Fun on the track

I went over to West Hills High School this morning and jogged a couple miles around the campus before doing a little track workout.  Most of the time I feel like I'm in my 30's or maybe 40's. The exceptions are when I see a photo of myself, take a good look in the mirror, or apply a stopwatch to what I now call running.  Such was the case this morning when I ran 4 x 200m with lots of rest between.  I haven't run any 200s in three or four decades but I ran LOTS of them when I was younger and I used to know what speed I was running before I even looked at my watch.  When I took off on my first 200 this morning I was running at an effort that would have produced a time in the low 30's back then.  Knowing I was a little "rusty", I supposed I was actually running close to 40 seconds.  The watch said 50 seconds. Huh?!  I ran a faster average pace for a whole marathon a mere 44 years ago!  I walked and jogged a 200 to recover and then tried again. This time I concentrated on trying  to run relaxed but fast.  Fifty seconds again - this can't be right.  On the third one I pushed harder - not all out, but close to it.  49 seconds. Good grief.  Okay, I'm going to run one more.  This time I was nearly sprinting and concentrated on trying not to slow down near the end. This should get me in the low 40's at least.  Nope.  47 seconds - a little faster than my best marathon pace. A victory of sorts, I guess.  Yippee.