Keeping The Quest Alive!

"We were the Kings and Queens of Promise,
We were the victims of ourselves
Maybe the children of a lesser God,
Between heaven and hell...."
30 Seconds to Mars
I was reading two things yesterday that were coming from two very polar sides of an issue. Terry's blog and a short article by amby burfoot. Terry's blog (http://trainingterrible.blogspot.com/2012/11/dmitrys-visit.html) was about a visit from his good friend Dima and captured a melancholy note about running things not done while the proverbial iron was hot. Now of course terrible is still two years YOUNGER than the age I was when he met me! Amby's article was about running his 50th Manchester 5 mile road race and his simple (but not always easy to accept) secrets to a lifetime of running (http://www.runnersworld.com/runners-stories/amby-burfoots-simple-secrets-lifetime-running). Now, I am much closer to where amby is then terrible, so I certainly can identify more with him, and feel a little frustrated with my boys mindset. You see, amby was once a hundred mile a week boston marathon winning world class runner. He is 66 and now runs about 25 miles a week. Terrible was once a hundred and twenty mile a week national class runner. Like amby, I can look back with some amazement at what I was able to accomplish during some of my best years, but I accept that that person is gone. The one nice thing about new age groups is that you get to start over. New PR's, new goals, new adventures. Then, a few years later, I'll be damned if a new one doesn't come around again. Like Bill Rodgers, Amby, and I, a day will come where terribles marathon pace PR will be his half marathon pace PR, and then 10K pace PR, and then 5K pace PR, and God forbid, even his mile pace PR. If you can't let go of the person you were and subjugate your ego, you just wont find much joy or satisfaction in training hard again and trying to accomplish something. Without creating some challenges, there just can't be any real satisfaction. If you lose the desire to "quest", than your life becomes so much less satisfying. I am a broken, very limited, struggling old fool at this stage, but I still have the quest in my heart.....