Despite all of the athletic things I did as a young man, I end 2011 with the feeling that even though I am 62, I may be as physically fit and even more than I ever have been. It's been eight years since a hip replacement and the end of smoking. It's been two full years of bicycling with gusto and hiking with passion. If the tale is in the tape, I covered 4,324.59 intentionally man-powered miles:
- 4,034.69 on my bike (Mom did 2,467.18)
- 40.19 swimming in the pool (Mom did an incredible 83.72)
- 249.59 hiking in the desert (we always hike together)
I started the year with a biking goal of 3,000 miles after doing 2,700 in 2010. Once I knew I would get there, I wanted to knock of 3,500 so I could say I biked from Presque Isle, Maine to San Diego. I'm pleased to have knocked that off and then some. We hike with a Garmin Forerunner. Over those 250 hiking miles, we climbed in elevation 35,189 feet, nearly 7 miles, some 6,000 feet higher than Mt. Everest, and we were on the trails for 73 hours in the process.
Mom turns 60 in January. We're feeling pretty good about ourselves physically, mentally and spiritually. Life is Grand, and it will get even better.
