Sarann Mock reports that she is officially "old"

While walking the dogs in the park this morning, I "ran into" my "old" friend, Sarann Mock. In the manner of people who were formerly accustomed to traversing vast distances at sprightly paces, Sarann now always seems a bit apologetic at what she sees as her now "decrepit" condition.

Which you would probably think is ridiculous if you were just meeting her. Trim and fit and full of energy, Sarann looks like she is somewhere in upper 50s. Very healthy upper 50s. Which is pretty good, considering that in a few weeks Sarann will turn...80! Eighty!

Anyway, she says she now considers herself officially "old" and so she is giving herself permission to not do as much or go as fast as she used to be able to do. She is only doing the half-marathon this year at the Flying Pig. She is also planning to run a team relay race in the near future with her daughters and some other fast women (or formerly fast women) but she is worried about slowing the team down.

Sarann has done stuff like run a marathon on all 7 continents, and numerous ultras and long trail races. But every time I see her she seems to be making plans to scale it back. I guess we all have to eventually. But Sarann and I do agree that we need to keep moving forward, however slow, as long as we can.

So, someday I hope I can be old like Sarann.

Unfortunately, I am even now probably already older physically than Sarann! At least, I know that I am in worse shape than she was at my age.

In other news, I may have spoken too soon about those new Nikes. They were okay for a couple of days but when I tried to wear them for a long run on Sunday, I had to change out of them right away because I was getting a pain on the top of my left foot. Haven't had them back on since but will probably try again next week. I think I may have had them tied to tight to try to combat heel slippage on that foot---which is a little smaller than my right foot.

Sunday I am doing the Ault Park Switchback Trail race right here in the park next to my house. We're supposed to have heavy rain later today and all day tomorrow, I think, so the trails are going to be a mess. I am trying to decide which shoes I want to sacrifice to the cause. I am pretty sure whatever pair I wear will end up trashed, so I don't think I want to wear my "good" trail shoes.