Do Not Go Gentle
Why the Aging Population Runs
By Peter Holleran
As featured in the March 2002 issue of Running Times Magazine
"To run or not to run," then, is not really a question, but a primary dilemma, with a choice to be made. For Socrates "the unexamined life is not worth living," but our man insists "the unlived life is not worth examining!" He therefore runs, and lives, with abandon, experiencing the thrills and disappointments, the simple joys and pleasures, the anguish and the tears. He jumps in with both feet, letting nothing pass him by.
Make no mistake, it is not that our man does not try. Certainly he does. He plays by all the rules. Indeed, when blessed with early retirement he puts in the time and becomes an age-group champion! He appears highly motivated, but the fundamental reason he runs is simply because...he CAN. He tries to run better because he can. He sets goals to spike his interest, and his life retains an edge. He remains a creature of passion, and somehow feels more complete. Yet the question of motivation ceases to arise, and only his enthusiasm remains. He thus leaves Jung and the philosophers far behind. Unconcerned with deep thought, he is free of their burden, and his body works the better for it, its parts no longer in conflict. Indeed, it seems to have acquired a life of its own, and perhaps only now is the runner truly born.
Of course, he has aches and pains. He is not spared all "the ills that flesh is heir to." And yes, he slows down. He is not promised to be faster, only better. More alive than before, he enjoys a fate unknown to those who do not share his secret and hypnotically ask that he rejoin the sleeping herd. To those resigned to a life on the couch he pleads, with Dylan Thomas: "do not go gentle into that good night.....rage, rage, against the dying of the light!"
Can you blame him for his exuberance? Running has given him so many things. He is a happy man, energetic, youthful, healthy in mind and body. How many his age are blessed like that?
Peter Holleran, 52, wrote this article while training for the Quadruple Dipsea. He is a member of the Tamalpa Runners in northern California.