Cracking Open a Time Capsule

Last weekend, Gretchen and I sorted through a couple of bookcases and cabinets full of books. The local library is having a used book sale and wanted anyone’s old books. A great chance to get rid of books we don’t need/forgot about/were forgettable.

And in the midst of the rubble, I found a gold mine. My running diary from 1981!!!

The book was one of those bound week-at-a-time books from Runners World. We were living in Lesotho at the time with a 3 year old and a new-born in tow. The book formed not only my running log but my life diary. It was a significant year for us and it is really amazing to read through.

On the running side, the book had lists of all the races I had run up to that point. I then apparently also kept up the race list through the end of 1986, a total of 17 races documented there. (At that point, my soccer refereeing career kicked in and I didn’t do many road races until 2004.) Wow. In my 20s at the time, I could keep some significant pace! My PR at 10km was 43:50 and a half marathon at 1:43:43. Amazing that I could do those distances at 7:11 pace. I was stunned.

Buried in the book was also a copy of a letter I wrote to my folks after running my second marathon on January 31, 1981. What a hoot…my writing style hasn’t changed a lot in 25 years.

This find is really special. As I have renewed my running now, it is neat to have this documentation of a neat time of running a long time ago.

Persevere…we never need to stop.