Let's Get Physical

On the flip side, some boomers have made so much time for their new exercise habits that they've spawned a new industry: healthcentric adventure travel. Boomers seek out yoga camps in Thailand, martial arts in Japan, hiking anywhere there's an incline and an inclination."I just got off the phone with a fiftysomething guy who swam the entire Amazon in 67 days," says Sean Callahan, editor of GeezerJock, "and you can't even turn around without hearing another story that tops the last one."

GeezerJock celebrates the boomers' tendency toward excess. Often, that manifests as a competitive urge. The magazine's current cover story tells the secrets of "ultrarunners" who "outpace younger competitors"; the poster boy is Roy Pirrung, who at the age of 58 ran nearly 140 straight miles for a second-place finish in last year's USA Track and Field 24-Hour Championships. Each year the mag joins up with Michelob Ultra beer to crown the "GeezerJock of the Year." Current nominees include Pirrung and Liz Johnson, who played professional women's tackle football for the Carolina Spartans at 47. Recently, she's turned to baseball; in January, at 50, she attended the Arizona Diamondbacks fantasy camp—as one of just two women allowed on the field. For boomer women like her, the opportunity to compete holds a special appeal, says Callahan: "These women came before Title IX, and this is really their first chance."

But not all the GeezerJocks, male orfemale, are so focused on prizes. Linda Glick, another nominee, is going to the next Senior Olympics in the 100-meter run and the long jump. She admits that she'll likely get cut in the prelim rounds, but she's not upset about it. After all, she says, she didn't start working out until the day she got her Medicare card in the mail.

For many boomers, of course, Medicare is still a long way off. (The youngest of the generation are currently 43.) But—and here's another thing we know they hate to hear—time goes fast. They'll do best if they take as their role model one last GeezerJock nominee, Leo Luken. Sure, he's retired and living in Hilton Head, S.C. But last year he shot an 81 in golf, six strokes under his age. Jane Fonda, we're willing to bet even you can't top that.

© 2007