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January 1, 2006, I quit my steady job and set out on the road to becoming a retired person. But I knew ahead of time that I could not simply go home and watch TV and become a couch potato. Therefore I set a number of goals. One of them was to publish my book, Insider Dreams that I have been working on for a number of years and I have done that. Another was to join the Toastmasters and I have done that, although it's just a beginning. But there was another goal that was much more demanding than all the rest, and that was to prepare myself for the Tulsa Run, a 15K race set for November 11, 2006.

And to compound the matter, I have never run in any kind of race and I had no idea what it would take to prepare for such a distance. One person, Jack Manley, who has been running the :%$frac12; mile track at the Pryor City Park for thirty years told me, "Ben, you better get yourself some running gear. Those jeans will rub you raw!"

Jack stayed after me and I did everything he said and more, but before the first month was out I had developed a sharp pain in my right side and it took my breath away. The instant both feet were off the ground and one of them touched the ground, the pain was there. I was beginning to think I could not run and was afraid to try again for fear the pain would still be there and I would have to admit defeat. But I did not let that stop me and walked for a month, gradually increasing my speed and distance until I was walking at a fast pace for up to six miles.

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Then one day, determined not to fail, I gathered all my courage and stamina about me and started to run again. That is I went through the motions of running but at a pace much slower than I was walking and kept one foot on the ground at all times. I did that for a partial lap then walked then ran and continued that practice for another month.

At about the same time the new Pryor Recreation Center opened and Betty and I bought a years membership and we began to workout on Tuesday and Thursday. And by the middle of May I was running 18 laps at the park and ten laps the days Betty and I were not at the recreation center. I did that each week and was feeling really good but also realized my efforts were on a gravel path and the Tulsa Run would take place on asphalt and concrete, and I did not know what to expect once I was out on the road.

A month later I bought a second pair of running shoes and a new pair of shorts and began running three miles to the park and three miles back including some laps around the park to add distance.

Everything was going great until one day I let my foot slip off an uneven section of asphalt and twisted my ankle. It hurt horribly and I almost fell but continued to run and the ankle quit hurting after a mile or so. But near the end of the nine-mile run my left calf, the same side as the twisted ankle, started to tighten up then popped and a sharp pain shot through the muscle and it was a struggle to walk.

A few days later I took a total body conditioning class at the recreation center and hurt my back and could barely straighten up. Also one evening I bent over in the back yard to pull some weeds and a sharp pain grabbed my left hip and I fell to the ground.

My world had begun to unravel and I was not sure if I would ever recover. Still I continued to workout at the recreation center and run the three miles to the park and back.

But there were also other problems. One morning, two dogs got after me. One of them, a big brown cur glanced at me then across the road to a German Shepard, as if asking him what they were going to do with me, then both of them came after me. I yelled and screamed till they gave up the chase then detoured around them the next day. But that was two months ago and since that time, I have found a grove.

Yesterday morning I arose early, finished a bowl of oatmeal and pulled my running gear on. Afterward I exited the garage door into the darkness and ran east on 17th Street, past the Lincoln elementary school then north on Oklahoma Street, past the largest house in Pryor to 9th Street. There I turned left up a hill, past the high school on my left and the recreation center on the right to Elliot then ran past the fire station on the corner to Park Street.

I entered the park at the southwest corner and ran east along the south side toward the lake. It was cool and quiet and a little damp and I could hear the rhythmic sound of the gravel shuffling at my feet.

Running down the east side I could hear the sound of grass being stretched then pulled as a big drake and several other ducks grazed beside the water. Then, directly ahead of me, the soft pitter-patter of a mother duck and her eight babies as they hurried across my path.

On the north side I ran through a deep draw and up the other side then around a sand volleyball court and up a slight hill back to the southwest corner of the park. I continued to circle the :%$frac12; mile track a number of times before exiting back to Park Street and the three miles back home.

I gave it all I had the last half-mile, running west along 15th Street behind the Meadow Trace apartments then two blocks south to 17th Street and up the hill to Marietta.

Entering the driveway from 17th Place I clicked my stopwatch then collapsed against the side of my pickup truck.

Gasping for breath I glanced down at the numbers on my stopwatch and saw the time and thought, Wow! Tulsa Run, Yeah!