Affiliated With the Non-Profit FTC, Not the Commercial Version

After finishing the Micanopy ten mile race organized by the Florida Track Club, I was chatting with a congenial middle-aged runner, who's in the 50-59 age group and finished a short time after me.  He's a member of a parallel organization to the Florida Track Club, called Team Florida Track Club, and which aims to go deeper into training for runners who consider themselves more serious in the sport...like elites, for example.  They are a commercial organization (.com) and  charge $25 per month for just the most basic membership and steadily go up from there for each added perk.  I, on the other hand, am a member of the original, non-profit FTC (a .org group) and, with my seniors discount, shell out 25 bucks for the entire year.  The two groups together schedule and attend the same events throughout the calendar year and conduct them likewise.  I have no intention of ever joining up with "Team Rocket", as I call the dot-com group, referring to the splashy group of Pokemon antagonists from the TV cartoon series, and I frankly don't dig their "leader" talking down to the rest of us, telling us to push it even with the walk to the starting line before the race.  Having said that, it's refreshing to know that many runners and walkers like me don't take this sport so damned seriously.  I am competitive as well, and I admit to enjoying passing others on the course, especially toward the end. Yet my priorities are (1) finishing the race while avoiding injury, (2) capturing the experience in my memory, and (3) seeing if I can finish with the best time possible for myself at this stage in my life...and that's all I need.  And if possible, having a pleasant conversation or two with someone like my new friend...who seems to have a refreshingly mature perspective to it all... is definitely an added bonus: I don't need any big-shot self-appointed coach-type yelling and talking down to me like he's some kind of old-school high school phys-ed teacher trying to pass himself off as a drill instructor..