What is "aging?"
I'm almost past it...but still moving!
The average age at death for U.S. males is 75; I’m just short of beginning my 9th decade….
So, at my age most men have been dead for 15 years; it’s a sobering thought
But most people—certainly most Americans—do not lead lives that extend their “healthspan”
Instead they picture aging as have a long lifespan
That is, aging is more than just “getting old”
I’ve saved the Sipress cartoon above for years: now the hunched & bald old guy shrinking with each birthday looks rather like me!
I began running in my mid-40s, mainly at the urging of my tennis partner then: best friend & colleague, he urged me to come running with him following our regular singles tennis games
This was back when Nike had just invented specialty running shoes—their famed “waffle soles”—& I got a pair to run in as soon as I realized what a great workout it is
There are few forms of exercise that recruit all your systems: muscle, heart, breath & endurance
Once I had learned enough to run the daily 10kms that became my pattern, I began to enjoy the level of stamina & strength it revealed
Before long I found triathlon; the sport began in California at the end of the 1970s, so that by the mid-1980s the first races were staged in Wisconsin, where I was teaching
I’d been a swimmer since my youth in California, but never a serious cyclist; now I bought a road bike and began to learn how to train for all three sports
All this biography relates to aging in this way: everybody ‘gets old’ at more or less the same rate, but being “old” is better when you’re fit
After several years of age-group triathlon racing I learned of “Ironman”
“Ironman” was created by several athletes in Honolulu in 1978, by combining the “Waikiki Rough Water Swim” (2.4m in the ocean W of the Waikiki reef); the “Round Island” bike race (112mi around the perimeter of Oahu), & the Honolulu marathon (26.4 mi around the city)
The 9- to 13hr Ironman triathlon eventually became the “World Championships” and I qualified for the first time in 1996; I was 60yrs old
I began by pointing out that I’m more than a decade past the age-at-death of most American men; I still cycle daily—riding about 200mi/wk—& swim 3-4x/wk; my running life ended at 70 with spinal surgery
So: I’m aging well; not merely in terms of years but in terms of what I can continue to do
Thus aging does not have to mean “declining,” as it does for most; indeed, it can be fun!
I ran for a while and my knees ended that, but I loved it. I’m working on walking and strength. But I was just thinking about this today—Vitality. As I age, I’d like to have vitality. You always inspire me. I may not be a triathlete, but I’m doing what I can. I don’t want to just exist, like a potted plant collecting dust.
Congrats for all you have done and continue to do.