Okay so firstly I think I will half confess, half claim that I managed to waddle my way about Park Run both today and last week. I’ve set myself the somewhat impossible task of achieving 50 consecutive weeks of reaching my Vitality points this year. Yes that means 900 points a week for the year less two weeks for just in case; who says humans don’t don’t run on proverbial lab rat wheels? Still it’s a wheel I’m choosing to run on.
I’ll put this all in some kind of context with another confession. I turned 40 in December. It’s not (yet) an event I’m embracing. In fact, internally there’s more a kind of absolute refusal to embrace the number much like a horse’s stubborn refusal to drink water despite being taken to the trough. This is why I started out the year with “Everything must go”. It’s not just the usual New Year’s Resolutions, there’s more too it.
“Everything MUST go – can I give 40 away too? Maybe not on my passport but perhaps in the way I live it’s possible.
If that’s the case then the thinking that I have to define my age, needs to go.
On this morning’s park run, a lady whom I’m guessing was near to double my age, effortlessly and gracefully cantered past me as if I were standing still, much like a gazelle bolts past a hedgehog without so much as a glance. I’m not suggesting I’m a hedgehog although I did feel like it at times. What struck me almost immediately however and more so than ever before was the thought that actually age doesn’t really matter.
I’m extremely fortunate to be blessed with a great number of friends, many of whom are men and women into their fifties, sixties and seventies who are active, energetic and downright gorgeous. They study, they exercise, they work, they run, they horse ride, they date, they travel and the ladies wear red lipstick that would make Channel proud.
The more and more I see in the world, the more I think we need to question things; most of all what we believe to be true. Think back to the low fat, high carb diet – nowadays it’s a complete no no. I’m not saying you need to go paleo. Whilst I am talking about what you eat, I’m ALSO talking proverbially; age wise, money wise, work wise…. Whilst the year you were born dictates how old you are on paper, we each get to decide to some extent, how we wish to live. And that’s why I’m working towards gazelle status for 40 and beyond. It seems like a worthwhile pursuit.
I’d like to end off by acknowledging the man (in the video below) who gets many, if not all, runners young and old to the end of the Woodlands Park Run each Saturday. I’m amazed that, each week, this man volunteers his time to make the dreams of others come true. What comes to mind is “Give that man a Bells” but only because marketers are so damned good at their jobs. No, not a Bells but a Medal! Give that man a medal. That’s dude!
And on that note give yourself a medal too! Adulting is not the easiest of games and if you’ve got this far, you deserve one too! Keep shining and have a POWER week!
