The parkruns are starting again after the pandemic. I look forward to an outdoors run with so many people. There is much joy in surging forward in the pack. Whatever, the joy is shortlived, as they all ease away. Mere kids drift up to my elbow and then sprint off. I envy their litheness, their mobility, qualities I once possessed which are now a mere memory. However, the parkruns understand this age problem. They put us into 5 year age categories so we can compare ourselves to our peers. Consequently, I scoured the results for our local run over two years. There were 4 men still in my 70 – 74 category. How the hell have 4 men stayed the course? Worse, they all appeared faster than me. However, I might still be the very last man standing.

The categories

My birthday was on the 6th September. I am now 75 years of age. However, nobody appears in the results in the 75 – 79 year age group. Sadly, neither are there any runners in the 80 plus age group. For some reason, few older people seem interested in the parkruns. Perhaps they are just resting! Some call it ultimate leisure. However, all I now have to do is run the 5K. What could possibly go wrong?

The Very Last Man Standing

I never thought I would still be running at this age, not least with my illness. As soon as I think of stopping, a nursing home rears up in my brain. It’s called Athletic Heights. There will be some East German medical staff who really know how to improve athletic performance. It will include the physio who has just one strapline, and blabs, ‘I’ll have you running about in a few weeks. A physio said that to my mother-in-law, who had only one usable leg. However, all my fellow runners will be there, mainly nursing their ego’s. They will ruminate about their ranking in the parkruns and how they dreamed of leading the 70 – 79 age group. They never made but perhaps I will. I won’t mention that I was the only runner. I can ignore everybody, all I have to do is get to the finish!