Clydesdale

I am a Clydesdale Runner. I have always run at a Rudy pace. Never the fastest one. Never won a race, unless it was against my younger sister. Although now, I’m sure she would beat me whatever the distance!

I’m a Clydesdale Runner. I learned it at a very early age. I can remember racing my friends from telephone pole to telephone pole. The fast guys always beat me. The slow guys always beat me. For a few years, I could still outrun my sister. I hated to run!

I became a runner at 36. It was my wife’s idea. She wanted to run the JFK 50-miler. I agreed to train with her. But, I told her I would not do a 50 mile run. It would take me four days to run that far. I am a Clydesdale Runner.

I started out going for a couple jogs. Then I read some running magazines and realized you don’t jog when you are a runner. I went out and bought a GPS watch. Actually it was a gift for my wife, that she didn’t want. It was this big clunky brick strapped to my wrist. But it was much more accurate then driving my car through a route, then running the route with a stopwatch.

I kept running with that Garmin 205. I kept reading articles. I found a good half marathon training regimen. And I started getting serious. After a couple runs and one very important article about race horses, I realized something. I am a Clydesdale Runner.

I was a Clydesdale Runner. I hated it. I rejected it. But no matter how I trained, no matter how hard I tried, I was still a Clydesdale Runner.

I have run a bunch of 5Ks, a couple of 10Ks, a 10 miler, and 5 half marathons. Aside from one 5K, which I ran with a 9.5 minute mile average, I have never run a sub-10 minute mile average. More like 11 or 12 minutes. I am a Clydesdale Runner.

I am a Clydesdale Runner. I have learned to accept it. I have come to embrace it. Although, I am not always in a state of ’embracement’. The problem is, I have a fast runner’s mind and a fast runner’s heart, trapped in a slow runners body. Scratch that, I’m not allowed to say slow runner.

I am a Clydesdale Runner. For many of us when we were younger, we learned it all wrong. We learned faster was better. We learned stronger was better. We learned bigger was better. That’s not entirely true. Endurance plays a role. Attitude plays a role.

There is a fine line between accepting who you are and doing something to better yourself.

I may embrace it today. I may not admit tomorrow.

I am a Clydesdale Runner.