I don’t know how I remember this but I do. My grandfather who lived to be 92 told me he was in his prime at age 60.

I get a lot of comfort from this since I will be turning 60 in a few days. Yea, 60 sounds old. They say it’s ( whatever it is) is only a number.  But still its 60.

I can’t deny I can swim, run and bike farther than I could at 35. But back then I didn’t do triathlons. Too busy with my ob/gyn practice, raising kids, etc. You’ve either been there or are there now. This year I moved up to the 60-64 year age group. Age does have some advantages.

Just a week ago I was talking to another doctor who will be turning 44 on the same day I’m 60. He has two girls ages 10 and 8. I delivered one of them. As we were talking, without hesitation, I said “I’m glad I’m not going to be 44.”  Teenagers equals  cash, cars, college, and weddings. I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy it. I did. Every minute? No. Both you and I would be lying if we said yes. But overall they were good years. I wouldn’t have written Running Back if they were not. 

But still, the thought of not wanting 16 years of your life back, seems somewhat sad. Was it my job as an obstetrician? There can be no greater joy in medicine than delivering a baby. But with this joy comes the long nights in the labor room. Especially those uncertain marginally concerning fetal heart tracings. Should I do a c/s or will she deliver in an hour without problems? Too many times there is a broad gray zone rather than black and white. But be sure, someone will be there to criticize you if things don’t go as planned. So maybe work is some of the reason I wouldn’t want go back. But just like rearing a family, most of it was good. Okay, I’ll get off this subject since I’m only doing gynecology now.

I fell into doing triathlons almost by accident. My son-in-law and I had little in common. I bought a bike to ride with he and his father. I’ve always run little 5k races usually with little preparation. One day I went to our local junior college to swim in the indoor pool. I met several men my age who were doing triathlons. I thought hey, maybe I could do one of those things! That was five years ago. Fifteen triathlons later I’m hooked. I won my age group in two this summer. Remember, I moved up into a new age group. I’m the baby of the group.

But what I really like to do is scuba dive. Diving wins out over triathlons any day. Of course where I live you can’t do this every weekend.  A lot if my diving is in Orange Beach, Alabama. We have a number of wrecks offshore. Did you know the largest artificial reef in the world is off the coast of Pensacola Florida?

My son, Doug, and I took a trip together in June to Grand Cayman Island. I try to take one nice trip a year. Enjoyed having Doug with me on this trip. He is a Navy pilot. Lucky rascal, he has dived Hawaii, Thailand, and the Seychelles Islands while on deployment.

Doug, Linda, my wife, and Emily Joy, my daughter, were the principle characters in my novel Running Back. As I looked back over my life, I asked myself one question.

What if? What if it had never happened?  With all the trials of work and rearing a family, what if I had checked out early in life. What if I had just left?

Running Back is about a young man who does just that. He leaves his wife and infant son. Although his life is good in many ways, he is torn with the question of,  “what if.”  Years later, through a bit of science fiction mixed in with a little southern football he tries to get back into their lives.

This has been a work in progress over too many years. An author asked another group of potential authors, “why do you write?”  The answer is because we have to.

I guess that’s why I wrote Running Back.  I just had to get this nagging story out of my mind and into print. It took years with many edits. Will I start another one?  I just don’t’ know. Time will tell.