Birthday benchmarks: celebrating each year with a challenge - Brief Article

Melpomene Journal, Spring-Summer, 2002 by Anne Dimock

Staying motivated in any exercise program can be difficult, even for the new CEO of Melpomene Institute! Growing older may not make it any easier, but it doesn't have to detract from the fun.

When I turned 30, 1 began a practice that I still continue -- I commemorate each birthday with some sort of physical challenge that I connect back to the number of my birthday. When I turned 30, I ran my first race -- 3.0 miles. When I turned 40, I swam 40 laps in the pool. For some years I biked 38, 41 and 42 miles. Other years it was jogging for 36, 39 or 43 minutes. The point was to find a goal that would be a bit challenging for me, train for it and, by the time my July birthday came around, I'd feel better about turning a year older -- or at least be sufficiently distracted!

A couple of weeks after my 44th birthday, which I commemorated by doing 44 repetitions in my weight training, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. My treatment was arduous and it sent me spiraling backwards. When birthday number 45 came up, all I could do was walk .45 of a mile. Over the next several years I achieved modest gains in strength and stamina, and found renewed motivation in small incremental gains.

In a few short weeks, I will celebrate one of those watershed birthdays, the one preceded by an invitation to join AARP. I will also celebrate my five-year anniversary of cancer survivorship. I started thinking quite a while ago about how to commemorate this special year. I didn't want some sort of silly "Over The Hill" party; and what sort of physical challenge could I connect with the number 50 that would capture the importance of this special year?

The celebratory aspects of the five-year cancer survival anniversary mitigate whatever twinge I might feel about turning 50. Put another way, I'm just glad I'm still here. It matters less to me whether this year I swim 50 lengths, walk 5.0 miles or bike for 50 minutes -- the point this year is that I'm still around and able to do all of those.

Just a little scary

I decided to rake myself our on an adventure trip to do something I've never done and go somewhere I've never been. My criteria were: it had to be physically challenging for me; it had to be someplace really neat; it had to be something I thought I'd enjoy; it had to be offered as a women's trip; and occur within one month on either side of my July birthday. Oh, and it had to be just a little scary.

It was great fun perusing all the possibilities -- bicycling in the Dordogne region of France, hiking the pilgrimage trail to Santiago de Compostela in Spain, trekking in Nepal -- I felt like a kid in a candy shop! In the end, I chose a trip a little closer to home that met every one of my criteria. In early August, I will be part of a women's sea kayaking trip in the Broken Islands archipelago off the west coast of Vancouver Island, BC. For seven days I will explore channels and inlets, tidal pools, rainforests, and the flora and fauna of the Pacific Northwest. It's a part of the world I've always wanted to explore.

I've never kayaked before (that's the scary part!) but experience isn't required for this trip; just the willingness to learn. And a little upper-body strength training would come in handy too (that's the challenging part). I have visions of myself bobbing like a little cork on the ocean; sometimes it seems crazy and other times thrilling. Nothing in my background prepared me to live this kind of life.

But what is life for if not to try new adventures and challenge oneself? To paraphrase a popular tee-shirt slogan -- "Whoever dies with most life experience -- wins!" Turning 50 is more than an occasion to prove I can still exert myself -- it is a privilege. That's the gift of every extra year. I can't wait to decide what I'm going to do when I turn 60!