I am still running regardless of physical inability
Since shifting to Southland in 2002, Lance Smith has coached some of this province’s most accomplished athletes, including former national mountain running champion Jack Beaumont, former Commonwealth Youth Games triple jump silver medalist Greer Alsop, former national U20 triple jump champion Atipa Mabonga, two-time New Zealand secondary schools 1500m gold medalist Jordan Rackham and 2019 World University Games distance runner Hannah Miller – all of whom went on to study in America.
Roger Robinson wrote an article describing a recent 3000m race he ran at age 82.
He was dead last, was lapped many times by everyone in the field yet it considered one of his most successful races in 70 years of competing.
Why?
Because at 82 he was still doing a sport he has loved since he as a schoolboy.
And while he didn’t compare himself to the others in the field he could compare himself to others his own age. Which he did by breaking the Wellington 3000m record for 80-84 set 10 years ago.
(For those who don’t know of Roger, he has represented both England and New Zealand at world championships and has a 3000m PB of a little over 8 mins, about half of his record breaking time as an 82 year old).
Lance Smith, left, was Athletics New Zealand’s inaugural winner of the Arthur Eustace Award for Coaching
Reading Roger’s account got me thinking. One of his telling observations is that runners who retire at their peak can only look back, those who keep running can look forward. Even at 82.
So while Roger is still running regardless of age, I am still running regardless of physical inability. To explain, I have a neural disease that means my legs can’t run. But my brain can. I can plot race strategies, devise training sessions, plan races, but it is someone else who carries them out.
I can’t run. But I can watch others run, others who I help in their training and race strategies by being a coach. It’s not the same as being there doing it, but it’s the next best thing because I am running with them. I’m running.
O.K, they don’t always do the right thing. But then neither did I when I ran.
This might sound a bit like parents living success through their children. In a way it is. A good way I hope. Because it keeps me running, even when I can’t.
