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 By Joanna Harper
I first read Albert Camus’s essay The Myth of Sisyphus when I was in high school. Sisyphus was a character in Greek Mythology.
He had been sentenced by the gods to roll a rock up a hill for all eternity.
Sisyphus would no sooner get the rock to the top when it would promptly roll back down again.
Sisyphus by Franz von Stuck Camus had the gall to suggest that Sisyphus could actually be all right with his fate. “The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy” he wrote.
I thought Camus was off his rocker. How could someone be happy when they had to spend all eternity in such a task?
At this point I should note that I wasn’t a committed distance runner back then. I ran track and cross country all right, but I did a lot sports in high school.
It wasn’t until college that I truly became a runner. By my sophomore year, I was training twice a day most days, all year round. I enjoyed the feeling of being committed to the cause of getting fitter and faster.
But I was stilled spoiled by my youth. Even when I got hurt, I would bounce back into shape quickly. It wasn’t until I got to be a master’s runner that my running began to resemble the toils of Sisyphus.
As I got older it seemed that I would spend months getting fit, only to have some setback knock me back down. And with every year, it took longer and longer to regain top fitness.
To be honest I still have it better than Sisyphus. I do get to spend some time near the top of hill enjoying my fitness. But it never seems to last very long.
This year has been no exception. I had a wonderful winter of strength training. I ran a couple of races in February and March and I ran well.
I started doing more speed work once spring arrived. I ran a half marathon and a 5K in May and was very pleased with my times in both races. But still I knew the best was yet to come.
I had my sights set on three track races. I was going to run a 3K and 5k in June and then peak for Nationals in July.
I confided to a friend that I felt good enough that I could challenge my all time high age grade. Of course when you start measuring yourself by age grade, you know that you’re getting old. But never the less I was fit and I knew it.
Then reality struck. I came down with an illness which greatly hampered my training for three weeks. I did manage to run not too badly for the 3K race.
The 5k was another matter. I wound up running almost a half minute slower than I had in May. Could I have lost so much fitness so quickly?
I know that I’m being a little dramatic here. After all I was still running well for an old lady. But to me it felt like the rock had fallen to the bottom of the hill. However, soon enough my health returned and I started training for Sacramento.
I had decided to run the 10K at nationals. Once upon a time it had been my signature track race. But I hadn’t run one in many years. I upped my mileage and I ran a couple of 10 times 1K track workouts at race pace.
Was one month enough to get my fitness back? There was only one way to find out. I arrived in Sacramento Thursday evening and my 10K was Saturday morning.
There were almost 30 of us in the women’s 10K. I was in a pack of 6 or 8 women who went through the mile in the low 6:50s. I ran well through 5K, splitting 21:10 or so, but I had a bad patch in the middle of the race. However, I ran the last 6 or 7 laps strongly and finished in 43:00 for third in the W50 category.
It was not a horrible race by any means, but it fell well short of what I had envisioned in May. I plan to take a week easy and then begin my preparation for cross country.
After all there is a rock out there with my name on it, and I can’t wait until I start pushing it up the hill again.
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