A lifetime of fitness

An 88-year-old retired real estate attorney and former college dean, who wa s born in Georgia, was seen as part of a research project on physical fitne ss and aging (Figure 1). He has been unusually active during his life. His father took him on daily hikes as a child. He learned to walk on his hands while performing in a YMCA circus and once walked down the Washington Monum ent in this fashion. In college, he ran 6 To 8 miles every morning with 2-p ound weights in each hand, training for boxing. He later ran 5 miles/day wi th his youngest son, when the latter was training for college tennis. His m ost astounding feat was to bicycle around the world, from Norway to Saigon, in his twenties (the one-speed bike, "Bucephalus," is in the Smithsonian I nstitute).(1) En route, he had encounters with a scimitar-wielding Iranian (whom be dispatched with his fists) and was tracked by wolves in the Sinai desert and a tiger in the Far East. Three years later he bicycled 12,120 mi les around North America. (The second bicycle "Pegasus" is also in the Smit hsonian Institute). At age 63, he hiked the Appalachian Trail with his phys ician son. Three years later, he hiked the Inca Trail.