PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten — An 85-year-old British sailor who dreamed of crossing the Atlantic on a raft as a young boy has completed the journey in 66 days with three friends.

The 2,800-mile crossing to this Caribbean island, led by Anthony Smith of London, took about two months and was generally smooth except for damage to two rudders on the large, sail-powered raft.

“Some people say it was mad,” he told The Associated Press when he arrived in St. Maarten Wednesday. “But it wasn’t mad. What else do you do when you get on in years?”

The jovial crew said they wanted to raise awareness about the environment and to prove the elderly are capable of embarking on adventures that are mistakenly considered dangerous.

They also aimed to raise money for the British nonprofit group WaterAid, which provides potable water to impoverished communities.

Judy Fitzpatrick /  AP

The crew of the An-Tiki included John Russell, David Hildred, captain Anthony Smith and Andrew Bainbridge.

A stroke of bad luck paid for the trip, courtesy of Smith, who was hit by a van and broke his hip.

“I got some compensation money,” he said. “So what do you blow the compensation money on? You blow it on a raft.”

The crew departed from the Canary Islands after bad weather delayed their trip for about a month.

Fresh bread
Smith delivered a farewell speech — in nearly impeccable Spanish — to a crowd gathered on the dock and then waved goodbye.

The raft, named “An-Tiki” after Thor Heyerdahl’s famous Kon-Tiki raft, was loaded with food including oranges, avocados, potatoes, cabbages and a pumpkin. Once the store-bought bread was consumed, sailing master David Hildred began making it from scratch in a small oven.

Hildred, a civil engineer who lives in the British Virgin Islands, also was summoned to help fix the rudders that broke three days into the trip

Seven pipes held the crew’s fresh water supply.

“Water strikes at the very heart of need,” Smith told the U.K.’s Press Association news agency. “To voyage almost 3,000 miles upon the salty kind makes us intensely aware of places in the world that are without adequate supplies.”

The raft also had a nearly 40-foot long mast and a 400-square-foot sail. Twin rudders provided the steering, along with centerboards and two oars.

The raft traveled at an average speed of 4 knots, with the crew taking turns to keep watch when they were not reading or playing cards.

“I think all of us enjoyed our night watches when it was just oneself for company,” Smith said. “Not an awful lot to see, but it was great.”

‘Mutiny’
A whale played alongside the raft one day, and a school of mahi-mahi followed the raft almost the entire journey, said crew member John Russell, 61, of Britain.

“The wildlife was just fantastic,” he said. “There is nothing to be scared of. We were all old men.”

Halfway across the Atlantic, Smith celebrated his 85th birthday with a chocolate cake that his doctor, Andrew Bainbridge, cooked on board.

The crew intended to end their trip in the Bahamas, but strong winds and currents forced them to the Dutch Caribbean island of St. Maarten.

“Yes, of course it’s a success,” Smith said with a smile. “How many people do you know who have rafted across the Atlantic? … The word mutiny was only spoken about two or three times a day.”

Source: msnbc.com 4/07/2011

We’ll post here, among my various geezer jock blogs that nobody reads…..

H

Susan pestering me about driving directions, she’s looking more and more disheveled, bundled up in old lady’s swaddling. We leave Smith at school, drive around looking for a flu shot, end up in the pharmacy of a Safeway supermarket, test our blood pressure/heart rate with a machine in the waiting area. My pulse is 59, very low for normal activity, another sign of trouble in the operating system. I’m peeing about 10 times a day, up from the usual five or six, thinking I better fast-track the urology visit on our return to Miami.

We drive around in the Seattle drizzle, looking for latte. Susan says, “I haven’t told you my plans”.

“Plans for Halloween?”

“No, what to do with me when I’m gone.”

“Gone?”

“Dead. I want my ashes divided into tiny piles, and put in vials to give all my friends, so they can have a

little chunk of me to remember.”

I try to block the image. “Do you want a memorial service?”

“A party. Just a party. Everybody having fun”.

“Where?”

“Doesn’t matter.” Now she’s back to the ashes. “The bits of me have to be scooped into the vials, and then sent to the people. You won’t want to do that, will you.”

“Uh, no, no way I can do that”.

“I’ll call Sascha and see if she’ll do it”.

Back at the hotel, she gets an oh-no message from her old friend Margie in London, the cancer has spread again, another round of chemo, after her multiple surgeries and prior chemos, all of which she’s taken matter-of-factly, a bloody nuisance. A new spot below the right breast, after she’s already had the left one taken out, several years of hospital stays and chemo, no complains, self-pity, playing golf, going to the theater, art shows, when she can. Now she’s cancelled her December trip to Miami, but we weren’t going to be there anyway, so it’s better now because she’ll come later, in March or April, when Susan will be in Miami. So she’s turned this horrible news into good news, of a sort.

Leaves us both with a sad, sick feeling. Susan’s interrupts this train of thought.  ”We’re leaving here in a half hour, you should bring your bathing suit.” 

“Bathing suit?” I stall for time, wondering whether I’ve missed a gym visit in our schedule.

“You’re absolutely right,” she says, taking my question as a critique, “the swimming pool is here in the hotel. We’re picking up Smith, coming back, so you need to leave your bathing suit here”.

“Yes,” I say. It’s already here.

BY BRUCE BROTHERS
Pioneer Press

It’s impossible to determine whether Ed Rousseau has greater amounts of enthusiasm or stamina.

One thing is certain: The passionate and long-winded Rousseau has another jewel on his running crown.

A 67-year-old retired project manager from Minneapolis, Rousseau is a moving testament to the joys of Long Distance Running, three words in Rousseau’s world that deserve capitalization.

“A guy’s got to run or head for a recliner,” he explained. “I’ll take running.”

Rousseau runs like many people dine, voraciously and daily. He establishes an annual schedule that always includes the Twin Cities and Grandma’s marathons, the Edmund Fitzgerald 100-kilometer race and several 24-hour races, with a fixture being the FANS 24-hour event at Lake Nokomis, just a few blocks from his home.

In addition, he travels to Park Rapids, Minn., where for nearly two weeks every month he works on a lake home he has been building from the ground up. He works inside and out on the place, then takes a daily break to run.

As if that’s not enough, every year Rousseau focuses on one significant ultramarathon. This year, he chose the Ultracentric 48-hour race Nov. 17-19 in Grapevine, Texas.

For Rousseau, a veteran of several six-day races, you could almost label the little two-day event a “fun run.” But there are two things wrong with that designation: Every time Rousseau runs it’s a fun run, and every time he races it’s a helter-skelter dash in search of fast times and state or national records.

Here’s how Rousseau readied himself to run 48 hours on a 2.4-mile loop along park roads: He set the U.S. 65-69 age-group record for his 100-mile time in the Cornbelt 24-Hour race in Iowa last spring, then logged 91 miles at his 17th consecutive FANS race, then placed third in his age group in 3 hours, 56 minutes at Grandma’s in Duluth (”my slowest Grandma’s time ever”), finished seventh in his age group in 3:44 at his 25th consecutive Twin Cities Marathon and then covered the 62 miles of the Ed Fitz along Minnesota’s North Shore in 13 hours (”a disaster”).

After that impressive string of events and before the Ultracentric, he had five weeks “to heal and train.”

“I ran short, hard training runs with my YMCA New Marathoners training class, and they inspired me,” he said. “I did long runs of up to six hours on indoor tracks at the YMCA and at Bemidji State University near my cabin. I ran wooded trails with steep hills.

“I felt strength and speed and endurance coming back.”

The field was just 20 for the 48-hour event at the Ultracentric, where the U.S. 24-hour championship was also contested. Also entered were two threats to Rousseau’s age-group dominance, but he demonstrated his focus as he allowed several participants to move in front of him early while he stayed with his formula of running interspersed with fast walking plus regular stops to stretch.

“I adopted this method a few years ago, when I found I could still run the same pace and be pain-free after six or more hours,” he said. “Otherwise, if I just run steady, I’ll really slow down with creeping leg pain after several hours.

“It’s tempting to run with the other runners early on, but I know I’ll catch and pass a lot of them in 12 or more hours.”

These are only numbers, but if you think about them for a moment … holy cow!

Rousseau cruised through 24 hours with 100.8 miles behind him and set off for Day 2. A few 10-minute naps revived him as “Fast Eddie,” as he signs his e-mails, pushed ahead at a less rapid pace. But he was unstoppable.

“Ed was amazing,” said Kristine Hinrichs of Milwaukee, who ran the 24-hour event. “He just kept moving.”

Late in the race, Rousseau eclipsed the U.S. age-group record of 158.8 miles held by Michael Allen of Arizona. He kept chugging and finished second overall, claiming a national-record distance of 166.3 miles and a warm handshake from Allen, who was there.

“Michael told me he was pleased to be at the event where he could meet the runner who ultimately broke his record,” Rousseau said, “and for me, it was a real treat to meet him. What a gentleman. The visits we had and the hug we shared after the race were as significant to me as anything that happened during the race.”

Four days after returning home, Rousseau was back to his old habits, running around Lake Nokomis and preparing for 2007. He’s planning to do “some snowshoe races, add long training runs and probably shoot for a 24-hour race or possibly a six-day race in April,” he said.

Neither the enthusiasm nor the speed has waned for Ed Rousseau.

Bruce Brothers can be reached at bbrothers@pioneerpress.com.

(By Emerald Catron, Lemondrop 9/29/2009)

You might imagine that once you’re old, the only “firsts” you have to look forward to involve medical procedures and great-great-great-grandkids. But at 109 years old, Anna Ferris just scored her first soccer goal. 

Word started spreading about Anna last year, when she finished a 100-meter dash at the Orange County Senior Games in her walker. This past weekend at the 2009 games she managed to smack a softball 15 feet, throw one 16 and lob a football more than 3 yards. Every event is another chance at victory for this sprightly centenarian (not to be confused withAnna Faris, the similarly-named starlet of “House Bunny“). 

In addition to her athletic endeavors, Anna enjoys chocolate and good wine. Not bad for someone who was born before the crossword puzzle was even invented.

Her family attributes Anna’s good health to the fact that she exercises to stay strong, sometimes taking to the driveway to do laps with her walker. That officially makes her more athletic than we are.

 Source: Cammy Clark, Miami Herald -5/15/2009

Race: 100-mile marathon from Key Largo to Key West, 43 bridges. 

Entrants: 65 people running solo, 265 in relay teams

Notable: Sister Mary Elizabeth Lloyd, wearing her full-length black habit.

Resume: New Jersey native, high school track team, joined a Catholic order (Religious Teachers Fillipini) in 1967, devotes her life to helping women and children, especially orphans whose parents died of AIDS. 

Sidekick: Lisa Smith-Batchen, extreme marathoner bit by a scorpion in a Sahara Desert 100 miler, ignored the pain, finished the race

Why the nun garb: “When people ask me ‘why in God’s name’ are you doing this? I can say ‘for the orphaned children’.

Elizabeth Head, professor at U-Cal Irvine, put a dozen beagles on a three-year holistic regime: extra fruit, vegetable extract, antioxidants in the kibble; regular exercise; group play with creative toys; one-on-one with kennel buddies; enrichment classes. The graduates came out “mentally younger” than their “couch potato peers”, according to the beagle handlers, who regrettably lost their funding to the budget cutters.        

(US News Bernadine Healy, On Health….11/12/07)

 

BY LAUREN JOHNSTON 
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

 

Wenig

America is about to fall in love with Stump - the adorable, droopy-eyed spaniel who wowed the crowd at Westminster and became the oldest Best in Show winner in dog show history.

Stump proved an old dog can still pull off some new tricks - and he can count at least one fellow senior among his biggest fans: Dr. Ruth Westheimer. The celebrated sex therapist was in the stands at Madison Square Garden for the competition Tuesday night.

“When I found out he was the oldest to win, I was so happy. I’m 80, and he’s 70 in dog years,” she said.

And there are plenty of other things fans should know about the 10-year-old champion Sussex spaniel, so here we offer the official “Stump Dossier.”

1.  His official name is Ch. Clussexx Three D Grinchy Glee

2.  He was born is Dec. 1, 1998

3.  He is named “Stump” … because he has stubby legs, is brown and resembles a tree stump

4.  He has sired pups named Root, Forest and Myrtle

5.  His favorite chew toy is a plush Grinch doll

6.  He weighs about 50 pounds

7.  He lives in Houston, Texas with the 2001 Best in Show winner J.R., a Bichon Frise

8.  He didn’t train at all for his return to the ring

9.  He is the oldest dog ever to win Westminster, that title was previously held by the 1999 winner, an 8-year-old Papillon

10.  The Westminster show was his 51st career best in show win

Stump is in fabulous shape for his age and will travel the dog world circuit just like the younger pups who’ve held the best in show title

Judge Sari Tietjen said she had no idea the winning spaniel was an elder in the dog world.

“He showed his heart out,” she said. “I didn’t know who he was or how old … I just couldn’t say no to him.”