At 50 I thought I could do anything I set my mind to do. I decided to run fifty races for every year  with one marathon. I did the New York City marathon a few times already and felt another one at 50 was a decent challenge, like doing fifty races in a year wasn't. I was an overachiever then so much so that on the back of my racing Bib, I listed overachiever as my current medical condition. Fortunately, I was unemployed part of the year. Most of the races were 5Ks (3.1 miles) on the weekends. I had a quilt made of the shirts, hung it on a wall at the top of my stairs and every time I looked at it, I smiled at the memory of doing them. Now it's folded in the closet and a tired feeling comes over me whenever I see it.

When I turned 70 I ran a five mile race in New Jersey and because I felt so good afterwards,  I thought I would do six more that year, one for each decade. Well that didn't happen.  The good feeling only lasted on race day.

With the overachiever issue gnawing at me, I decided a 10k would be a challenge I'd like to achieve at 71.  It took me another fourteen months to do the 10k and it didn't happen in an organized race. Looking for a race close to home, I checked the running magazines for upcoming local races.  At 50 I travelled as far south as Atlanta GA and  as far north as Falmouth MA to get fifty races in.   At 70,  I wanted to walk out the front door and begin the race. It had to be challenging and convenient to home.

One Saturday last winter, while out on my training walk for the 10k, I saw orange cones blocking one lane on the street with a few bikers passing me in the lane. When I saw the runners following them I realized that this is a race. I asked a volunteer what was happening and he told me it was a 10k race for runners, walkers and bikers.    It didn't bother me that I missed the race right in my neighborhood. Evidently I was looking in the wrong place to find my race convenient to home.

About that 10k race I did not do, I walked a 10k a little over 2 hours on a treadmill at the gym. When I finished,  it didn't matter that I wasn't in a race wearing a bib and assigned to an age group or getting a shirt to wear afterwards. I experienced a personal reward. i felt, a quiet inner celebration of getting conquering another challenged.
I suspect I will think longer about doing races, like I did at fifty, before applying. Now I see myself being a volunteer cheering the runners and walkers. I did say I would do the 5 mile race in NJ every two years so I better start training for it now. That will give me less than a year to prepare.
In the meantime, thinking like a fifty year old with the aches and stiffness in the body of a seventy year old, I wake up ready to take on the new day as a contented senior citizen. I have come to accept that what I did or wanted to do at 50 doesn't always transfer to the 70s

As Nora Ephron told the graduating senior at her alma mater, "The first act of your life is over.  Welcome to the best years of your lives" I will continue to enjoy every day retired doing exactly what I want, when I want. Indeed these are the best years.