Henrietta Hay's Column

The next time I think I'm too old to walk five miles - at one time - I'll just think, "Jimmy Connors." When a friend of mine who is somewhere in her mid-forties says she is going to participate in a Triathlon, instead of thinking she's lost her marbles, I'll think, "Jimmy Connors." When adult, otherwise normal people I know ride bicycles across the continental divide, I'll just think, "Jimmy Connors."

It's not that Jimmy Connors is a sterling character or a major role model for the young, but this year at the U. S. Open Tennis Tournament he set a wonderful example for people of all ages who think they are losing it physically. A lot of us probably watched the match he played on his 39th birthday. It took five sets and four hours and forty-two minutes of playing time for him to defeat Aaron Krickstein, who was promptly forgotten.

I can still remember only too well what five hard sets of tennis can do to your body when you are 19. The thought of doing it at 39, and doing it at U. S. Open level boggles the mind.

Jimmy not only won his grueling birthday match, he did it with a sort of grace, alternating, as one writer put it, between charm school and reform school. He played to the crowd, he hammed, he laughed, he yelled at the officials and when it was over he said, "There's no secret I'm past my prime. For me to pull out another stunt like this, how can you not laugh about it?"

Jimmy and I have one thing in common - well, two. We both believe that age, per se, doesn't have much to do with physical activity. And we both think that personal sports of some kind or other can be fun at any age. From where I sit, and I do most of the time, 39 is the prime of life, but for a tournament tennis player it is old age. So who cares?

"Of course I can't do that. I'm too old," has been the standard excuse to get out of doing something you don't want to do for as long as I can remember. It's a great excuse, and it works fine, but it's simply not true. It's not the date on your birth certificate, but your physical condition. Ask Jimmy.

In the seventies jogging was IN. In the eighties people of all ages tended to slow down to a brisk walk to protect their knees. Now even the baby boomers, with middle age and gravity staring them in the face are starting to think pretty seriously about how to keep fit. Look at the boom, mostly boomers, in athletic clubs and gyms where they work out with weights and machines which resemble the torture racks of the Middle Ages, and run and stretch and sweat to stay trim.

For those of us who are older and somewhat more sedate, exercise videos are great fun. If you are too embarrassed to be seen in leotards, as I am, you can always exercise in your old sweat pants, in the privacy of your own home, to the musical oldies of Richard Simmons or the more dignified rhythms of Jessica Fletcher. There nobody can snicker at you unless you unlock the door.

According to the statisticians, a third of today's baby boomers will reach age 90, a typical one in the year 2045. That's a lot more ninetysomethings than we have today, and they will probably still be lifting weights. But today's ninetysomethings are a pretty active lot themselves. One of my favorites is Noel Johnson whose ambition is to run the New York Marathon at 100. He is only 92, so he has plenty of time to train. He has already run it seven times and his best time was five hours and 42 minutes.

Then there is Hazel Wolf, 93, an avid environmentalist who loves kayaking and always pulls her share of the weight lifting the boat into the water. "It's very light, only 30 or 40 pounds," she says. And Thelma Tulane, a dancer, performs with Dancers of the Third Age, a professional modern dance troupe. She's a little older. She is 94.

Ok, so if Jimmy Connors can do it, and all these other people can do it, I guess I can haul my aging bones up and walk five miles - or - well, let's make that three.