The recent stories about "marathon mice" got me thinking. During grade
school, I was a terrible runner, coming in nearly last in every race. I
recall (with great embarassment) one race in which even the fat kid beat
me. I was always in the bottom three, out of a class of 25 or so.
Then in sixth or seventh grade, we did a run of somewhere around a third
of a mile. For the first time, I finished in the top third. I
discovered that while I'll never be a champion, I was reasonably good at
long distance runs.
I'm now 54, and do longish runs. They're mostly on trails, so I don't
know the distance, but I prefer to run at least an hour. (A few years
ago, on roads, that would have gotten me a bit over eight miles.) Over
the last ten years, I've been in a few races on paved surfaces, and done
reasonably well--top third of a large marathon, even first or second in
my age group in a few small races.
I have no idea how I would do in a sprint against other men my age. I'm
still reasonably thin--when I look around and see how heavy most people
are, I imagine I would do well, but perhaps that's not a fair comparison!
Anyone else have similar experiences--absolute bottom of the pack at
short distance runs, good at long distances?
Mike Maxwell