I
haven’t run well in just over six years.
While the yoga has been helping with my running the past couple of
months, it’s still nothing worth writing home about. Heck, it’s not even worth writing about
period, so forget I even mentioned it.
I
met Ferit Toska, a graduate student from Turkey at the University of Florida
about a year after my running began its dramatic nosedive. In February of 2008 I was speaking at the
exposition for the Five Point of Life Marathon in Gainesville, Florida. Ferit was in my rather small audience and I
could tell from the eye contact he maintained with me throughout my 40-minute
presentation he had the desire to be a runner; one of the best. He spoke with me
afterwards and said he wanted to run the half-marathon the next day in 1:52, or
as he put it ‘5:20 per kilometer.’ I was
going to be running the full marathon, but I said I would be glad to run the
first 13.1 miles with him. In a pair of
soccer shoes and with me by his side, Ferit ran his first half-marathon in
1:49. He hasn’t looked back since.
Cindy
and I have been friends with Ferit and his wife Gizem ever since. When we travel to Gainesville for a Gator
football game or a race we spend the weekend with them, and when they come to
Peachtree City for a race they spend the weekend with us. Two years ago this month they had their first
child, a boy they named Derin. Today Cindy
and I consider the three of them as family and I trust they feel the same way
about us.
Ferit
and I run together every chance we get. When
we do I offer suggestions to promote Ferit’s talent at running further and
faster, while Ferit reciprocates by encouraging me to cut back on my mileage
and allowing my body to heal. So far
Ferit has been doing a much better job of listening than me, as he continues to
amaze me with the speed and endurance he’s been showing at such an early stage
in his running career while I continue pounding my body with more mileage than
I should.
A
little more than one year ago Ferit and I went for a 10-mile run on a Saturday
morning before a Florida Gator football game.
I was still battling some leg issues at the time and failed to lift my
right foot high enough to clear a slight rise in the sidewalk with only a mile
left in our run. I hit the sidewalk with
a perfect three-point landing, the three points being my right palm, my right
elbow and my right knee. All three were
bleeding profusely as I lie there in the middle of the sidewalk. Ferit asked it I needed help (getting to my
feet): I said ‘no’ while my body clearly was signaling for an ambulance. I looked up at Ferit and said ‘I think it’s
time I passed you the torch,’ meaning it was now his time to be the better
runner, the faster runner, the longer runner…and most certainly the wiser runner.
One
month later Ferit won one of my favorite races, the Tallahassee Ultra Distance
Classic 50-Miler with an outstanding time of 6:34:53. If you do the math you’ll find he averaged
less than eight minutes per mile…for 50
miles! I wasn’t there to see it personally, but
moments after Ferit won, the Race Director—a very good friend of mine—Emailed
me in amazement about Ferit’s run.
(Note: I told the Race Director before the race to ‘watch out for
Ferit’.) I sent a note back to him
saying pretty much what I said to Ferit four weeks earlier: ‘It’s about time
for the torch to be passed.’
This
weekend the Toska’s—Ferit, Gizem and our ‘second grandson’ Derin—spent the
weekend with us. Ferit was running in my
event, the Peachtree City 50K. On race
morning I woke up early to get to the start of the race to get things set
up. Before I left I put a copy of my
book Distance Memories by the coffee
maker on the kitchen counter with a note:
Happy Birthday! You’ll enjoy the
chapter titled ‘Gainesville.’
Be sure to read pages 237-239.
Today will be the official
Passing of the Torch.
I
wrote in those identified pages of four runners who have incredibly bright
futures in front of them. Ferit Toska is
one of them.
Ferit
won the Peachtree City 50K today, running a spectacular race and finishing over
14 minutes in front of the second place male.
The
torch has now officially and unequivocally been passed. I trust Ferit will keep it burning for quite
some time.
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