Well, today is Birthday #48 for me. Where did all that time go??? Seems like just yesterday I was 34 and jetting around with my new job (the same one I currently have). However... there is a big difference in how I looked at 34 and how I look and feel today!!! I am going to attach a picture of the guys I work with just so you all can see what I have to deal with! Check them out! They are a bunch of young 30-somethings and they are all smart and hot!!! Can you imagine how much fun working with them is? The odd thing about aging is in my mind I am still their age... but then I realize just how much I can't keep up with them! When we get together for meetings...I have to go to sleep early so I can function the next day. They all go out and whoop it up... just like I did when I was in my 30's! But I can't do that stuff anymore. More than one drink and I PAY huge the next day with just feeling plain ol' crappy. I am not talking a hangover, just feeling lousy and not up with my A-game.
Now take a closer look at the picture! This was taken just last month - we met in Austin for a Quarterly Meeting and got to spend the end of the day on Lake Austin with Wood's Skiboat! Me and these YOUNG men! Tried the Wake boarding thing and loved it. Then, for the next full 5 days I could barely walk because my arms, legs and back were full of sore muscles!!!! I had used muscles that I guess I don't use anymore because they were crying out, no... SCREAMING in pain for a good part of the following week!
So what did I do? Go buy a wakeboard. It was so much fun, I have to get good at it!
And why do I run? Because some time has slipped by. I will never have the body back that I had when I was their age. I will never have the energy like I had back then. Just like the wrinkles that have begun to appear around my eyes, my forehead and my smile... my body is changing.
I work with some pretty cool physicians and one once told me that running is one of the best all around exercises you can do for overall health. Well... I am now 48 - there is nothing seriously wrong with me and that is something to be very thankful for. I know there is a time out there, somewhere in the future, when my body will require me to stop running. I have no idea when that time will be... middle age? Is there a chance I could be like the 80+ year old guy who ran in my last marathon? I don't know and I can't guess. But this I do know: If I keep up my running and do these big runs once a year at least - maybe I can put that day of hanging up the running shoes off a little further into the future.
Nothing sucks more than to have to acknowledge the aging process. I had this discussion with my 50isthenew30 e-Trainer friend on Wood's Skiboat in Austin - (Yes! He is in the picture! Check him out - 2nd from the Left! And you thought all my boys were in their 30's! My e-Trainer/PowerLifter Buddy is 50 and doesn't he look hot for 50???!!!! ) Well we have worked together for 14+ years and both have stayed long enough to get really good at what we do... and ... grow a whole bunch older than most of our peers! It was a bittersweet conversation about the good ol' days and the adjustments necessary now that we find ourselves 15 years older than the rest. Aging is an odd thing. Getting smarter and calmer and more thoughtful are awesome products of age. Hopefully we use those things to push our bodies to stay as young as possible too.
And that's why I run. And that's why my longest distance ever came when I was 47 years old. And there is no reason - other than laziness - that I can't do it again when I am 48. And hopefully, 49, 50, 51, 52... etc! You get the picture!
Now I have to go do a 3 Mile run - according to my training schedule. Judging by the heat, it will be a walk/run, but I will go 3 miles. What a great way to celebrate this birthday - breathing in the beautiful Sonoran Desert! Sharing the trail with JackRabbits, Chipmunks, Lizards, Cactus Wrens, Harris Hawks and (if I am lucky like yesterday)... a sighting of my Texas LongHorn Bull friend that someone has turned out to graze! Not a bad start to year 49... What a wonderful birthday celebration - the ability to run - at dawn in a majestic desert.
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