Humbled and Inspired... (Read 1308 times)

You're lucky. This old hippy triathlon guy (who now has "bad knees") cornered me the other day in the hallway and made me listen to 30 minutes of him repeating himself about how he once did an Ironman.

I ran the Fargo marathon on a bet which is run south 13 miles, run north 13 miles -- directly into 25-35 mph wind. When we made the turn, I happened to catch a man that was laboring a little. I asked if he wanted draft to me, thinking I needed some company and it would keep me moving (it was strictly a selfish act). At about mile 20 we finally introduced ourselves and we decided to significantly speed up. At mile 25, he just dusted me. He was waiting at the finish line and said "congrats, you BQ'd". I didn't know what that meant, so replied "thanks I guess you did to." He looked at me kind of strange and said "I'm 66, it was never a problem". He finished his 100th marathon in the fall of 2007 and is the ironman age group world champion. http://www.canada.com/reginaleaderpost/news/sports/story.html?id=b47f22be-6293-4306-bfe7-5d9d63307832 Does he look 66 to you? amazing.. He is an absolute gentleman, an unbelievable athlete and an inspiration...

... and by the way take some water from the volunteers to make them feel good even if you don't need it.

That tells me a lot about Paul McMullen's character - True Blue he is.

Greetings! Though I've been lurking on these forums for some time I have not as of yet posted. Today I was driven to do so by nature of the following... I read this thread yesterday evening, and then this morning, after a short run, I was passed by an individual who greeted me with a kiwi accent. After a moment of shock I asked "Nick Willis?" He stopped, turned, introduced himself, and was generally very pleasant. I'm certain I must have come off as lacking in wit, as my coherent thought process was temporarily suspended. I hope I didn't embarrass myself too terribly. Apparently his church was holding a 5k run in the adjacent park; he was warming up to lead a group through some stretches so he said. I'm amazed and quite appreciate that he stopped to chat briefly with a random not-runner-looking person walking slowly by. I'm still a bit out of it

Well, I haven't run with anyone famous, but I'll tell a story that made me respect an older runner (and I'm 54). Last Turkey day, i was running in my 2nd ever 10K. i had lost a little bit of my enndurance due to the clock changes which greatly hamper my running. Anyway, I'm still running a pretty good race, but the hills are kicking my butt. About the two mile mark, a guy comes up along side of me and gives me some words of encouragement. You know the same old stuff, keep it up, good pace etc. A quick look at him and I could tell he had a few years on me. We reached the top of the hill and on the downhill side, I let my long legs go to work and cruise leaving the guy behind. Next hill, as I'm struggling, he catches up to me again offerieng words of encouragement, something like putt my legs into it or something. Again at the top of the hill, I cruise down the backside leaving him behind. Finally we hit a hill that I just couldn't do it anymore and had to break down to a walk. He passed me offering words of encouragemet again, come on you can do it. By the time I reached the top of the hill, he was pretty far ahead. I kicked my legs and went into cruise. We were probably about a mile out. I slowly reeled him in and as we were approaching the last hill, I caught up to him. He was now starting to fade and losing it on the hill. I now offered him the encocuragement and challenged him, told him that there was no way he could let me beat him now. He just told me go on, finish strong. I hit the top of the hill and it was flat for the last 400M to the finish line and I just kicked in gear. I ended up only being about 20 seconds over my previous (first) 10K and was happy. I waitied at the finish line and the old guy finally lumbered in, the last hill and finish had done him in. I shook hands with him and we chatted as we grabbed a water. It was then, that I found out that he was 75 years old. I had just run a sub 38 10K and this 75 year old who pushed me the whole race, was just over 48. How impressive was that. i mean here I am happy that I've done my second 10k and both were sub 38 and here is this 75 year old guy finishing just behind me. But it was more than that, it was something about him, his kindness, his genuine care of a fellow runner/s . his too bad you ran out of gas on that hill, maybe you could have broken 37, it was all about what I had accomplished not at all about him. I will certainly look for this gentleman in the future.

When I ran for my university, I ended up doing a run with a guy that I'd seen at a couple of the workouts and didn't seem to be that much faster than me (ie a scrub). We were discussing goals and he mentioned that he wanted to break 14:30 for 5k. I thought he was a complete nut until he told me his PB was 14:56. This was a few years ago. I don't know if he got that 14:30, but I do know that he ran at the World Cross Country Championships last month.

No stars to run with where I come from - just the little leprechauns!