This morning, in a clearly misguided moment, I signed up for a 5K race near a granite quarry about 20 minutes from home. I wasn’t feeling too confident. My left calf muscle was already staging a protest and my knee was eyeing the situation with suspicion.

Apparently the organizers shared my concern. They gave me bib number 619. That way, if I tumbled over face-down, it would still read 619 and they’d know who they were scraping off the ground.

I assumed we’d be running around the rim of the quarry. Maybe I’d get a nice view of the dramatic depth below. The first five minutes went fine. I wasn’t trying to prove anything, just trying to stay out of a level of pain that would force me to quit.

Then came the shocker. We kept going down. And down. And down. All the way to the bottom.

Now, as anyone who has ever taken a basic physics class knows, what goes down must come back up. So yes, we climbed all the way back out. Reminded me of The Grand Old Duke of York and his marching of his men up and down again!

I stopped to walk not once, not twice but three times just to remind my lungs what oxygen feels like.

But I finished it. All in one piece. The organizers were kind enough to give me a medal, presumably to commemorate my suffering.

I’ll take it.

Need more stretches to keep the left knee from hurting. Ran into three of my old runner friends – Tom, Lia and Bill!

Had not run for some time with all the international travel. The cramps started coming fairly early. Had to stop and stretch multiple times…

After finishing the run, ran into our old running buddy, Bill. After a quick catchup, I suggested to Bill that we should put in a run together. Bill warned me that the run will be slow since he is just getting started this year. I reassured him that slow is good for me. In fact, I told him “My left knee is still bothersome”.

The inimitable Bill immediately came back with “My whole body is bothersome!”

There is this friend of mine – Garry be his name – he has this intriguing ritual. On his birthday, he goes to the gym and bench presses his body weight!! Inspired by that, I tried a 6.0 mile run on my 60th birthday. Of course, unlike him, I had the presence of mind to bring in a decimal point to my resolution.

Went for a 5 mile run in the trail I used to run in 10 years back. There were parts of the trail that was slippery with all the rainfall. In fact, one cyclist had a bad fall right in front of my eyes. Fortunately, he seemed to be unhurt. Also ran into Raji and their dog Mushu in the trail.

It was great weather and I had reached the starting spot by 6AM. Note to self: Wake up by 4:30AM everyday!

5K in bone-chilling cold. With the wind chill, it was 2°F (- 17°C). The cold, I eventually get used to. It is the sharp wind lashing on the face that I can do without.