A condensed version of this story by our print alter ego appeared Oct. 12 in both the Charlotte Observer and The News & Observer of Raleigh. It appears here with additional information and links.
It’s about indulging yourself. It’s about pleasure. It’s about listening to your body and doing what it wants to do, not what some hard-body drill instructor wants it to do.
October? Already?
Coast
It’s Big Sweep Day across the state, the day each year when paddlers hit their favorite waterways and rid them of the styrofoam, the basketballs, the milk jugs and assorted other detritus that accumulates along the banks. You can find a rundown of events statewide at the North Carolina Office of Environmental Education & Public Affairs. Events such as Big Sweep Columbus County, where a ranger-led canoe caravan will scour the banks of this Carolina Bay beginning at 3 p.m. Sunday. Only two requirements: 1) You must register in advance (by calling 910-646-4748), b) You must know how to swim.
When I sign up for a run or ride benefiting a cause, I usually have some idea what the cause is. When I signed up for The Magnificent Mile on Sept. 19, I had no idea what primary lateral sclerosis or spastic paraplegia were. Fortunately, I signed up at The Athlete’s Foot in Cameron Village last week and Sarah Roberts-Witt was on hand. Unfortunately for Sarah, but fortunately for the cause of motor neuron diseases, there probably wouldn’t be a Magnificent Mile.
Sitting in the Hampton Roads Transit bus at 5:44 yesterday morning, a sobering feeling came over me. Glancing around, my fellow runners all had bib numbers in the five digits. More competent looking runners than I bore numbers such as 11256, 18097, 20876. With 6645 plastered across my chest, I felt like a poseur.
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.