Today my dad, aged 68, is running the Boston Marathon. I doubt I'll get much writing done this morning because I'm so obsessed with tracking him on the website.  If you would like to participate in this obsessive/compulsive refreshing, his bib number is 14742.

My dad has been running since I was young, and for a long time I took it for granted.  Now that I'm older and have ran a marathon myself, I know what a serious achievement it is. And he doesn't just run a marathon. He runs a marathon. This year his goal is an under 3:30 finish time. Not for wimps.

Update 11:27 am PST:  His final time was 3:35:11 and he placed 11th in his division (ages 65-69).

If you think about it, our parents (I'm 40, parents are in their 60s) are the generation that re-defined retirement. When my grandparents were 40, 40 seemed OLD (and in fact, my grandma became my grandma at age 39). Now my parents are 60+, almost 70 in fact, and they are like Energizer bunnies. Part of it is just their personalities, and they've lived a "healthy lifestyle" for years, but I honestly don't know anybody in that generation that is just sitting around getting old.

And I'm not the only one whose noticed. It used to be you could get a free lift ticket when you reached age 70.  Now you have to be 80 to ski free. I'm up for the challenge.