You Too Can Live to be a Happy Centenarian

Do you want to be an active centenarian?  I do!  The key word is active.  I am well on my way toward that achievement, and I want to share with you my secrets that I accidentally acquired.  In 1997, I entered a limited distance endurance ride called the Mustang classic held at Mt. Hamilton in San Jose, California.  I was 57 years old, and interested in endurance riding.  While at that event, I became aware of a ride and tie event being held as well.  I knew very little about ride and tie, other than the competitors were ultra-athletes.  By coincidence, I was camped next to two ride and tie competitors.  One of them,  I called Secretariat and the other his partner Jeff Windenhausen. I had interest and chatted with these two friendly souls and pretty soon, I was being recruited by the president of the Ride and Tie Association Curt Riffle and Robert Eichstaedt another competitor. It did not take long, and before I knew it,  I was planning to compete in the Quicksilver Ride and Tie held in May. I was told that they were going to find a partner for me.

Little did I know it, but my life made a drastic change in a totally different direction.  At that time, I had a full-time private practice as a psychologist in Fremont, California; rode my Harley Davidson motorcycle; and was thinking about competing in endurance riding.  I had no idea, at the time, what my life was going to be some 14 to 15 years later.  I was a little overweight, a workaholic, and in an unhappy marriage that was dissolving.  I was not exercising or running at that time.  In fact, if there was a" Hill", I walked it because psychologically I could not run it.

You might wonder, what is the big deal about ride and tie?  First of all, in order to do this sport, I had to start running.  If I wanted to do well in the sport then I had to systematically train and improve my running.  Translated, this meant I was now exercising on a regular basis, and more importantly ,it was cardio.  With consistent running, I got in better shape and improved my running ability.  It did not happen overnight, but it happened.

Briefly, ride and tie consists of two people and a horse.  One person rides the horse while the other one ,partner, runs on the trail.  In the event, the rider dismounts, ties the horse to a tree limb and begins running down the trail, while the partner runs to the horse, mounts and chases after the runner ahead.  The partners continue making these exchanges, until they cross the finish line, some 22 to 35 miles later.  For a more detailed description about the sport, visit the website: www.ride and tie.org or read the book “40 Years of Madness: A History of Ride and Tie Championships.”  More tomorrow.