I’m 10 months into my journey to ultimate fitness – ultimate fitness being a subjective term. This journey, which I’ve dubbed Project 60+, is stopping at the “pretty darn fit for a 60-year-old” station. It is not stopping at the “fit like a navy seal” station. I assure you this is a voyage that anyone can take. So far, I’m glad to report the trip has gone pretty well. Oh, there’s been some ups and downs along the way. Challenges like navigating through various holidays without eating like a bear headed to hibernation. Or the entire month where I lost my mojo and barely worked out at all. Then there was the restart where I threw my back out on the very first exercise – I don’t recommend that. Recently, I got back on my bike only to break a finger – don’t ask. But there’s been successes too. Forty lost pounds of success. My blood pressure is no longer threatening to boil over. I feel great and have amazing energy. So, as you can see, the trip has ebbed and flowed.
I’m on target to hit my goal of being in the best shape of my life by the time I’m sixty in September. But how does one prove that? Am I really in better shape than I was in my twenties or thirties? Is that even possible? It’s not like I can go back in time and measure the current version of me against the younger me. I certainly feel as good as I have in years and I’m as light as I’ve been since my school days. The only way to prove this new level of fitness is through a test. The challenge is to do something that I wouldn’t have been able to do at earlier points in life.
Initially, I thought I might cap the project off by running a marathon. Unfortunately, they’re not running in-person races and that’s a problem for me. Since the pandemic started, all races have shifted to a “virtual format”. That’s where you send them your money and then go out and run your own course by yourself. They send you a bib number (not sure why) and finisher’s medal. Is it me or is this paying to go out for a run? I don’t want to call it a scam but if Bernie Madoff thought of it, he may have switched from being a “financial advisor” to virtual race organizer. So, a marathon is out of the question as are the obstacle races like Tough Mudder and the Spartan Race. I have no doubt they’ll all be back next season but that doesn’t help me in my current situation.
I was going through our local paper a couple of months ago when I came across an article about a group of people working to build a new trail. They were turning the old CP Rail line that ran from Goderich, on the shores of Lake Huron, to Guelph into a bike/hike trail. The trail head is about a 20-minute drive from my house and Goderich is my mother’s hometown. I thought wouldn’t that be a really cool bike ride. Then a crazier thought hit me – wouldn’t that make an awesome run! 127 K end to end – that’s actually the length of 3 marathons. I soon regained my sanity and moved through the paper to the horoscopes – nothing like taking your mind off crazy thoughts with crazy predictions. My Virgo forecast didn’t thrill me and by the time I hit the obituaries the thought of the trail had returned, and it brought a friend. Not only would this be an awesome run but the perfect cap to Project 60+.
The obituaries were a fitting place to pick up the (internal) discussion. I certainly didn’t want to end up as a subject in this section of the paper but a 127K run might just force the issue. Now in running circles a run of this length is considered an ultra-marathon. Believe it or not people actually run these all the time. In fact, they’re generally 100-mile races. I am not an ultra-marathoner, nor do I really want to be one, but as a one-off event, to prove my fitness, this ultra-marathon captured my imagination.
I must admit that I run with a bit of a chip on my shoulder. You see I was born with a defective heart. I had it successfully repaired many years ago, but I’ve always lived with the stigma a “disability” can bring. I don’t feel like I have any physical limits, but the truth is I have had a surgically repaired heart whether I like it or not. I can remember one doctor telling me, after the surgery, that I’d had a very good result. “You probably won’t run a marathon, but you should live to a ripe old age”. Even at 10 years old that limiting comment pissed me off. It has stuck with me all these years. In fact, I have run a marathon but now I’m going to run an ultra-marathon and I’m doing it so that I will live to a ripe old age. You see I believe we all need to be active every day. We don’t have to run marathons, but we do have to move, breathe hard and sweat daily. It is how we evolved and it’s also how we can hold back the effects aging brings. We can’t stop ourselves from getting old, but we can keep the worst of it at bay. The goal isn’t to live forever but to live as well as we can for as long as we can.
This event is also about testing limits. I think that we’re all capable of much more than we believe. Our thoughts and ideas put limits on what we do physically and mentally. Change those thoughts and the sky is the limit as to what we can accomplish. I want to see what I’m capable of with this run.
So, it’s the G-to-G run and it will take place on September 24 -26th, just after my 60th birthday. Real ultra-marathoners would do this run in one shot. I’m not an ultra-marathoner so I’m going to do it over three days (a marathon a day for three days) – no point overdoing the foolishness of this event. I’ll keep an ongoing training log as I have no doubt there will be adventures along the way. I’m also extending an open invitation to anyone who would like to join me on a portion of the route – don’t worry the pace will be civil and there’ll probably be a laugh or two. The more the crazier…I mean…merrier.
My training has begun, and plans are being set. Details will be forthcoming. If nothing else, I hope you’ll enjoy reading and living vicariously through my adventures which I’ll document here. I may not be as fit as a “navy seal” but I will be as fit “a sixty-year-old” can be and perhaps the first Grandpa to run the G to G trail. Stay tuned.