Janet A. Robertson, MD

At age 39 I was not in good condition. I decided to begin a running program. I bought running shoes and hit the street in front of my house. To my surprise ny the time I ran from my starting point, the telephone pole in front of my house, to the telephone pole in front of my next door neighbor’s house, I had to stop. Everything hurt. I could write a book on what followed. I’ll summarize. Now I’m 83. First, I was challenged by my initial “failure”. Surprised yes, but not defeated, I just needed to get in shape, I thought. I ran every day except for during thunderstorms. I ran my first 10 K three months later. I ran through the winter with a face mask when the temperature went below 20 degrees F. One year after my “failure” I had lost 30 pounds. Since then I have almost always been in some kind of fitness program. In a gym or outside. OK . . . my knees wore out after twenty years of 1,000 miles running each year. Since then most of the time I have been working out in a gym with equipment designed to be safe but good exercise. My primary physician has supported my exercise programs, although she would prefer to see me swimming to be fit and I think she is right. She and my fitness programs have seen me through some serious health issues by diagnosing early and seeing that II have the best specialists to address the problems that are in my past. I have been most fortunate in my life I know. I also know that great doctors, exercise, body weight control and avoiding abuse of drugs an alcohol are essential to being as well as you can be. I am now the oldest person at my gym now.