Good news in the world of track and field

Since I depressed myself by writing about the Marion Jones debacle, I thought I would balance things out by mentioning these two items:

Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia, who has been around the long distance track circuit for years, set a world record in the Marathon the other day in Berlin. He ran a time of 2 hours 4 minutes and 26 seconds. Do the math, and that works out to a pace of about 4:47 per mile. Let's put that into perspective shall we? My personal record in a one mile race is 4:27, which I did at the ripe young age of 19 when I was in college. This guy ran a 4:47 mile, twenty-six times in a row, and to top it all off, he accomplished it at the ripe old-ish age of 34. Being 35, this makes me feel pretty good that people my age are still able to perform world class feats like this. I also always tell myself that Carl Lewis won his fourth Olympic gold medal in the Long Jump when he was 35 years old. It's funny about professional sports - in any other endeavor, being in your mid-thirties would make you still a young buck. In pro sports (except for baseball), it makes you a veteran who is about to be put out to pasture.

Good Day to You, Sir