Best in Show wrote:
Skuj wrote:Quite simply, this is the greatest post I have ever seen at letsrun:
One thing we surely have learned from this thread:
if you run fast, people WILL kiss your ass!
SCP - Great runner, very self-indulgent life. definitely not a fan here.
Skuj wrote:
Quite simply, this is the greatest post I have ever seen at letsrun:
SoCal Pete wrote:Good grief, is this thing still going on?!
And I see that it's mostly being kept alive by trolls like Longtimegone who somehow - miraculously, moronically, with the self-awareness of stones at the bottom of a very deep, very dark, very still pond - fail to note the hypocrisy of calling out the pathetic lives of masters runners by (get this ... snicker, snicker) spending their own time posting on running message boards.
Trolls, a word of advice: look up the word "pathetic," face mirror, repeat said word aloud as a means of introduction.
Life is great. Life is good. And life can be lived a hundred ways. A thousand. And yet still end up good.
Anyone out there who carries a checklist and thinks that said checklist is the one and only way to achieve an honorable, fulfilling, enriching, and adrenaline-fueled life, another word of advice: throw away the list. You haven't lived much of a life if you think there is one rule, one path, one answer to the call this world sends out to the living.
I hitchhiked the country in my teens. Traveled the world in my early 20s. Owned a rock 'n' roll bar in the Caribbean in my mid-20s. Started up an "online" business before most people knew what an "internet" was. Went broke a half-dozen times before most of the posters on this board were born. Wrote scripts for Hollywood in my 30s. Sold mortgages when my scripts stopped selling in my 40s. Smoked 4 packs of cigarettes at one time of my life. Drank so hard that my hands never stopped shaking from the time I woke up until happy hour. Put so much cola up my nose that I lost my sense of smell for most of a decade. I've made love with more women than most of our young trolls have had kisses - have made love in more countries than our trolls have had birthdays. I've read thousands of books, seen hundreds of movies, attended dozens of plays. And argued politics with socialists in New Zealand, communists in Soho, and Capitalists in France. I've been strip-searched on an airplane runway in India. Nearly raped by crazy Mormons outside of Provo. Shot at with guns. Stabbed. And involved in more fistfights than there are days of the year. I've hung and partied with and been friends with Hollywood stars, renowned poets, famous musicians, mortgage brokers, carpenters, cooks, dishwashers, and bums in the back alleys of Bourbon Street. I've trained 100 miles a week and set masters records. And I've spent days and nights in jails and ERs and the grubbiest places imaginable.
And the happiest I've ever been - far happier than at any other time of my life - has been these past few years: running my miles, raising my son, getting a steady paycheck, and waking every day to the promise of a beautiful new day.
Those of you who wonder what kind of a life a 40+ year-old can lead when running 100 miles a week ... Well, that made me laugh, because I always wondered what kind of life a young person could lead running that kind of mileage.
I wondered how you could trade tasting the juice of life's fruit for the fatigue and monotony of pounding the pavement.
But if that's the life a young person wants, so be it.
And if this is the life I want, well then excuse me - excuse all of us - if we don't give your counter-advice much credence.
Because this is the one thing I know: people who truly live their lives experience a world so large, so filled with variety and possibility and divergent life paths, that they could no more judge the validity of anyone else's life than they could pick a single star in the sky and marvel at only it.
I love, admire, and respect all my fellow masters runners - not for their race times or their mileage or their success as parents or employees - but simply because for now, for this one moment, we are all traveling a path together. And if I don't feel that way about the people I'm traveling with, then what does that say about my own journey? No, I choose this path, and I choose to honor the men and women who walk along, ahead, beside, and behind me.
It's hard to build a beautiful sand castle on the shore. Any fool can knock one down.
Pete's post is inspiring. He is a prodigal son. Running has clearly been a force that has helped him turn his life around. People love stories like that - they love the comeback. If running keeps Pete away from the booze and the blow, great.
But what I don't get is how people come on this board and rip a guy who 'lives a boring life in the suburbs'. What a priggish thing to do. Maybe that guy in his 20s started a successful business and created hundreds of jobs for people. Maybe that guy had to work 80 hours a week to make that business work. So while Pete MaGill was spending years acting like a completely irresponsible d-bag (any illegitimate kids out out there Pete since you weren't shy about telling us you were a serial fornicator?), this guy was making extremely valuable contributions to society. Now a guy like this comes on here and says he thinks running 100mpw is too much of a commitment for his personal situation, and some of you guys rip him as a slacker who's afraid to live the dream.
Here's a news flash: No one gives a flying f*ck about Masters racing except other Masters. It has about as much of a redeeming value in society as a men's bowling league. If you can run 100mpw and put up fast Masters times, great. Good on you. But let's not act like it's the end all and be all of accomplishments.
Sorry to throw cold water on the circle jerk.
alright, one more try here on my part, mainly because i am being very self-indulgent by reading this thread and weighing in--i feel like i've done the mental equivalent of drinking two liters of coke and finishing a full bag of doritos while watching american idol.
pete led a self indulgent life. he is not necessarily self-indulgent now. if you think so, you don't know pete.
that said, there is an element of self-indulgence in all athletic pursuits, but for many (meaning not all) it is not the purpose of their existence, nor is it how they define themselves personally. when i ran track professionally in the 90s, it WAS how i defined myself--now it's low on the list, behind parent, husband, teacher and coach. the masters i know that compete are well aware that very few others besides other masters really cares about masters competition, but i doubt that's what floats our boats. i, for one, am aware that at my best, all i was really good at was running around in circles really fast. not something i'll brag about should i meet my maker someday.
finally, and i only skimmed some posts here, i don't think most of the criticism was directed at someone who realized they couldn't run 100mpw and be a good family man; i think the criticism was directed at anyone who felt that others couldn't run 100mpw and be good family men. as dirty harry said, "a man's got to know his limitations," and these vary from household to household.
uggh. that's 15 minutes of my life i'll never get back.
that's my story and i'm sticking to it.
Pete's post is inspiring. He is a prodigal son. Running has clearly been a force that has helped him turn his life around. People love stories like that - they love the comeback. If running keeps Pete away from the booze and the blow, great.
But what I don't get is how people come on this board and rip a guy who 'lives a boring life in the suburbs'. What a priggish thing to do. Maybe that guy in his 20s started a successful business and created hundreds of jobs for people. Maybe that guy had to work 80 hours a week to make that business work. So while Pete MaGill was spending years acting like a completely irresponsible d-bag (any illegitimate kids out out there Pete since you weren't shy about telling us you were a serial fornicator?), this guy was making extremely valuable contributions to society. Now a guy like this comes on here and says he thinks running 100mpw is too much of a commitment for his personal situation, and some of you guys rip him as a slacker who's afraid to live the dream.
Here's a news flash: No one gives a flying f*ck about Masters racing except other Masters. It has about as much of a redeeming value in society as a men's bowling league. If you can run 100mpw and put up fast Masters times, great. Good on you. But let's not act like it's the end all and be all of accomplishments.
Sorry to throw cold water on the circle jerk.[/quote]
You've got quite a flair for the dramatic. I've got a news flash for you: very few people give flying f*uck about distance running performances, period. So, what's you point? I don't happen to give a flying f*ck about people who don't give flying f*ck about what I like to do. But, unlike you, I don't bother deliberately seeking them out to inform them of the fact. The best way to show you don't care about master's running is to avoid reading and commenting on threads about...master's running.
i have a theory wrote:
Also, to address the subject of the post again, I'd suggest that what makes a guy like Pete remarkable is not his 14:34 in itself. That he can run this fast at 47 is largely a matter or genetics. What IS remarkable, and should be celebrated by other masters, and runners in general, is that he can still run within probably 30-45 secs of what would have been his lifetime best. THIS, I would argue, CAN be explained in terms of his passion and hard work. There are those of you who may say "no matter how hard I worked I couldn't run 14:34 at age 47". This may be true, but how many of you think you're running as close as Pete is to your all time best, or potential best, at this age? And how many of you regardless of age think you're getting as much out of your own ability as a guy like Pete is getting out of his? We can't all be Pete Magill in terms of actual performance, but we can all learn from his example when it comes to getting the most out of our ability, which is really what this sport is all about for the vast majority of us, regardless of age.
I agree with most of you comments ,and i certainly admire SOCALPETE et all .However the issue regarding fulfiling ones potential i feel must have a few provisos.
As one ages and acquire certain obligations and responsibilities i believe your potential is based around this as a whole and not just the physical.
What i mean by this is if you carry out your Must dos in your life (Work Kids etc) and then train as hard as you can around this (In my case this would top out at around 50 mpw)
then the results you achieve are your what i would call you REAL life potential.
Socalpete etc have the one thing that the rest of us do not have and that is their best is the best in the world.
Now to me that is worth some extra sacrifice.
However,to run as i do 18 min for 5k of 1hour every other day ,i do not have the motivation to hit 100mpw for at best 17 mins.
I and i feel a lot of other runners are running to our potential within our environment,we should be proud of ourselves.
I do not and cannot aspire to the likes of Socalpete ,they have been lucky in the genetic lottery but what i do respect is that they are using their luck to the maximum.
"Lucky genetics" is a copout that we often use when we compare ourselves to the Africans. It's the absolute first step in not being as good as them - saying that it's about luck and genetics.
Best in Show wrote:
Skuj wrote:Quite simply, this is the greatest post I have ever seen at letsrun:
One thing we surely have learned from this thread:
if you run fast, people WILL kiss your ass!
That's right. I'll gladly show my intense admiration for people who achieve this kind of thing. You call it kissing ass. Whatever. I'm a fan of Socal and Ty and SB and others. Sue me.
Magento wrote:
Best in Show wrote:One thing we surely have learned from this thread:
if you run fast, people WILL kiss your ass!
SCP - Great runner, very self-indulgent life. definitely not a fan here.
Newsflash: Be Here Now. You might have a bumpy ride in life before you become "enlightened". As long as you learn from experiences..... SoCal clearly chsnged his ways, and look at him NOW! Self indulgent past be damned.
I'm 46 and I'd be lapped twice in a 5000m by some of these guys. I don't have the desire to train hard and long, so that maybe I'd only be lapped once instead. That's my choice, my decision, my happinness, my thing.... 35mpw pleases me. I greatly admire those who still have that burning desire as Masters, to perfect running....to commit fully to this beautiful Artform. Good for them.
I'm a new father. If I can find 1hr most days to run, I'm very happy. My wife trains for them Ironman triathlon things. She takes a LOT of time for this endeavor. Are we bad / selfish parents because of this? My desired wording for the answer to that question cannot be typed, even at letsrun.
The little guy will soon learn that this is IMPORTANT, and brings joy and benefits. It MATTERS. Maybe he will in turn be inspired to not be like 75% of the kids in North America today.
SB....maybe you'll come to Kamloops in July?
Warmest congrats, skuj,and Happy Trails. If I make it back out to the left coast it will be in April.
Skuj -
Congratulations on the baby! That's great. My wife and I are in our 40s and we have a a 1 year old son. Raising him takes time, commitment, and lots of energy; and,it is something I gladly do instead of runing 10 or more miles per day.
I exercise 30-45 minutes a day, 5-6 days per week. It's not serious training that top masters runners do, but I am satisified with it. Half an hour per day of exercise keeps me healthy, clears my head, and allows me take care of the priorities I have set. In the bigger picture, each person makes choices they have to live with daily.
Like you, I believe that each person must choose their priorities and not worry what other people do. I admire Pete, Tony, and some others who are seriously good runners. I respect their accomplishments and respect them even more for the people they are. They share their time and thoughts without hesitation. It's the measure of their character more than anything!
Take care,
Tinman
