• Comparing running journeys •
[1½ MIN READ]
As a high-school lad, I had a classmate who did the bizarre by running cross-country. Bizarre to me because that was neither my character nor habit in any way, shape, or form. FYI, those were the President Jimmy Carter days with a running standard for high schoolers that I could not meet. A quick online search only brings back 50-yard-dash standards, but I remember a 1-mile run expectation of 8 minutes which I could not meet. (Maybe it was just a New York State or local high-school qualification.) I did 8:40.
High-school buddy Gary did not run again for 20-some years, but then took it back up in the form of marathon running. That was still 10 years before the “mid-life crisis” that launched my running career. One big difference is that I never had running on my mind. One big similarity is that when I did, marathons became the distance of choice. (I went from 0 miles to 26.2 in 9 months with no other competitive distance in between. I know. Weird.) An additional point of convergence with the physical has been the literary. He developed his version of sprint pieces. I developed my version with the sprint pieces that comprise these Cerebruns and the complementary Ruminations that I write for every Saturday’s Shawmont Running Club Newsletter publication. His marathon-length pieces include an annual Boston Marathon run report. Mine run the gamut from running to faith (its own kind of race running).
The prompt for this piece comes from his past Boston Marathon (04’21’M) run report. My last marathon run report converged with his based on the doubtfulness of what it was possible to achieve. The similarity is that we both did better than we thought possible. Here’s a final difference. He’s run many Boston Marathons. I’ve never even qualified. Still, it’s been fun looking at our respective journeys.
What about that 8:40 mile in high school? I’ll probably never Boston qualify, but my 2021 marathon personal record had me averaging 8:24 for the entire race.
-CtCloser (Calvinthe), “Negative split or positive splat” #dothedue
FINE PRINT ¶Likeness used with permission. ¶Text and photos (unless otherwise stated): Calvin Wang (Wäng), CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. ¶Cross-posted: (1) Facebook JRC Growlers Group Run (2025’04’30’W Run Message), (2) GGR email list, (3) Cerebruns by CtCloser. ¶This website posting: Cerebrun with added caption.
iCandybyWangC 
only getting better with age brother ….