I realized today that I come across as just an old man

Any Given Sunday locker room speech needed here. Pacino at his best.

Semi-random / related thought:

I went to watch a local meet not that long ago. Off in a corner, watching the action was someone that I thought I recognized, with sunglasses and hat, being incognito.

I was right! It was he! (I'm not mentioning the name.) He wanted to be alone, unrecognized, unadorned...

This guy ran 3:39 1500 in the 80s!!!

You are feeling irrelevant. Don't be discouraged. This is a challenge for anyone as we age and pass our prime. If your feelings of relevance and self-respect were only based on running and coaching, then you will have to find new ways to be relevant. Are you married? Do you have children? Do you have grandchildren? Healthy family ties last a lifetime. If not, find other avenues to volunteer and associate with like-minded people.

I've worked meets where the coach (of whom the stadium was named after!) was walking around and helping to move hurdles into place.

This guy had coached Olympians, but 99% of the kids getting ready to run just saw him as an old guy volunteering.

I sat in the stands at a meet and Ed Temple was just over my right shoulder. Just a guy in the stands with a watch.

I dont know what you expected. The sport turns over very quickly, especially at the HS level. I'm sure in your 40 years of coaching you didn't recognize the old guys that were at your meets either. Time, it's undefeated. Get used to it.

The biggest advantage to working as an official vs coaching is that you get to make the call as to whether you want to work, or not. If you have something going on, or maybe the meet in question doesn't have a great reputation for being on time and organized? You can just pass and chose not to work that event.

I have found that it's a good way to stay in touch and in contact with the sport and those you know in the sport, without the huge responsibility of coaching.

I didn't coach a team as long as you have but I always knew that when I hung it up I would be forgotten by those in it at the time within a few months. That is the way it goes.

But, what I also knew was that for the kids you coached they will be impacted by their experiences on the team for a lifetime. I am always hearing from the parents and the kids I coached.

I turn 65 in 2 months. It angers me that a 26:30 5K does not get me a discount on Medicare Part B or a Medicare Supplement.

I'm closer to my end than my beginning.

After nearly two decades as a DI coach, I left the sport to be closer & more helpful to my aging family members. Recently, I realized that nearly all of the coaches that I worked for/with at the college level are all dead (a couple of hall of famers), retired, or have left the sport (some by choice, some not).

Coaching the occasional high schooler (often with no coach), college kid (in need of specialized knowledge), club, open, pro, or masters level athlete, has helped me stay in contact with the sport that gave me so many cherished memories. I hope that I can pay back some of that with my work with the next generation.

After seeing what our sport has become at the college level recently, I am quite happy being away doing something else.

I'm only 30 but if I know a really really good kid is going to run at a meet near me I'll pop up to see.

I realized I was old when hair started growing out of my ear canal.

A time to buid up, a time to break down
A time to dance, a time to mourn
A time to cast away stones
A time to gather stones together

I like to come across an old man weekly at Motel 6.

Coaching isn't about you it's about who you coach/coached.

Just go back to any job after much time at all and you will realize very few people will remember you, recognize you, or care that you used to work there. Most of your former coworkers will be doing other things as well. I'm sure all the kids you coached got something out of it, but your "honors" stop there.

You should always see a job for what it is, a way to finance your personal life.

you will have an important role as part of the support group in college, the college coach won't have the time to give them all of the feedback and support they might need

You sound like you lack purpose and now is no better time to start donating money to Israel's humanitarian efforts in the middle east. Don't feel bad that you're old, just do better.