Turning 50 - Part I

When I turn 50 I will be halfway done training for my athletic goal: to set the world record in the 26 mile marathon - the age group record for people 100 years older and above. There are several strings of good logic behind it.

When I was 19 year old I ran my best (not fastest) marathon in 2hrs 29 min. For two of the next three years I was listed as one of the country’s elite marathon runners, in spite of my young age. It is not unusual for the Olympic Gold medal winner in the marathon to be 40 years and older – it is not a young man’s sport. Therefore, I only recently gave up on the idea of winning a gold medal at the Olympics (maybe ten minutes ago).

To finish that quickly, you can not jog – you need to RUN - 26 miles. The average time is 5 ½ minutes per mile and most high schoolers on a sports team can not run 440 yards (1 lap on a track) at that pace. That’s the first beauty of my new goal – you don’t have to run fast (which gets you so out of breath), you just have to survive.

Having this goal also reverses the age positions in my marriage, since there is an age gap. I once fielded the question from my wife of what she should do when I get old. She will be eighty something when I am setting the world marathon record – never asked a second time.

There is the need for vacations. Most people like to work themselves exhausted and look forward to several weeks break here and there. I prefer a two hour break (for intense exercise) several times a week and not to look forward to the stress of travel and routine change. Hence, maintaining the workout schedule is a mid-life necessity for me.