Perpetuity? Ptui!

[[old] rspenger]

Just after the veteran men’s 2K at EIRC I had a brief conversation with one of the English participants. He had participated in the 70-79 group, as a lwt I believe, although the report I just checked listed him as a hwt. I let drop that I had set the initial lwt M 70-79 2k record (7:39.6) in 1996, but that it was broken early in the next season. Then I mentioned that I had also set the 2500 m record (9:35.8) in 1995 and that I would have it in perpetuity since it wasn’t done any more. I guess that I must have been in a pumphead state at the time, because I didn’t get the drift of his next comment. Later I did a little net searching and learned that the Brits had revived the old 2500 m event and that the new record (9:12.5) holder was none other than Geoffrey Knight – the very fellow that I had been bragging to about holding it in perpetuity.<br /><br />To give a little perspective to improvement in times, I might add that in 1994 at age 69 I qualified for the CRASH-B trip, as a heavyweight, with a 2500 m time over 9:50. That year the qualifying time for hwt M 60-69 was 10’ for the 2500. Three years later, I would have had to beat my own 1996 2k record to qualify. The 1997 qualification time for lwt M 70-79 was set at 7:39. Since I was losing a little time each year with age, I made no attempt to get back into the game. There was no thought of actually training for an erg event. It wasn’t until this year that I learned that a regular training program could more than counteract a year of aging.<br /><br />Bob S.

[[old] ljwagner]

A little humility is a good thing. Sometimes in foresight, always in hindsight. <br /><br />You still made a good mark they had to shoot for. Hopefully they had to work very hard to top your marks. <br /><br /> I hope no one died trying.