Thomas Proctor, a fellow Checkers runner and one of Buffalo’s elite runners, and I share two things in common – we’re both looking for jobs and we both have a strong intense desire to succeed as runners. We were recently exchanging emails when I asked him if he was doing the Bob Ivory Run. Following is his reply and probably the most inspirational story I have ever read from a runner…and of course, reprinted with his permission.
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as with Bob Ivory, I wanted to race today at Jack O’Lantern and realized, that four days a week compromises my training to go at it hard at a top level. I would be cheating myself. When my days of being relatively young are over (32 years old), I’ll enjoy the social part of the running. This happened to me over the week. As if the say, ‘what in the hell am I doing?’
I want to win the prize money today, but really? What world am I in, thinking that? I’m a realist when it comes to training and racing and I would be insulting myself if I think that I can race at a high level with just maintenance runs. I do know this…I’ve been highly volatile and combustible. I want to get back out there and really let it rip. I’m at a point in time, which is going to be a short time…that I cannot train at the level where I was before.
I was on my way over the summer to bump elbows with the very best out here, but life gets in the way and the balance gets out of whack. People say, “Why do you just go out there just for fun?”
Most don’t get it. I’m not happy, unless the weather is like it is outside, where if I was in great shape…and others, who have had such set race plans…and because of the weather, those plans are out the window. Advantage, Me. I would be walking away with $250 because I may have not have been the fastest guy out there, if I were in top shape, but I like the elements of weather. It throws people off their game. I don’t care about a watch when I’m in contention to win. I care about the course and the elements.
I have won well over a hundred races doing that. I’m a racer, not a lover of a clock when I cross the line. It’s made me who I am. Running four days a week with my circumstances doesn’t complete who I am. I’m a guy who loves being the ‘boxer’ of the runners out here, going through the mental checklist of those around me. I love being in the mix when people get bound up and off of their plan.
This would be an ideal day for me to race, if I were in the shape I was in August. I would win. That’s how I think. Like I said, I throw the watch out the window when I race, because, giving yourself the chance to win is the most important thing when it comes to competition, not worrying about hitting your first mile in x time.
Tom