No Harm, No Foul

You never really get too old to be stupid, do you?

At the beginning of September, I decided I had to start running again. In summer 2014, a couple vacations in a row and a sore ankle stopped me. I was actually up to running 2 miles in under 16 minutes. Still two-and-a half minutes off my best Army time, but still, that was several decades ago.

And then I put off running again since I knew after 4 weeks, it would hurt to start again. A year later and I still hadn't started running. To be fair I fully intended in the spring but I had a bout of gout. Yeah, getting old sucks a bit. Friggin' gout. It's like I'm a minor character in Game of Thrones.

Anyway, at the beginning of September I started walking to ease into the whole running thing. I did that for the entire month. No need to have a heart attack in the name of health, eh?

I started running a half mile this month, walking a mile, and then running a half mile. That was fine.

So I geared up by running a half mile, walking a quarter, running a half, walking a quarter, and then running the last half mile. I planned to do that for a week or two, gradually increase my running speed; and then, in a month or so, go to running 2 miles at a slower speed.

So I did that on Monday. And I was maybe 0.3 miles into my first half mile when I very pretty, thin, woman entered the club house to exercise.

Well. Not that I'm deluded that someone that young is in my dating pool, but I immediately decided that I simply could not stop running in her presence short of going 2 miles.

So I did that. And it didn't even hurt that much let alone give me a heart attack.

So I've got that going for me.

Having passed that hurdle, I'll stick with the 2-mile straight run from now on. Gradually increasing speed. Although I no longer seek to match my Army record when I was 27. I'm not quite that stupid, I guess.

A college roommate used to say, "you can only be young once; but you can be immature forever." I think he was on to something.