Is It Time for the Plain Sock Life?

Life will keep you down, if you let it. For almost a week, we had no internet due to someone drilling a posthole and cutting the phone line - yes, we have dial-up, hence no blog posts. And for almost a week my back and hips have been giving me the blues causing serious pain and serious doubts as to whether I can continue this training. Maybe I am finished? When I look at the race results of triathlons, Ironman events, etc, I see that the number of participants and finishers really taper off. By the time my age group is reached there are seldom more than half a dozen; sometimes only one or two. What happened to the numbers in younger age groups I once raced against? Perhaps it could just be life, and the toll it takes on the human body and more importantly, the human will, that cuts the numbers of survivors. So, with the aching back that won't seem to go away, the question rears its ugly head: is this it? Am I finished? Is there going to be even one less in my age group results? I pray about this with no clear answer. This morning, I reached for some athletic socks to wear and walked in the other room with them. When I began to get dressed and to put on the socks, I saw they were not the plain socks I thought I had, but socks for biking that I got in the packet of the half-ironman distance event I did. Maybe I am reading more into this simple mistake, but I began to fill my water bottles, pump up the long deflated tires on my bike. Perhaps there is still enough "stuff in the basement" that I really don't want the "plain sock life" just yet. So today, my prayer is for my name to remain among the few on the older age group results. And, when my name is finally taken away, I will have the assurance that I have "not gone gently into the night."