Running with Vince

Vince is nine years older than me and mentally handicapped. I’m not sure if that’s the right term for it and I don’t care. He’s a bit undercooked. He’s slow. He’s Vince. When we talk, Vince’s mumble-y Cajun drawl is hard to follow and I have to ask him to repeat himself which visibly irritates him.

I’ve taken to just saying uh-huh and hoping to put it all together later. It isn’t any less disrespectful than I’d be to anyone else. He seems to get most things I say and remembers well enough. He has a head for numbers and a profound sense of direction.

Vince tends to get a bit stuck on details and it seems can be found repeating them. I’ve always imagined it was a way to make them real having just been reminded that they exist.

Vince has been running for twenty years. He even ran the Philadelphia marathon once. His daddy said that they had to have people running next to him with water as otherwise he would have stopped running and never started again.

About ten years ago he stopped running due to shin splints and only in the last six years started doing 1 mile fun runs and cycling to get back into shape. A few months ago he ran a church 5k and will run another a few days after Valentine’s Day.

When we ran the Saturday after thanksgiving, he ran in jeans and a button down shirt with a fancy western cut belt. He wore a jacket and baseball cap. I can’t remember what was on the cap. I think an American flag.

I took him to Forest Meadows. We walked in about 1/2 mile to warm up and then started running. I kept checking with him. We’d walk when he needed to walk. I kept checking with him. We ran about 1.5 miles when Vince yelled stop and we did. He was panting, hands on knees like the whole time he was sprinting but to look at him running, he seemed composed, focus and steady.

We walked the rest of the way back in to the trail head and talked a bit about running.
He reminded me about his fun runs and his upcoming 5k. I said I knew some milers and they were pretty fast. He said he could do a ten minute mile. I mentioned I had a 1/2 marathon coming up. He said he had cousin who did 1/2 marathons. It went like that.

No great insight, just two runners making small talk. I stopped to pee on the way out and he told me he didn’t need to pee. He ran on to the truck.

We had breakfast at the Waffle House with Vince’s daddy Burke. I sat next to Vince so that mostly Burke and I talked. Burke said he liked things simple like the Waffle House. Waiters and cooks were all the same people.

Burke paid and then we went our separate ways.