Survival

There is, or I should say, I thought there was, a meme or saying along the lines of; If you survive the first few seconds of battle, the chances of surviving the war are good.

What brought all of this to mind was that I took my middle daughter out driving for the first time today. What made it all so scary is that after the struggle to get the car moving and not die from dropping the clutch too fast, new drivers are so relieved that they forget the need to steer. After a couple of basketball stands were narrowly missed, she got the hang of it and my terror abated. The open road will deliver a whole new batch of thrills, but I think the car and I will survive.

A new bout of optimism about running came from this Thanks giving race. According to the race calculators, I should be able to run a marathon in about 3:25, which would be well under what I need if I run one at age 55, the qualifying time is 3:40 for men at that age. I could qualify as early as next October.

Distance Age grading VO2 max Riegel formula Cameron formula Time Min/mile

Marathon 03:22:14 03:23:48 03:24:37 03:28:12 03:24:43 07:48