine.
Of course, despite this new found dimension of
reality, there are some actual restrictions that I have to accept. First
of all, I will never be a competitive racer outside of my age group...possibly
not even there (although that is not likely to be an acceptable outcome in the
long run...one of the things I learned about myself in real estate is how
competitive I really am). I'm 55 and more importantly, I don't have the
interest or drive to put in the hours of work these racers do in order to be
the best. Another potential tripping point is that I can't run. I
mean I can run, just not for very long! Part of it is childhood asthma,
part from smoking for a while years ago and part of it because it just
absolutely bores me to death to train for running! And I do not mean to
offend any runners...really!! I read about how cool they think it is and
how they get into these zones...but I have yet to find those. All I can
think about is that I can't fucking breathe! They talk about a
"conversational pace". To me, a conversational pace is when you
still have enough air left to call for help as you lay gasping on the
ground. However, running...and particularly running up hills...is crucial
to any sort of decent performance on most of the courses, so I knew I had to do
some serious work here.
What I want to do in all of this, and I guess in
every aspect of my life, is get better. I'm sure it's the engineer in
me,
but I can never just leave something be. Eventually...and more likely
sooner than later...I have to improve it. Improve it in my eyes
anyway. So the next post will be about training, my 2013 racing goals and
hopefully about the Spartan Race demonstration in Times Square this week.
(I tell people I was invited to it...but really it's more like they lifted the
restraining order so I can be there and maybe help out...they really are nice
people when you agree to stop stalking them!) Until next time...
Of course, despite this new found dimension of
reality, there are some actual restrictions that I have to accept. First
of all, I will never be a competitive racer outside of my age group...possibly
not even there (although that is not likely to be an acceptable outcome in the
long run...one of the things I learned about myself in real estate is how
competitive I really am). I'm 55 and more importantly, I don't have the
interest or drive to put in the hours of work these racers do in order to be
the best. Another potential tripping point is that I can't run. I
mean I can run, just not for very long! Part of it is childhood asthma,
part from smoking for a while years ago and part of it because it just
absolutely bores me to death to train for running! And I do not mean to
offend any runners...really!! I read about how cool they think it is and
how they get into these zones...but I have yet to find those. All I can
think about is that I can't fucking breathe! They talk about a
"conversational pace". To me, a conversational pace is when you
still have enough air left to call for help as you lay gasping on the
ground. However, running...and particularly running up hills...is crucial
to any sort of decent performance on most of the courses, so I knew I had to do
some serious work here.
