Now, it gets real. As of today, I have exactly 364 days to
plan and prepare for what will be the most challenging physical thing I have
ever done. I watched the live stream coverage online of this year’s event
yesterday. The most inspiring and encouraging thing that I saw was the 88 year
old man who finished the course in 16 hours and 50+ minutes, barely within the
allotted 17 hours for official finishers. The final participant crossed the
line with less than a minute to spare. OK, if an 88 year old man can do this and another middle-aged guy can hang in there for nearly 17 hours, I
certainly can. The fact that an 88 year old finished does not take away anything from the magnitude of the
challenge; it just makes me look on in awe at an 88 year old that is capable of
this. What is discouraging is to realize how few people in their 80’s, 70’s, or
even 60’s (my decade now) are remotely capable of physical effort even
approaching a fraction of that required to finish an Ironman triathlon. We have become a nation
of “couch potatoes”, and obese ones at that.
Mark my words. You heard it here first. If we do not realize
a major change in our country’s trajectory away from personal indulgence and dysfunctional eating, and toward personal responsibility and
serious changes in lifestyle, I predict that we are soon going to experience a
collapse in our economy under the weight (no pun intended) of the obese and
their related medical problems, which will overwhelm our medical system and
“break the bank”, Obamacare or no Obamacare. We simply cannot provide Cadillac
level medical care to our citizens if the demand becomes too great. We speak of
the fiscal cliff looming in 2013 when a variety of tax laws and financial
manipulations will possibly send our economy in a downward spiral toward a new
recession like a plummeting out of control airplane "augering in" as Chuck Yeager was fond of saying. What I feel is equally, if not more, possible is the looming “physical” cliff over which our
inactivity is going to throw us. Think rationing of medical
care; think panels of citizens empowered to determine who gets dialysis, who
gets cancer care, who gets a transplant or heart bypass; think no care for
those who, according to actuarial tables, are predicted to pass away
in 6 months or less; think of an entire nation full of elderly people incapable of doing the least bit of physical activity without the assistance of an army of nursing assistants. I see the latter as a huge growth industry for the future. Even when we live longer, that largely means is we are living with more chronic diseases and so we are also living worse. It is going to get ugly.
So, this little project of mine is, I hope, more than just
some individual’s self-centered attempt to prove something to himself by
engaging in conspicuous consumption on an athletic playing field. I hope it
will serve as an impetus for a few readers to get up off the couch and do
something to change the trajectory of their lives, as a source of
encouragement, of information, of advice, of, well, whatever one chooses to
make of it.
Hopefully, anyone reading this will still be around in 364
days. What will your next 12 months bring?
This weeks training summary:
Swimming- Monday: 2625 yards in 1:01:27
Running- Wednesday: 3.7 miles at 8:30/mi average
Friday: 5.44 miles at 10:14/mi average
(with my brother-in-law at easy pace
Biking- None (bike in shop for adjustments and minor
repairs)
Next week: Goals
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