“4.84?” I asked my running partner. “4.84 what?” “Miles,” she replied, double checking her wrist-mounted runners GPS. Awaiting direction before Thursday evening’s run. We’d been out just under an hour, we’d done a 12-minute warmup jog, did some hill work, did the 12 minutes back to the store. Two and a half miles, three tops, was my guess. “No, it’s a five-mile workout,” coach Tim Clark confirmed a few minutes…

I ran back in my 20s, back when my body was more tolerant of the physical toll of running 25 to 35 miles a week. I ran 10Ks (pr of 40:04) and a smattering of 5Ks (20:02 pr). Toward the end of my 29th year my knees and back had had enough. Do something else, my doctor advised. I drifted to the more joint-friendly swimming and cycling, my staples for…