World War 11, Trail Running and Competition

"You desire to know the art of living, my friend? It is contained in one phrase: make use of suffering."
– Henri Frédéric Amiel

Last Thursday, Jeff Windeshausen was our guest on our TV show It Has Nothing to Do with Age or Gender. I first met Jeff and Tony at the Mustang classic in 1997. Jeff and Tony were ride and tie partners and I was competing in a limited distance endurance ride. As it turned out, I was camped next to them and got introduced to the sport of ride and tie.

Jeff was born in Belgium and told us about growing up during the war years. In fact, on one side of the street where the German soldiers and on the other side of the street where the American soldiers. His story was timely, because the very next day, June 6, was the D-Day anniversary. You can catch our show: http://yo

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 On June 8, Tony and I have entered a 50 K trail run at Big Basin in the Santa Cruz Mountains. During this run, I switched and ran the marathon instead. This leads to an article found in the Wall Street Journal, dated December 10-11, 2011. There was a study of 543 men and women ages 25 to 75, who took a test that involved a series of arithmetic problems and being rewarded either $.25 per correct answer or getting $.50 per answer if they beat the score of a randomly chosen fellow participant-but nothing if they lost. The authors of the study were measuring, competitiveness across the lifespan. With this sample, the researchers found that men (over half), compared to women (over a third) chose the competitive track. It also found that both sexes increased will to compete up to age 50, and then it started to decline.

How do the competitive findings of this particular study apply to you? Of course, this particular study had to do with a cognitive-arithmetic skill.

As far as running (physical skill) a 50 K, I realize that my goal is to complete the event. It seems that there are less and less participants in my age group. I feel good when I come in first in my age group, but that is not my goal.

I ran my first ultra-marathon at the age of 59. From the beginning, my goal was to complete these events as it is today. Additional goals regarding running these events include health reasons, running with Tony and knowing that I can. As long as I am relatively injury free, I’ll continue.

In the meantime, keep running, smiling, laughing, loving, bonding and appreciating.