Runners celebrate Downtown Greenway and Dr. Dick Rosen
The Run 4 the Greenway is a fundraiser for Action Greensboro's Downtown Greenway in Greensboro.
Talk about race-day adrenaline.
Dr. Dick Rosen, over those last 15 strides or so, quickened a pace that had already exceeded his expectations. Then he thrust his fists skyward as he crossed the finish line of the Run 4 the Greenway and approached fellow runners and volunteers who rang cowbells, yelled, clapped and marveled while awaiting his arrival.
"It is beautiful," he said of the post-race scene at LoFi Park.
To a person, all were younger than the 91-year-old retired internist. And in those moments, the adrenaline rush they felt must've equaled his own as he completed the four-mile Downtown Greenway run in downtown Greensboro.
"I want to be like him when I grow up," one spectator said.
Moments later, Greensboro mayor Nancy Vaughan offered Rosen her congratulations, too.
Rosen, the final finisher, ended his run in one hour, 13 minutes and 12.63 seconds, a pace of 18:18 per mile. During a recent recon run around the greenway, he needed 85 minutes, although on that day police officers weren't blocking intersections for him.
"There was some time spent at each intersection," he said of his practice run, "but I don't think it was 12 minutes."
Rosen, an advocate of Action Greensboro's Downtown Greenway, said during a 2016 interview that he began running at age 42 to improve his tennis fitness. He ran in races that included the greats Bill Rodgers and Frank Shorter. Fast-forward nearly a half-century on a late Saturday afternoon, and Rosen credited his current running routine, having gone farther on training runs than the Run 4 the Greenway would require.
"I have covered as long as seven miles," he said. "So it's like a marathoner who has trained at 40 miles."
Meanwhile, there's no off day.
"I'll probably run three or five (miles)," he said of Sunday plans. "And then I'll hit serves. I'm working assiduously to try and never hit a second serve because it's so terrible. I need to get my first one in all the time.
"And then I'll lift weights."