Day 16 April 9, 2008
This morning I'm not going to cover much new ground. I'm headed to the track again to prove empirically that I'm getting older and slower. I haven't been there in over a week. The workouts are daunting and my self-imposed schedule calls for me to up the effort each month. So I've had track block, as well as a little runner's block after a bit of illness. A close reader will notice that my entries are almost never done on the same day as the run is completed. This is my writer's block, or should I now call it blogger's block?
The track goes as I feared. Only my first lap is fast. Then time, length and gravity, all the fundamental physical values in the universe, start working against me. I can't turn back the clock, lengthen my stride or lighten my step. I do what I can: plod onward.
The early morning streets, which had been bare on my arrival, are now teeming with high school students doing their plodding to homeroom. They look less refreshed than weary me. How can you be young and strong and not smile every morning? They'll learn that lesson too late. I pass through packs of them all around the busy State and Lansdowne intersection. I go left on State then take the first left onto Highland. This is a three block neighborhood tucked into this corner of the huge tract containing Arlington Cemetery. A phalanx of high evergreens at the corner of the cul-de-sac shrouds the graveyard from my view. Lower down all along the boundary between the living and the dead forsythia are having their golden yellow Mardi Gras. The brick rowhome blocks are neatly maintained. Several homeowners walking their dogs greet me genially. I'm used to initiating contact while running. They contrast the sullen students streaming by a block away. When I leave the neighborhood, the student rush has passed. Only a few stragglers make up the cohort's long tail. Just as they passed through this neighborhood every morning, so will they pass through life. My cohort passed this way years ago, oblivious to the wealth we held on our bones. I'd like to run after them and shake them awake. But I'm old and slow, and I never listened when I was their age.
Distance: 2.87 miles Time: 27 min 59 sec Pace: 9:44 min/mile
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