This Guest Post is cour­tesy of Senior­ity Mat­ters, a web­site rich with resources of espe­cial inter­est to seniors.

The Marathon Of Life. Walk It.

by Fleur Sack, MD | 05/03/10

Fleur is a Fam­ily Prac­tice Physi­cian in Hol­ly­wood. Her med­ical inter­ests include pre­ven­tion and women’s health. She is cur­rently devel­op­ing a Com­pre­hen­sive Women’s Health Pro­gram for female Veterans.

“I never exer­cised until I was 50. Then, two things inspired me. I was cel­e­brat­ing New Year’s Eve with a friend of mine who had mul­ti­ple scle­ro­sis. I asked her, “How are you?” And she said, “I feel won­der­ful.” And it turned out she was exer­cis­ing with a trainer three times a week. So I started work­ing out with a trainer two times a week.

“The other thing that hap­pened was at my 50th birth­day cel­e­bra­tion, where I was talk­ing with two friends … she was in remis­sion from breast can­cer and he was a dia­betic. They had just com­pleted a marathon.

“They told me about Team in Train­ing www.teamintraining.org. It’s an orga­ni­za­tion that teaches you how to walk (a marathon), and you raise money for lym­phoma. If you raise enough money, they send you to a marathon somewhere.

“So I got involved and they sent me to Hawaii. It was amaz­ing. I was hooked on walk­ing from that time on.

“I promised myself that for my 60th birth­day I would walk another marathon. And I thought, I don’t want to be on a team, and I don’t want to raise money, I just want to walk. So I decided I could do it around my own home. Around my block is a mile. I could go around 26 times, then walk to the end of the block and back and it would be 26.2 miles.…

“Every­one told me how I should do it…how I should raise money… But I said no. If you want to join me, join. That’s it. So about 10 dif­fer­ent friends did dif­fer­ent parts of the walk with me. It took me about 7 1/2 hours to do it. I got sick in the mid­dle of it…but peo­ple just joined me. My 5-year-old grand­son walked the last mile with me. One friend walked 13 miles with me and ran the other 13 miles.

“(Before I did it,) my hus­band won­dered, how are you going to remem­ber what mile you’re on?…So he woke up the morn­ing of the marathon and blew up 26 bal­loons that he put on a peg board. Every time I would fin­ish a mile I would pop a bal­loon. And it was ter­rific. …You have to have water, and a bathrooom, so when I needed the facil­i­ties I went in my house. He set out a big table with cut up apples and bananas. When I got too sweaty, I went inside and changed.

“I thought I would make it an annual event, that I would walk every Mother’s Day. But I had a prob­lem with my foot and had surgery, so now I’m doing a bicy­cle. …And then I found out about this “vir­tual walk across Amer­ica.” It starts in Vir­ginia and ends in Ore­gon, 4,000 miles. It’s a web­site run by the Lawrence Berke­ley Lab (at the Uni­ver­sity of Cal­i­for­nia). Go to http://exercise.lbl.gov/index.html You tell them how much you want to walk…

“My goal is to get to 4,000 miles by the time I’m 65, so I have to walk 20 miles a week…I want to cel­e­brate my 65th birth­day in Ore­gon and walk the last 10 miles on the (actual) trail.…Every week, you send them how much you’ve walked, and they chart your course along this road, send you pic­tures of where you ‘are.’ I’ve gone 630 miles, I’m ‘in’ Mallie Ky. …If you have not met your goals for the week, they send you a (naggy) e-mail…and I can hear it in my ear. So it’s moti­vat­ing. You get a vir­tual part­ner, some­one who has the same goal as you do, and they send you an e-mail when that per­son passes you.… ”

Fleur is a fam­ily prac­tioner who has spent her life pro­mot­ing good health. Not sur­pris­ingly, she says, “I would love peo­ple to get involved with it. It costs nothing.

“And I am hooked on a per­sonal trainer, too. I really think it changes peo­ples’ lives. I only started when I was 50.…and I haven’t had any back pain since…

“So I want to walk and see the world and feel great. You don’t have to be an ath­lete. I have a pic­ture of myself at 95, walk­ing onto a stage and giv­ing a lec­ture on women’s health. It’s very clear the con­nec­tion (between exer­cise, longevity and good health).

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