Fletcher, good post. I knew you were in great shape, at one time or another--that sort of thing shows in how guys carry themselves later on when they are not in training; they seem at ease when standing--and I was wondering how you did it. But really, running is my own bugbear--having bad knees I needed to find something else.
I found swimming about the time I was eleven and kept this up thru HS and college's first year. You runners (and Jerry Rice was the most in-shape man I ever heard of, except Jack LaLanne) are lucky. Pair of shoes and go: Talus. Track. Sidewalk. Trails. STairs.
I wrote an award wining essay.
I was traveling the Pacific NW with my mom and dad
I was studying classical ballet and playing piano
I was singing, privately, in my bedroom
and I was writing a report on our 11th President, James K. Polk.
A Brooke Raboutou I wasn't - and I don't mean just gender-wise.
Fresh out of the mountains and home-schooling, I was Class President of Whatcom Middle School, and had just met some bad neighbors who turned me to the dark side for a few years.
My first crime with the bad crew was robbing an UNLOCKED fireworks stand - easy. I got the rush big-time - by 12 I was ransacking cars, stealing drugs from my parents for myself and "friends". At school, I was also tripping girls in the hall because I thought that was a good way to flirt. I got a round-house from a 7th-grader that left a bone-bruise on my jaw for 4 months.
Needless to say, I didn't make Class President the next year.
Some of you were stealing guns and drugs in grade 6? bad ass!
I was collecting comics
I won the award of excellence for physical fitness - the only one in the school
I played footsies under the desk with a cute native girl... a sign of things to come.
Loved Star Wars
And spent a lot of time on my bike, climbing cliffs and bridges, and hiking and exploring in the woods with my best friends.
I was on the City Swim Team
I was delivering Papers everyday after school.
All hell wouldn't break loose for a few more years..
I hadn't seen that Caylor clip in a while. Love it! Man, you should be certified a national treasure. Anyone who can go through all that mayhem, live through it, and tell about it with a smile and humor is a gem!
Hmm, at 11 I was running 10km races and throwing stuff at the track... The first shot is me at 11 with my dad after the "Forty Nunners Run" in Foster City, CA. The second is me throwing shotput at age 10 at Modesto Junior College.
Hey Mouse! You talking to me? YOU TALKING TO ME????? You saying I'm out of shape???? Hee hee!
For 35 years, I've been 5 lbs. away from being way honed. Damn Peanut M&M's and TJ's Coffee Blast Ice Cream!!!!
Many moons ago, I was one of those distance runners who had to get out every day, do big miles. But I loved running so much (particularly the being outdoors in the elements part), that in my late twenties I knew I need to diversify and cut back. Goal has since been to have knees that work when I'm seventy for running. I have my Mom's husband as inspiration... he's 85 and still running! He inspired me to get into distance running back when I was a kid, BTW.
Sorry to hear about your knees... but there's lot of other stuff out there with good benefits.
Some of my best memories are of that 11 year old time period. Running around the desert around my home in Desert Hot Springs, just outside of Palm Springs and down the hill from Joshua Tree. Chasing lizzards, hunting snakes, getting stuck with cholla on a routine basis, digging forts out of the sand around cat's claw. Smelling the rare, itinerant rain with the overwhelming scent of creosote. Bliss.
When I was 11, I was thinking about the easy days when I was 10, before I got my drug habit south side of Chicago teaching the blues. I figured I was 4-F from the get go, but a low draft number is a real kick in the balls, you know. I was stressing - boom - woke up in Saskatchewan after getting cold-cocked in a Detroit saloon. Or maybe I just got on the wrong bus going home. Whatever. I still don't know.
We used to say "whatver" before cellphones, you know.
Got a new name which I never even tried to pronounce. Formed a paperboy union; we boycotted and burned product to stay warm. Light the power. Convinced them it was "punk" to burn hockey sticks, too. That kinda got out of hand, one of those Prime Minister dudes or someone got deposed. I got to meet "Yosemite" Sam - hey, I know it's not his real name, but I was a kid, chill.
Got bored, headed south after I heard my friend (met him playing pee wee soccer in Bed Stuy) was coming out with a new line of ice axes in Mexico. Never hooked up with him, can't say the same for a bunch of bulls. Most of them were really old, really slow. They look big because they stand them next to midgets. Farrah Fawcett was 4'2" in heels. When I was 11, the playing field was level.
Co-founded gentrification. Joined the Foreign Legion and Spanish Inquisition when I was 12 and started trading oil.
My mom told me I could only pick on kids my own size. Turned 13, game over.
Let us know!