How often do you walk or run?

As a child, adolescent, young adult, older adult, and now I’m chronologically enhanced old man, I have to report that running has never really been my forte.

When playing cricket in my 30s and 40s and into my very early 50s, I used to run when it came to fielding in the ball. I won fielding awards for teams with which I played; just as well, because my batting was mediocre and my bowling not too flash.

My most memorable fielding stint happened in 1985 when playing cricket for our team at Nhulunbuy, some 650 km east of Darwin in the Northern Territory. The batsmen hit the ball and it was racing toward the boundary. As I raced across the field in order to prevent the boundary shot, a water buffalo charged out of the surrounding bush and started towards me. That got me moving at a rate of knots. I fielded the ball about eight or 10 metres in front of the approaching buffalo, intercepted the ball and pegged it back to the wicketkeeper. Fortunately, the buffalo lost interest did a 180-degree turn and wandered off back to the bush from whence it had emerged.

These days, running for me is a total impossibility because of constraints placed upon a leg and a hip by surgical necessities.

Walking is a different thing. I always enjoyed walking in my former different growing-up years and as a young mature and then aging man. I have used a pedometer and a Fitbit to measure my walking and until a few years ago used to look at clocking up 15,000 steps a day. At the moment I’m not sure how far I’m walking because I spend time at home. However, I did read that an exercise to this activity associated with things like housework and gardening should be taken into account. I do quite a bit of both. It’s not being measured at the moment because my Fitbit broken and I haven’t replaced it yet.

I sometimes think a 77-year-old man that I would like to be thin, fit, and rushing around but do have to recognise my limitations.

So encapsulating, running is out of the question and walking is not undertaken with sweating fervent enthusiasm. I do try to keep mobile and at times think back to what was compared to work now.