Coming of Age
I now feel that I am beginning to come of age as athlete. No, maybe I am not in the same sense that some professional athletes do. More in the sense that I am starting to realize the passage of time on my body.
When I was my twenties, I relished the challenges of competition. As I matured into my thirties, I chased ghost of PRs passed.
Now, that I have reached my forties the seconds are starting to turn into minutes, the minutes into hours, the hours into days, the days into weeks, the weeks into months, and the months into years. As the old saying goes “Time waits on man”.
I think the age of maturity comes when your drive to excel depletes your desire to do so. On that day competition is no longer important. From that point forward, you simply choose to do something different.
I often wonder if the reason older runners stopped racing was because they could no longer compete at a level they expected of themselves. But as I start to cross that threshold, I think I am starting to understand. They didn’t stop racing because they can no longer do so. No, they realize that they have reached their pentacle of success and I suspect many moved on to other challenges in life.
Is this wrong? No, I don’t think so. Challenges in life are what make us get up in the morning and motivate us throughout our day. And the act of taking on new and different challenges bring a freshness and newness to life that we all need.
When I am going to taking on these new challenges, I am not really sure. Yes, I have started across that threshold. But, no, I have not lost my drive as yet.
When I was my twenties, I relished the challenges of competition. As I matured into my thirties, I chased ghost of PRs passed.
Now, that I have reached my forties the seconds are starting to turn into minutes, the minutes into hours, the hours into days, the days into weeks, the weeks into months, and the months into years. As the old saying goes “Time waits on man”.
I think the age of maturity comes when your drive to excel depletes your desire to do so. On that day competition is no longer important. From that point forward, you simply choose to do something different.
I often wonder if the reason older runners stopped racing was because they could no longer compete at a level they expected of themselves. But as I start to cross that threshold, I think I am starting to understand. They didn’t stop racing because they can no longer do so. No, they realize that they have reached their pentacle of success and I suspect many moved on to other challenges in life.
Is this wrong? No, I don’t think so. Challenges in life are what make us get up in the morning and motivate us throughout our day. And the act of taking on new and different challenges bring a freshness and newness to life that we all need.
When I am going to taking on these new challenges, I am not really sure. Yes, I have started across that threshold. But, no, I have not lost my drive as yet.
Comments