Salli Benedict thought she was over-the-hill in 1987.
“I had just turned 40 and I thought, ‘I’m so old.’” Not a sentiment Benedict would tolerate today from her workout class, most of whom are twice that age.
It was the same year Benedict, now 62, turned 40 that she took a “wellness retirement training” course through the Body Recall and started teaching an exercise class for seniors. Initially, the class was part of her job with UNC’s School of Public Health, then she taught it through Chapel Hill Parks and Recreation before it moved to its current home with Orange County. Though the class has changed some to reflect evolving thought on exercise theory, Salli’s Senior Workout, at 23 years and counting, is one of the oldest continuously running exercise classes in the Triangle.read more
It’s Labor Day weekend, and thus you are obligated to play. Some thoughts on the subject … .
Coast
Earl permitting, there’s good reason to head to Wilmington this weekend: the March of Dimes 5K Run for Healthier Babies. I mean, who wouldn’t run 3.1 miles for a healthy, happy baby? Or walk a mile? Or sleep walk?read more
I’m going to Colorado next week to play. I wasn’t planning to play hard: some nice day hikes, a road ride or two. At least that was the plan until I started hearing about my friends’ recent epic adventures in the Centennial State.
My cycling compagno Alan Nechemias went to Colorado two weeks ago and did the 27-mile ride from Idaho Springs, elevation 7,600 feet, to the top of Mt. Evans, elevation 14,130 feet (that’s 6,530 feet of vertical climbing, for the subtraction challenged). Alan is a mountain goat: he’s been doing all the major Southeast mountain centuries — Assault on Mount Mitchell, Six Gaps, Blue Ridge Brutal, Blood, Sweat and Gears, to name a few — for the last 15 years. And while those rides all have 10,000-plus feet of vertical climbing, the ride up Mt. Evans started 916 feet below the highest finish of his Southeast rides (Mount Mitchell, at 6,684 feet). Alan lives in Chapel Hill, elevation 510 feet: to go from 510 feet to 7,600 feet, then climb another 6,530 feet on a bike and only get “a little light-headed at one point” boggles my hypoxic mind.read more
We’d been on the water less than an hour when Marcy had a small epiphany regarding a work problem she’d been wrestling with. “I guess that’s why the boat’s called a ‘Perception,’” she said after sharing her breakthrough. Other good names for recreational kayaks: Insight. Enlightenment. Not-A-Thought-in-My-Brain.read more
Wednesday morning, I did a one hour workout with a group of women, most of whom were in their 80s. Wednesday evening, I did a half-marathon training run with a group mostly in their 20s. Despite being at opposite ends of the demographic scale, the similarities between the two groups were more striking than the differences.read more