Turning Old
This summer, I become old. I turn 70.
70 is old. I wasn’t planning on getting old. I was suppose to die.
When I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s at the age of 47, my lifetime changed. Everything I read or heard, said 70 would be a real stretch. I started using 70 as the maximum length of my lifetime (on earth).
That didn’t turn out. I’m now knocking on 70 and I’m still not dead. I don’t even feel like dying.
Not being dead changes what I do this summer. Instead of turning in my grave, I’ll be turning old. This makes this, at least for me, a rather significant birthday. I’ve never had one where I had this many years and hadn’t died.
What to do? It seems like I should do something more than eat cake. It seems I should do something fitting for the situation, something unpredictable. Here’s what I’ve come up with: a 70 mile bike (actually trike) ride - a mile for each year lived.
This plan has the perfect problem: Me. I’m currently incapable of doing such. I’ve never ridden 25 miles on a bike in my life. I will now be 70 years old. I have advanced Parkinson’s – have had for 24 years. I’m out of shape, have the posture of an old man, will, at times, freeze - unable to move my legs, can go into dyskinesia where I can’t stop moving. My body does not do well in the heat. I take meds every three hours. Stress puts the Parkinson’s into overdrive.
I want to try.
If it happened it would be as in Siberia in winter when one walks the snow packed streets eating ice cream laughing at winter. Instead of winter, it would be a 70 year old man biking 70 miles in the heat of summer laughing at Parkinson’s.
Wanna join me? I’m looking for a partner or two or hundred…
I’m looking at doing the 71 mile ride (it’s a ride not a race) in the Tour De Tonka on August 5th. There are rest stops every 15 miles, bands playing, food, drink, etc. There are also 3500 other bikers (on 6 different length routes). It looks to be a fun (and sore) time.
Website: https://www.minnetonkaschools.org/district/mcec/events/tour-de-tonka