Michael: Mano Y Moises

The golden trumpets
Play with the sound of color
To attract insects.

Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Sunday’s race was a rare treat. The race was close enough to hop on a  local bus and be there in ten minutes. I could walk out the door in nothing but my race kit with keys, a gel and a small plastic envelope in my pocket with I.D. and a little bit of cash.

I was also able to take care of my personal business at home so I wouldn’t need to use what I’m sure was a gruesome bathroom at the race site. On top of all that I had a great night’s sleep which, despite over 40 years of racing, is a rarity. In fact, sleeping so well had me second guessing a little whether I had lost my edge and was up for this race.

Turns out I was fine and while my testosterone levels may be shrinking my competitive juices are still at full flow.

And a good part of that discovery was engaging in a good old fashioned mano y mano duel with a runner in my age group. Usually, very quickly in a race I’m on my own, but Sunday for seven miles I ran either slightly behind, slightly in front, or briefly, elbow to elbow with a Panamanian runner named Moises.

I knew his name without asking because it was printed in large blue letters across the top of the back of his racing tank top. I don’t usually run with people with their names so publicly displayed. Myself, I don’t want to put a target on my back, but if it‘s part of what he does to gear up, I could understand it.

During the race, while we were on the trail section, he did turn to me and say something about the trail, but otherwise we ran in silent camaraderie for about an hour. The only time we were more than a few strides apart was shortly after the first mile when my right shoe came untied. I haven’t had that happen as far as I can remember. After quickly running to a bus bench to lace up, I gathered myself together and was back on Moises’ heels before the end of the 3.5 road section of the course.

He led down the 1.5 mile section of trail. I led on the turn around back to the road.

At the intersection where the neighborhood road we were on turned onto the main road and we began the last 3 mile slightly downhill section to the finish, Moises went in front. That’s when I decided to stay behind him, relax for about 50 yards, then crank it up to see what we both were made of.

I train for this; to tire my legs a bit then time trial for 6k, so I was pretty confident I could maintain my pace. But Moises was an X-factor. If he went by me I wasn’t sure I’d be able to find another gear.

But I could hear that he was dropping back. I kept my head up and tied a rope to a runner that was about 30 yards in front of me. I closed a little bit on him but wasn’t strong enough to reel him in before the finish.

Moises came in about 30 seconds later and we did the best we could, given that we don’t speak the same language, to thank and congratulate each other for a very enjoyable race.

Sunday’s race will definitely be one that’ll I’ll remember for quite a while and has me itching to look for another event to train for.