Jim Ward, age 83, died last month while on a training ride with a group of friends. He suffered a massive stroke and died instantly. This is exactly how he would have wanted it to all end. You see Jim is a four-time finisher of the Hawaii Ironman. He didn't start competing in triathlons until he was 68, but had completed more than 150 triathlons all over the world. In 1994, he became the oldest person to ever complete a Hawaii Ironman at the age of 77. In 1997, Jim suffered his first devastating stroke. His doctor wasn't sure he would live and if he did would almost certainly suffer some type of permanent paralysis. However, within months through a lot of hard work, Jim mad a complete recovery and celebrated by completing a half-Ironman triathlon.

He was a jogger long before it became popular, and was also a tennis and golf buff. From short runs to the early members of the St Pete Mad Dog Triathlon Club. "He was just as 'up' a person as you'd ever want to meet," says a friend. "I never spoke to him when he wasn't just fired up about the day, no matter what day it was."

Some will say that living to age 83 is no great feat today. But they will be missing a key point about Jim's life. That point is that most of us have a great deal of control over the quality of our lives. Jim's attention to mental and physical conditioning allowed him to do things on a daily basis at age 83 that many people half a century younger than him could not undertake. Remember all of us have to die. How many of us really live, though?

by Carol Glasscock, MS,PT