You Can’t Tell Until…
By Jim Long “After almost a year of training I finished the Portland (Oregon) Marathon in 5 hours and 47 minutes. I placed just over the middle of my age group (60-64 year olds). It took all of the runners and support people (2,500 volunteers) to get me through. At about the 15-mile mark I decided I would begin to make sure I finished, by walking, not just at drink and bathroom stops, but a little bit every mile. The 16-17 mile segment over the St. John’s Bridge was my goal – that is, to be “okay” at the top of the bridge. So with almost every other person around me at this stage of the run, I walked the ascent. It was good to be joined by others who knew that for us to finish we had to be “reasonable.” However, there was an “older woman” at the halfway point who said to me as we crossed mile marker 13, “Wow, that went pretty fast.” I turned and caught her eye with a look of “are you kdding me?!!!”
I said, “I’m not sure “fast” is the appropriate modifier here.” At that point I decided I would try to run with her a while. (She looked to be about 70, all white hair, somewhat bent over. And I just couldn’t believe she was moving along so well.) At the ascent to the bridge I described, she didn’t slow down, but simply kept running while the rest of us were being “reasonable.” At one point she held back her hand as if to pull me along. It didn’t work. All of which is to say, that one can never, never look at a person and determine what they are capable of….”
Jim Long, HR former Pastor, Covenant Presbyterian Church, Marshall, MO