Well said, John. Congratulations for putting in the
time and being dedicated enough to follow through on
something that meant so much to you.
--- John Alexander Blyth <BLYTHE@B...> wrote:
--- John Alexander Blyth <BLYTHE@B...> wrote:
> 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
>
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