Who you’re calling an ‘old man’?

 

The author heads to the finish line of the 2021 Arnold Mills race.

Yesterday, during my daily jaunt --- OK, so it’s been called a walk more than a jog or run by most people --- I was heading back after doing one of my shorter courses when, as I passed a house on the route, I heard these words from a guy:
“There’s the old man walking.”
Now, having been subjected to any number of catcalls --- of both the good-natured ribbing and harassing type --- since I started running and jogging in 1974 and then non-stop since April of 1975, I knew instinctively that this wasn't a friendly taunt, because the words were uttered with a dismissive, or derisive, undertone. I know the difference, because I've over the years also have had people stop their car or SUV and just tell me, in an encouraging voice, "Keep it up," or "I see you walking (or jogging) all the time, keep it up."
Clearly, this gentlemen's tenor and tone weren't of the encouraging type, but rather of the ominous, harassing --- and hurtful --- sort designed to intimidate or rattle me.
That's why, given that assessment, once I had returned home, I had the same initial response as I did when I had fast-food containers tossed at me in Watertown in 1976 (while living at my parents’ house) and when some wise-guy punk kid threw icy snowballs at me in Attleboro on Emory Street in the 1990s: I ignored him.
I also took the same approach when, while running --- and I was fairly fast in those days, so yes, it was running --- down a busy road in West Palm Beach in 1984, when a tractor-trailer driver deliberately lurched his rig at me from the other side of the street, as if to go after me: I ignored him.
Over the years, I've also ignored all the people who have yelled obscenities at me, who have made fun of the way I bob my head when I walk or run and all of the other uncomfortable encounters that I’ve experienced in 48 years of being out on the road, day in and day out.
So, yes, I ignored this guy --- who might have also been of an advanced age --- but there’s one thing that he and others who keep on choosing to attack me while I’m out on the roads should know:
I don’t get intimidated easily.
Over the years, I’ve run 17 marathons between 1976 and 1996, completing 16 of them. I’ve run countless half-marathons, several 18-mile races and the Around Cape Ann 25K race annually for several years, before opting for a shorter race on Labor Day after my knees started hurting.
And I still do several shorter races, including 5Ks and the annual Arnold Mills Fourth of July race, where I’ll be next Monday along with my daughter for the Fourth of July. I got second in my "old man" age group at May's 5K at North Attleboro High School to benefit the local schools' music program, one of my favorite local races.
So attack me or harass me all you want, but I will not get off the roads!
I know that in this day when anything goes that attacking people for their age, religion, race, sexual identity and ethnicity has become fashionable among those who subscribe to hate.
But that won’t stop me either.
I’ve been called every name under the sun for being Jewish over the years, including being told I don’t look like “the other” Jews --- and I’ve survived.
First, because I have a great sense of humor and have called myself names all my life. Hell, when I went to pick up my daughters at their activities when I was still in my 50s, their teachers and supervisors always assumed I was their grandfather, so I’ve known old for a really long time. That's what happens when you start going gray in your 30s and when your beard turns totally white in your 50s.
And, secondly, because  I will do as my beloved late mother Sylvia advised me years ago: Ignore the ignorant.
That may mean that I also ignore friendly car “honks” from people, but that’s the price that you pay when you’ve endured a lifetime of people who just can’t mind their own business when someone is out walking, jogging or running along the road.
I don’t know why people feel threatened by others on the road who are exercising, but they do --- and they've always felt that way. Just ask any longtime runner or walker.
It's always been that way, and it won’t change, not in these United States of Hate!