Chasing Your Dreams

"A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams." - John Barrymore

It's 1986, a Saturday, and my college roommate and I had run out of funds and ideas of how to spend our afternoon. We were sitting in the dormitory lounge flipping through channels when we came across the Ironman Triathlon. We watched the race with interest and I remember thinking, "Man, I wish I was strong enough for that."

Fast forward 22 years. On the boards of my favorite trivia site someone asked, "What's on your bucket list?" I wrote out my list and there it was, staring me in the face. "Finish a triathlon." "Well, J.R.," I said to myself, "considering you're 41 years old, you might want to get started on that."

So I bought some good running shoes and started running. Okay, that's an exaggeration. I began sprinkling walks with short bouts of jogging. But it wasn't too long until I could run for a solid 15 minutes. I stretched out my times longer and longer and eventually, I was able to run 3 miles. I remember the first time I was able to do that. I was at the gym with my daughter and I ran 3 miles in a very slow 45 minutes, but I had done it. My daughter was proud of me. I was proud of me. And in April of 2009, I ran my first half marathon, a small step on the way to achieving a long-held and long-deferred dream.

So let me ask you this. What's on your bucket list? What are you doing about it?