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With very little fortitude to wait for…anything, I often lose my patience with anyone who doesn’t match my lightning speed. Just ask my coworkers…or my fiancé…or, well, you get it. And being 32 means that I don’t have enough life experience behind me to personally relate to the wisdom and challenges that come with achieving 60 or 70 or 80 years of life.
With that combination of characteristics, you can see why I wasn’t as excited about working at the National Senior Games on behalf of Freewheelin as I was to go to the Democratic and Republican national conventions. I assumed that my time there would lack that frenzied pace that juices me up. I was right. And wrong to think that would make this experience less meaningful.
Our presence at the Senior Games was multi-faceted. In addition to our large tent geared toward Humana’s programs for seniors and caregivers, we brought Freewheelin in the form of two bike stations and 120 bikes available for free rides. Between 8:30 a.m. and 6 p.m., anyone over the age of 18 could check out a bike for free. Helmets and locks were provided.
Most of the users of our Freewheelin program fell into our 61+ category, which is the bottom of our age drop-down list. That really doesn’t tell the story, though, as our users could have been divided into 61-70, 71-80, 81-90 and 90+. Really. We had 90-year-olds cruising around on our bikes as if they were teenagers. Amazingly, wheels often give older people a way to escape what slows them down on two feet. Just listen to Nancy talk about her rheumatoid arthritis.
Most of the stories I heard were those of athletes … competitive, healthy, energetic, fun athletes. I had the pleasure of meeting Robbie and Barbara (photo above) from Cincinnati. Robbie is on the left and that’s me in the middle. She’s 65, but she and Barbara play in the 55-year age category of women’s doubles tennis (because she kicks booty, to put it a little more delicately than she does). They won the silver. We had the pleasure of lending them bikes and cheering them on every day they were in Palo Alto. Robbie hadn’t been on a bike in 20 years.
We met a lady from Boston in her 80s, who came with her son to re-learn how to ride. No one at home would rent her a bike, and she was so glad to have our service so that she could practice riding. Her driving privileges had just been revoked and she wanted a way to get to the health club. It took her son giving her a push and a little bit of time for her to steady herself, but the experience offered her confidence and the freedom that she was searching for.
And, we met the lady from Kentucky who is in the Softball Hall of Fame. Think a real-life “League of their Own” player. She’s 84 and she competed in the Games, which included sliding into third base. To put this into perspective, this lady was a teenager during World War II and she was eating dirt to keep the rally alive. She enjoyed her ride.
These nuggets of inspiration and real life are what I would’ve missed had I rushed through the process. Life consistently teaches me lessons that I’m often too stubborn to see, but this one was thankfully evident.
And because I had the pleasure of knowing these spectacular people, their husbands and daughters and grandchildren, I’m juiced about bringing Freewheelin this fall to the senior communities at three of Humana’s Guidance Centers. To continue the momentum from Freewheelin at the Senior Games in Palo Alto, we’re dropping 25 bikes at Guidance Centers in Mesa, Arizona; Henderson, Nevada and Tamarac, Florida.
Anyone in the area over the age of 18 can use the bikes, but I really hope that while I’m there, I get to help orient someone with a few wrinkles and a great story.
photo by: Kristen Jordan
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DISCLAIMER ALERT: The ideas expressed in this post came out of my own head, were researched by my own eyes and were expressed by my own hands. They are not intended to serve as medical advice in any way, shape or form. And they do not reflect the views of Humana Inc. or any of its subsidiaries. I take full responsibility if you think this post is awesome or not awesome.
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Cities in the US are not designed for healthy citizens. Bike paths are few and far between. People live too far from work across smog filled highways. Buildings are designed to ferry people to their cubicles and then transfix them with white noise and endless emails copied to all and sundry (or is this just my life?).
I was impressed not only with the short speeches from officials and Humana leadership, but also with the turnout at these press events. In both cases, the body of system users really came to find out what the donation meant to them. NPS employees, wearing the traditional "Smoky Bear" hats, were eager to get started using the bikes, despite the less-than-friendly January weather. Denver lucked out with fantastic sunshine, and not only drew city employees to the kickoff, but also dozens of interested local residents, who came to hear what the mayor had to say.
And he said some pretty amazing stuff. After accepting a check for one million dollars from the DNC, he announced the expansion of the pilot system with those donated funds. This will do great things for the city of Denver, and positions it as the first ever US city equipped with a functional city-wide bike sharing program. 