How do you celebrate personal anniversaries? Do you include everyone for a giant blowout, or do you prefer quiet personal affairs?
I was out walking one morning a couple of weeks ago when I reminded myself of four looming milestones arriving in my life. I named them “10-20-40-70” so I would remember them when I got home. I wanted to celebrate them all. I hoped they were lead-ins to more and greater milestones in my future.
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I’ve been reading a book by Robert Wolgemuth titled Gun Lap, about how we should live the last lap of our life.
The gun lap, the final sprint of a track race, is often signaled by firing a starter’s pistol as the race leader begins the lap. It’s easy for distance runners to lose track of how many laps they’ve run, so the sound of the gun reminds them the race is almost over and it’s time to speed up and finish well.
The author quoted J. I. Packer, who wrote: “My contention is that … we should aim to be found running the last lap of the race of our Christian life, as we should say, flat out. The final sprint, so I urge, should be a sprint indeed.”
Our final lap doesn’t have to mean life is almost over. My first marathon, the Golden Yucca, was three 8.7-mile loops, so the last loop, the gun lap, was 8.7 miles long, or 1/3 of the total distance. I don’t know if the race director fired a gun when the leader passed since I was at least an hour behind him, but extrapolating that extra-long lap to my remaining years, if I plan to live to 100, 1/3 will be 33 years. I started my gun lap last year when I turned 67.
Robert Wolgemuth said one of the questions that haunts men and women entering their gun laps is, “Are there goals still to be attained?” I wrote in the margin of my book: I hope so. I hope I’m still setting new goals every year.
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Here are some thoughts from my morning walk about those milestones. I’d love here your ideas.
Ten: Next year will be my 10th year anniversary with after-market knees. I’ve hiked twice on them above 12,000’, skied on them, cycled with them, and walked hundreds of miles with them (including 100K in six days on the Camino in Spain). They’ve served me well, and I want to celebrate them. What if I took a hike on Truches or Wheeler or go on a weeklong backpacking trip? I feel like it should be something physical since these knees gave me a second life.
Twenty: 2024 is our 20th year of Iron Men. How should we celebrate? How should we reinforce the friendships we’ve made and lessons we’ve learned together?
Forty: Sometime in late summer or fall of 2025 I should cross the 40,000-mile threshold of total miles run (or walked) since I started in June 1978. How should I celebrate? Should I enter a big race – a half-marathon or a marathon? Or take a personal approach and ask people to join me as I walk the 40,000th mile around the ponds in my neighborhood. Since 95% of my miles have been travelled alone, it might be time to ask for company. We could go eat pizza afterward like the old days in the Permian Basin Road Runners Club.
Seventy: In June 2026 I’ll turn seventy years old. I have more time to think about this milestone, but the basic question is the same – how should I celebrate? Is there a traditional celebration for turning seventy? Do I really care about something traditional?
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My list of 100 Life Goals still has plenty that remain unaccomplished. Maybe I should take advantage of these milestones to cross a few off my list. Many of them are long-term goals, and others involve travel and family, but I have a few physical goals remaining, such as: weigh 175 lbs.; bench press 250 lbs.; and do my age in sit-ups, push-ups, pull-ups. Should I work these into my 10-20-40-70 adventure? Are they even doable at my age?
I suppose I will have a shot at 175 lbs. if I simply stop eating, but it hasn’t worked for me so far. I haven’t weighted as little as 175 since junior high. It isn’t so easy or I’d’ve already accomplished it.
I doubt I’m willing to put in the effort to bench 250 lbs., assuming it would even be possible. I would probably need to hire a coach or a trainer to bag this one.
And while I can do my age in sit-ups today, it’s been years since I could do my age in push-ups. Even worse, I’ve never been able to do my age in pull-ups – it’s hard to imagine doing that now.
However, to quote Seth Godin, “So far and not yet are the foundation of every successful journey.” Maybe it’s too soon to start ruling out Life Goals without first giving them a serious try.
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There’s a saying that a man walking through a cotton field doesn’t come out wearing a suit of clothes. Few significant things happen on their own.
In my life, good things are more likely to happen if I plan ahead, so I’m working through options to celebrate each one of these milestones. I welcome any suggestions you may have for me. What do you think I should do?
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“I run in the path of Your commands, for You have set my heart free.” Psalm 119:32
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