The difference between 48 and 22 is 26. This weekend, I discovered that the gap is much larger than that in human years. My 22-year-old son, Winn, was home with us. One day, he went out for a run. After running a few miles around our neighborhood, he discovered a 5-mile long trail in a nearby park, and so he ran it, also. After he got back from his long run, he told us what a beautiful trail it was.
Yesterday, Andy and I decided to hike the trail ourselves. If our son ran it at a pace of about 6 minutes per mile, we figured we would walk about half as slow, so the trail would take us a little bit more than an hour. We took off at a brisk pace, enjoying the beauty of the fall woods on a beautiful afternoon. We saw woodpeckers, groundhogs, and gorgeous lake views. We talked about work and life. We walked. And walked. And walked some more. The sun began to sink lower in the sky. Conversation slowed perceptibly. I stopped noticing the wildlife, and instead I focused on keeping one foot in front of the other. We decided that we must be most of the way there. I kept looking hopefully for any sign that the end of the trail was near. Finally, we emerged from the woods into a parking lot.
Except that it wasn’t our parking lot. It turns out that the trail included a mile of walking on the shoulder of a busy road. Watchfully keeping an eye on the speeding, oncoming traffic, we trudged the mile to the next parking lot. Which, once again, wasn’t our parking lot. We saw a map, showing us that we had almost another mile to go to our parking lot. Finally, two hours after we started out, we made it to the car, where I gratefully collapsed.
Last night, our muscles moaned and groaned. Today, I’m still a little stiff. Mainly, I’m put out that my 48-year-old body can’t romp through a long hike the way it used to. After all, if my son could run it, I should be able to walk it without thinking twice. It looks like some things don’t come as naturally at 48 as they did at 22. I’ll have to work a little harder on working out. However, the increase in wisdom, experience and joy that I have earned over the years- I wouldn’t trade them for anything!
