Last I checked, I was 25 years old, kissing a real cowboy on my birthday.  He wasn’t anybody I really knew but happened to be in a situation where the idea – seemed like a good idea.  Well, my life span has more than doubled and that cowboy is a distant memory.  Where did the time go?  The Olympics.  The events.  The career and the career changes.  The miles under my feet and my tires.  The laps swum.  I could swear I was still that 25 year old… until last night.

Yesterday, after a full two months away from the gym and lifting weights – I lifted.  The one thing that I have done regularly for 30 or more years and I ached.  I ached through the night.  It woke me up.  It made me groan.  But still, I relished the feeling.  Weird, huh?

Since I stopped running marathons and doing Ironman competitions in 2008, the thing I miss most after the experience is that stiffness that takes over the body.  The one that would wake me up in the night with every move.  The stiffness walking down stairs the next day.  I missed it – until today where I awakened the dragon.  I’m not 25 anymore.  I’m the mirror image of it.  I’m 52.  The old grey mare, she ain’t what she used to be.  But… does she really want to be 25 anymore?  Easy answer.  Nope.

I have enjoyed many athletic endeavors in this lifetime of mine and I am the first to say that I’ve pushed hard.  Maybe too hard for a girl that was mediocre at best.  Now, it’s about what makes me happy.

It makes me happy:

• to get out on my bike.  Road or commuter – it doesn’t matter.
• to get in the pool or even better the lake and swim.  Swimming is freeing.
• to run along the pathways or trails.
• to get out on the golf course, the paddle board, the yoga mat, the surf board.
• to dive below the surface of the ocean and look at the fish.
• and yes, to get into the weight room and make myself sore from exertion.

I think that it’s all about the experience.  Maybe I’m a sensory-junkie – but I like to feel the WHOLE of it all.  Whatever it is.  It makes me feel alive.  Even at my ripe age.

What makes you feel ALIVE?

LiveSplendidly!