Truth vs The Facts

Frank Lloyd Wright is credited with saying that the truth is more important than the facts. I like that quote almost as much as I like his designs and approach to architecture. Functional, harmonic, soulful. Fact are very useful but they are do not always serve our higher needs. 

It is factual to say that we lose muscle mass at a very steady rate eatery year after the age of 40.

It is factual to say that the older we get the slower we become.

It is factual to say that we lose our range of motion at about the same rate as losing muscle. 

It is factual to say that we are of the nature to become sick and die. 

It is factual to suggest that sarcopenia, osteoporosis, colon cancer and obesity will eventually run us down and devour us.

Facts say a man cannot outrun a horse.

But is it the truth?

While it might be true (and factual) for a huge segment of the population, it is not my truth. Nor is it truth for the folks I surround myself with. You might say that we roll to a different drummer. Basically because we don't care much about the facts. The very thing that the facts suggest I should no longer be able to accomplish, are the one's square in the cross-hairs of my scope. It is not impossible. Improbable, perhaps, but not impossible.

Take yesterday as an example. Just another day at the local races. The North Olympic Discovery Marathon snakes it's way from Sequim to Port Angeles, WA. We ran the half under a cloud covered gray day. I was on a mission. So was Stephanie. I wanted to test my fitness (remember it is June already, with Ironman Canada now 10 weeks away) and see if I could run a half in less time that in 1997 when I ran a 1:38 in Seattle. Stephanie was gunning to best a 1:58 performance set in 1983 in San Diego. We were out for some half-marathon truth, not a age-tempered factual spin on loss of muscle mass. 

I won't kid you, I went hard. Sometimes the truth (or the attempt to find it) hurts. There were the usual dramas and stories compiled over the course, along with the requisite physical and physiological gamesmanship. It was fun, as it always is, chasing the truth. At kilometer five I had it at max and remember wondering if I had the confidence, courage and cadence to keep it for much longer. I was able to maintain that output for the duration and benefited from the effort in myriad ways. Another slice of truth revealed. 

Stephanie found it too, matching my comparative time reduction from other races, other age groups, she taking the gold in her AG convincingly. The truth is that my truth was delivered in the form of competition against self, or against my former self from 15 years ago. The facts say that I am supposed to be slowing down. 

Truth reveals otherwise. 

Pics: Top to Bot yesterday in the Great Northwest (Sequim to Port Angeles): An interesting take on the tree of life, Stephanie posed with the RD after her stunning win, the magic cat busker and a snapshot of Kiel Reijnen of Bainbridge Island, WA, the feature of the video-interview we conducted last week after his bronze performance at the USA National Road Racing Championships in Greenville, SC.

TRUTH.