Ray Gibson

I met a new friend on Friday as I was running around the park.  I was stopped by an older gentleman who I saw off in the distance doing calisthenics.  He stood up when he saw me coming and asked me how far it was around the park.  I told him that it was about a mile if you stuck to the perimeter of the park.  He then proceeded to tell me that he started to run in his 40s and that in his glory days he could run a mile in 4.somthing seconds.  He said he ran a 5K in 15.something seconds.  He said that he was in the top of his age group in the region.  Now that he was in his 80s he was going to try and get back into it.  I told him I thought that was impressive and that my grandma was running into her 70s.  I assumed that as a runner he would understand my need to get back to my run.  I wished him good luck and he told me that I would probably see him around. 

During my next lap I got to thinking that perhaps he was staying at the Alzheimer’s care center next to the park because there were some things in his stories that didn’t seem quite right like the fact he was wearing jeans and no one serious about running would be in jeans.  I have seen residents sneak out of there before.   I decided that it would be a good idea to get his name the next time around just in case so I could check with the care center.  I found him again doing some serious runner’s stretches.  When he saw me he said, “You just completed another mile.”  I agreed and got his name, Ray Gibson.  I told him mine and said it was nice to meet him.  I decided that on my next lap I would just run over to the care center to make sure since it wasn’t too far out of my way.  I went and told the guy why I was there and he checked his records and told me that he wasn’t one of their residents but he very gratefully thanked me for checking.   Unless Ray was on to me and decided to give me an alias, I may have just found myself a new running friend.