It's Never Too Late

You've probably heard me say that I get ideas for columns from lots of different places.  My grandkids.  On the back of my bicycle.  Driving down the street. 

I asked someone this week for suggestions.  She's a patient of mine right now so I'll leave her name out of it but she wanted a column on beginning a running program at an advanced age.

Now she's hardly an advanced age but I guess she does qualify as someone that might be considered someone late to running, having only started in the last couple of years.

I immediately thought of my friend Ed, who is a living, breathing example of being a little  "late" to running.  So let me introduce you to Ed.

Ed Dennison is 67.  He had been up and down with his exercise routine for years, knowing that he needed regular exercise in his life but just not sticking with anything for long.

His wife had been a member of the Ruby Tuesday corporate gym and encouraged him to join up there.  That was 10 years ago.

He remembers well when he walked in the door the first time.  A staff member looked at him and declared "oh, you're a runner."  He insisted he was not.  A second staff member said the same thing.

His answer was that running was punishment.  And that's how he had looked at running for roughly 57 years. 

Those same staff members talked him into doing a 5K anyway.  I suspect their idea (well done!) was to give him a goal to work toward.  When he went home to tell his wife, she, shall we say, did not agree that it was a particularly good idea.  She refused to attend that first 5K.  Even his sanity might have been questioned.

He did that race anyway and was hooked.  He immediately signed up for the next one.  His wife did attend that one and then signed up for the next one herself, the Reindeer Run (this December will be her 10th anniversary in that race).  She's been running ever since.

A big part of this story is about Ed's wife Kay.  Ed did everything growing up and lots of things as an adult.  Kay, on the other hand, was never an athlete although both their kids were outstanding athletes.

And, as they say, the rest is history.  In his running career, Ed has run 4 marathons, the first at 60.  He's done too many 5K's and 10K's to count and at least 25 half marathons, averaging 2-3 a year since he first got started.

Today, you will find Ed still running but he's also coaching for a group called No Boundaries, a program offered through Parks & Rec which provides instruction and coaching for budding and experienced runners, focusing on the three Parks & Rec races in Blount County. 

There are all different sorts of runners in No Boundaries.  One of their primary goals is to reach those that have may have not even been regular exercisers and make help them fix that.

A lot of folks in No Boundaries hardly walked in the beginning and now they are regular runners.  Ed is the perfect spokesman for that.  When someone tells him "I'm no runner" he can tell them that he wasn't either.

This weekend, Ed has been in DisneyWorld where he will have ran a 10K  yesterday and a half marathon today.  Back to back.

What's next?  A half Ironman.  And not just any Ironman, the one in Kona, Hawaii.