As I approach my 70th birthday I find myself reaching a point when my activities are starting to hurt more than I like.
A couple of weeks ago I went kayaking on the rapids at Symonds Yat, the flow was good and with my little experience I had a few tips while practicing ferry gliding. Now its fair to say I only took up proper Kayaking a couple of years ago and feel confident on flat water lakes and rivers and I do not worry about capsizing in moving water but what really breaks me is the river recovery process of getting your boat to the bank, dragging it out while tripping over rocks and slipping and sliding, emptying the boat and dragging it to the point where you do it all over again! I have to say I am happy to do this over and over again but when I do it with my brilliant club I am conscious about the amount of time this takes and hate inconveniencing everyone. Now all Kayak clubs will say that's perfectly fine we all have to gain experience and that usually means spending a lot of time upside down, but my character says don't trouble anyone else so its difficult for me to do just that.
So this realisation that I may not reach my dream of kayaking in white water confidently is hard for me and I have been pretty miserable for a couple of weeks, meanwhile I have been paddle boarding, cycling and swimming all fine and so I realise that although I have probably peaked with some activities I am still very lucky to be so active and I am truly thankful for this and very happy with my lot.
I will continue to push the boundaries of what I can do and always look for an adventure somewhere and it makes me happy that I still want to, yes my body will hurt, yes I am a bit slower but I still get the same joy of pushing myself to achieve something I am proud of myself for doing.
One final note, I helped my youngest children to move into a house share a couple of days ago, this involved moving from two flats and lots of stairs to a three story house, I of course wanted to be the strong father as it was just me and four girls doing the move. I insisted on doing the heavy work hiding the fact of how much my back was killing me but they realised that I was struggling and so these young girls in their mid 20's took over and while embarrassed at first I was actual very proud that they showed such caring and that made me very happy.
Now off to perfect my step back turn on my SUP!