I’ll admit it – I’m jogging to avoid old age.
I figure that if I can stay in shape after turning sixty, I can avoid declining health, and fight against whatever comes next.
So I searched for the superman seniors that I know are out there – those odd birds in their 60s, 70s and older whom you read about who seem to overcome the ravages of old age by their astounding athletic accomplishments.
I met John, age 86, at the YMCA locker room just before my swim routine. He is short, slow-moving, stooping, with flesh that hangs about his body like Spanish moss. He quietly told me that he swam for half a mile three times a week at the pool.
This is nothing to sneeze at. A half a mile is 32 lengths of a 25-meter pool, which is the size that you see in most public swimming pools.
Just think – back and forth back and forth – for maybe three-quarters of an hour.
“I used to swim a mile at a time,” he added proudly, “when I was younger.”
Yeah. I guess in the pristine youth of his 60s or 70s.
In the pool, he kept up a steady pace, arm over arm, lap after lap. I’m a lot younger, but swimming in the next lane, I could not maintain the pace of his reliable cadence.
“I’ll keep it up as long as I can,” he told me about the years ahead of him.
One week when I didn’t see him at the pool, I asked where he had been. He explained that he had taken his wife to the doctor.
As good as his Buick
I can imagine him cautiously driving down the street, just barely able to see over the steering wheel, with his wife sitting quietly next to him. He probably drives a rust-free 1988 Buick Regal that’s meticulously kept up and faithfully parked in his garage every day.
John is a quiet guy. I imagine that if you saw him picking up his newspaper on the front porch, or pushing a grocery cart with his wife in the store, he would not look remarkable – like the super athlete that he was.
I mentioned him to my doctor and about other super athletes like this whom I’ve met. And my desire to get in better shape, to run faster, or maybe longer, than I have been in the 5K races that I’ve begun.
“Don’t think that way,” he opined. “Other men in their 50s have poorer health. And you might die some day of something else entirely.”
Sure, don’t push it. It’s good to be humble.
I know there are a lot of people out there my own age and younger with various illnesses, such as diabetes, heart problems, cancer and so on. They must carry their crosses.
While there are people who have been blessed with good health, we cannot take complete credit for it. Some of it is in the genes, or just what’s dealt to you in life.
But like John, you do what you can while you are able.
Image by WOKANDAPIX from Pixabay