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From:  John Alexander Blyth <BLYTHE@B...>
John Alexander Blyth <BLYTHE@B...>
Date:  Mon May 28, 2001  8:01 pm
Subject:  COMPLETELY OFF! My first race!


You're all singers, as am I. We're all other things too, and one thing
that I am is a very informal long distance runner.
This w/e I took part in my first race, a 20km one. I was well prepared,
researched as much as possible, trained in a disciplined and enthusiastic
manner, and finished in what I though was a reasonable time, fairly close
to what I might have expected. It was hard work, and the euphoria after
finishing was marvellous.
For the first time in my life I experienced what must be commonplace to
any of you who did high school track and field: passing runners who passed
me earlier; being passed early or late in the race by patient souls who
hadn't been swept up by the rather swift start. I saw other runners with
quicker or longer strides than mine, but chose not to emulate them, but to
do what I knew I could do. Originally I thought it might be possible to at
least finish in the top half - well, as Race Day approached and I took
another look at the sort of pace that was needed to do that, I got quite
scared. After the initial rush of bodies I took great care to listen to my
body and be mindful of the long steep hill coming up 2/3 of the way through
the course. For a kilometre or so I ran alongside a heavyset man whose dog,
(also with a race number!) accompanied him, eventually he pulled ahead and
I never caught up with him again. Later I passed a crewcut young man who
had charged past me earlier in the race with "It's the army way!" as his
brave battle cry. The last hills weren't very big, but they were horrible -
though they saved me from charging the last couple of kms, so I was able to
finish the race in good form.
Most of the field, not surprisingly, finished before me. I noticed,
though, that the people who came in after me *still looked like athletes*,
each in a contest more with themselves than with the lean, dedicated runner
who won the race in only one hour and eleven minutes.
But maybe I'm not competely off-topic: there are parallels in this world
with that one. You don't have to sing at the Met to call yourself a singer.
A tenor need not have a high C, but still be a tenor. The other person in
the ensemble whose intonation was a bit shaky still has beauty of tone. The
prima donna who made everyones' jaw drop was great, but so was the rest of
the cast. And we train, and train. ANd what really makes a singer is also
the willingness to take the trouble to just do it. john
John Blyth
Baritono robusto e lirico
Brandon, Manitoba, Canada


  Replies Name/Email Yahoo! ID Date Size
12207 Re: COMPLETELY OFF! My first race! Trevor Allen   Tue  5/29/2001   4 KB

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