Youth

Yesterday I went to the Kent Rec Center to swim a few laps and use the jacuzzi and sauna.  When I got in the jacuzzi, this guy in there said to me "I'm cold".  This was about the weirdest thing you could say in a jacuzzi, so I said "Cold?".  He repeated and I realized he said "I'm old".

We talked for a bit.  He told me about his aches and pains.  He also told me about how he used to play football and how rough a sport it is on the body.  I told him some about me, where I graduated from and my running career and events planned for this year.  He said he used to love the feeling of running the quarter mile and quarter relay.  He loved the feeling you get when you round the final turn on the track headed down the straight-away.  He also mentioned how he loved the "runner's high" and that effortless feeling during a run when you feel like you can go as far and as fast as you want.  He said he would give anything to be able to step out there one more time and get that feeling.  Before he left, he said youth flies by and you don't realize it till you're older.

After the jacuzzi, I went in the sauna for a bit.  There was one guy in there, who looked like he could be a professor at Kent.  We started talking about swimming laps.  He said swimming is such a great way to clear the mind, when you're out there you are forced to listen to the silence with just the crashing of the waves or the flow of the water interrupting the peace.  He said it clears the mind and is the best medicine out there.  I asked him if he just got done swimming laps and he said he had a bad rotator cuff in his shoulder and couldn't swim anymore.

These two conversations were a good reminder to take advantage of youth.  Do what you want now.  Do what you want while you're still healthy.  You never know what tomorrow brings.