I'm Too Old

I love to hear that phrase - hate it actually but it always brings a knowing and rather dismissive smile to my face.

Now without wanting to disparage my Dad, it's the sort of thing that he is likely to say and probably has often said. Mind you, at the age of 76 he can be forgiven for invoking that clause in his life contract.

In fact we all know people that have said it about one thing or another, many of us have said it ourselves - I'm talking about YOU by the way not me, I HAVE NEVER UTTERED THOSE WORDS and hope that I never shall, other than in jest perhaps. I may be too old to achieve something but I will never be too old to at least trying it - good old Dunkirk Spirit.

Which brings me nicely back to my 76 year old father. As you will know if you read this blog with any regularity, he took up running at the ripe old age of 74 and has competed in and completed several 10k races and goodness knows how many 10k training runs - indeed I had the great pleasure of running a couple with him on my recent visit to the UK.

10k is his limit though, or one would think so at his age, so you can imagine my surprise, elation and immense pride when Mum informed me that he'd just knocked out his first 15k run. Well done Dad.

It wasn't planned, he was doing his usual 10k Chasewater run but decided to bang in another 5k loop of the lake. AWESOME!

Epilogue: When I did Ironman Hawaii (a lottery entrant I hasten to add), I was beaten by three 75 year olds! This normally stimulates a chuckle from most people which annoys me somewhat - when I tell this story my intent is to demonstrate how awesome they were rather than how crap I was. And that my friends is the point of this diatribe - don't ever underestimate the aged nor underestimate your yourself. I prefer to hear "I don't want to" rather than "I can't" - in that, there's at least a degree of honesty.

"If you think you can, you can - if you think you can't, you're right!"