I'm not competing anymore.

One of the best competitors I have ever witnessed said this to me the other day. This guy was a monster swimmer from the Cape May Beach Patrol in the 90's. He was the type of person you absolutely loved to hate..because he was that good, had the hair and body to match, and the attitude to let you know about it.

I was starting my morning workout at the Joeseph Von Savage Pool in Wildwood Crest. He was finishing. He asked about my knee and the progress or lack thereof. He then asked me how old I was. I stated I was pushing 50. He let me know he was 60+ and my jaw hit the floor. The dude was STILL super fit.

Then, he went on to school me on all the important things to take care of my body. No longer was this guy concerned about his "times" in the pool. He's more focused on getting to the pool, getting wet, and moving his body properly. He doesn't care about how fast he can run anymore. He cares about walking along the beach at sunrise and if he feels like it, doing a little jog to get the heart going. Total body movement was his gospel, and he was giving a sermon in the men's locker room. He then said this, "DelMo, you're here today. You're purposely trying to add time to your future self to spend with family and friends and doing things you love to do. So many people GIVE THAT TIME AWAY by not moving in the here and now."

So here's my sermon to you:

• 19 and Under:
  • You don't have to do much if you get outside and play. Try every single sport you can to find what you love to do, and then try to do that as long as you can.
• 20 to 29:
  • You may have put on a few pounds, gotten a 'real' job, marriage, kids..you know, LIFE. You are STILL super young. Carve out time for you every morning (or evening) to set the routines that can help shape the rest of your future life. Decide to see how good you can get at taking care of you.

• 30-39:
  • This is a tricky one. The following message is for the young parents out there, because that's what I once was. You are at your most powerful physical self. It is very easy to become CONSUMED with being the best, or fastest, or strongest or the most successful at work. Don't let that happen. Do those things, but do them while focusing on being the parents  who played with their kids at the beach ALL DAY LONG and was then able to enjoy each other's company that evening . Yeah, I said that.

• 40-49:
  • I don't know what happens when we turn 40, but from my personal experience, we're like a vehicle, any vehicle that was driven needs maintenance. Tires, tune ups, transmissions, recalibrations, maybe some bodywork, possibly upgrade the shocks or sound system. Definitely start putting in the premium fuel and using synthetic oil. Sleep becomes an obsession at this age, and for good reason, we don't recover like we used to from a workout...or from a night out;)

• 50+:
  • No clue. I'm about to knock on the door of this age group. The things I've learned, and from what I can tell, is all you really care about at this stage is the people you love, the pets you love, the life you've built, or the change you must make. Daily movements become an absolute necessity because we're starting to see friends go through challenges and we see them as wake up calls.

EVERYONE. WAKE UP. MOVE and steal your time back.

-DELMO