I knew I could do better than that. With three months of training, I could wipe out the \u00a0Senior N.Y. State Empire Games record for the 100-yard dash.<\/p>\n
During my working years I could be seen daily jogging five miles on a nearby high school track. It paid dividends after I retired.<\/p>\n
\u201cLife is like a dream,\u201d my mother would say. \u201dIt comes, we play our role, and then the curtain closes.\u201d<\/p>\n
When I reached 81 years of age, I was exceptionally fit, and still playing a role.<\/p>\n
A few weeks after my birthday, my wife and I visited our son who lived near Glen Rock High School in New Jersey. Before lunch I called to my son,<\/p>\n
\u201cMarc, let\u2019s go to the high school track so that you could time me for the 100-yard dash.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the short ride to the track I pictured all the old farts huffing and puffing behind me as I crossed the finish line.<\/p>\n
\u201cSixteen seconds for 100 yards? My mother, when she was forty, could do that wearing her flannel slippers.\u201d<\/p>\n
With Marc at the end of track, I approached the start marker. The distance seemed longer than I had imagined.<\/p>\n
Should I stretch before I run? Why bother? This is a walk in the park. I was poised, waiting for Marc to drop his arm as a signal to start. Down it went and I took off. The first step had me doubled over in agony. A sprain in my left calf muscle had me clutching my leg. With an arm resting on Marc\u2019s shoulder, I hopped back to the car knowing that it would take a few weeks to recover. Of course I received no sympathy from my wife who felt that swimming was the best form of vigorous exercise.<\/p>\n
After two weeks, I went back to the fitness center. Upon completion of sit-ups, push-ups and weights, I rushed to the recumbent bicycle to reoxygenate my cells.<\/p>\n
Ah! The bicycle began as a downhill ride. But what is this? It was as if a delicate woman placed a finger on my front, upper left rib area. The bicycle\u2019s resistance was set at the usual 12. I wasn\u2019t working any harder to pedal the wheel. Should I stop, and then return in two days? That region over my heart was not an area to let pass. Two days later, the sit-ups, push-ups and weights were exhausting as usual. I wobbled to the bicycle, but this time I lowered the resistance to 8. After five minutes that finger on my chest reappeared. Is this a warning? This never happened before. As Pearl Bailey would say,<\/p>\n
\u201cOne more time!\u201d<\/p>\n
In two days, I lowered the resistance to 6, and that gentle press soon touched me.<\/p>\n
Without any idea of why this was happening, I made an appointment to see my cardiologist. She gave me a cardiogram, an echocardiogram, and then arranged for an angiogram at Mount Sinai Hospital for the following day.<\/p>\n
Dr. Kim pointed to a tangled web of blood vessels on my angiogram. A quadruple bypass temporarily placed me on the substitute\u2019s bench. Three months of rehab went well, but I was \u201cthe old guy\u201d at my fitness center. I groaned with the sit-ups and moaned with the weight lifts. The bicycle again was my refuge.<\/p>\n
As the days passed, I was overwhelmed by fatigue and exhaustion. Is this the price one pays for grinding out 81 years?<\/p>\n
With a maze of wires pasted onto my chest was connected to an echocardiogram. Dr. Nguyen said that the reading indicated I had lost 10 percent of my heart\u2019s pumping ability. As the days passed, I wondered whether sorting my pills into a plastic dispenser was worth the hassle. Should I throw the pills into the garbage and see what hand I would be dealt? But, I had a loving wife, two children and four grandchildren. I know they will miss me. Where\u2019s my water bottle? The pills won\u2019t go down without water. I will go back to the gym.<\/p>\n
Is there a Cardiac Senior Olympics?<\/p>\n
danielwolfebooks@aol.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I knew I could do better than that. With three months of training, I could wipe out the \u00a0Senior N.Y. State Empire Games record for the 100-yard dash. During my working years I could be seen daily jogging five miles on a nearby high school track. It paid dividends after I retired. \u201cLife is like… Continue reading The Senior Olympics?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[361,362,360,359,363],"class_list":["post-479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-cardiologist","tag-echocardiogram","tag-mon-wearing-flannel-slippers","tag-n-y-s-empire-senior-games","tag-quadruple-bypass","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=479"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2387,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479\/revisions\/2387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielwolfebooks.com\/danielsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}