Finish Line

When you are running a race there is always a few spots where you check your time.  These are checkpoints where you can determine your progress.  On a track the count of laps becomes your markers.  Running cross country there are usually mile posts.  Whatever the markers may be, with them you can determine if you are running too slowly and need to increase your speed. Or, are you pushing too hard and need to slow down so you do not burn out.

One may think that when running a 5K the finish line is the ultimate marker.  A runner will tell you that the finish line of a race is nothing more than a marker of how you are doing.  Have you slowed down since your last race? Is your performance getting better or unchanged?  This will help you know how to train for your next race.  It seems like there is always another race to be run.

At the conclusion of the race there is always the awards ceremony.  That is when they announce the winners of all the different categories: there is overall male, overall female, and all the age classes.  It is the age groups that I wait to hear because I like to know how I did compared to those my age.

A couple of years ago I was pleased to have won my age bracket; but pride comes before the fall.  When they announced the winner of the over 70 age group that fellow had beat me by close to twelve minutes.  I was proud that I had run the 5K in just under 33 minutes; he had run it in 21 minutes!

I do not think this past week was a finish line but it certainly was a checkpoint within this race.  The double vision is no longer a problem which means I can drive the car.  My life of being chauffeured is over.  The hopes of the movie “Driving Mr. Randy” have been crushed.   

The visit with the retina specialist was very encouraging.  The fluid behind the nevus has dried.  The fluid was one of the markers of melanoma which had alerted my optometrist. This is the first indication that the radiation treatment is successful.  For this we give thanks.

This is really just the end of a lap not the end of the race.  It will be a few months until I return to Memphis.  At that time I will learn if there are more laps to be run or if the finish line is near.