AARP Eye Center
![Finish line Antarctica.jpg](https://aarp-states.brightspotcdn.com/44/e6/665fddba4eeaaa177b0536277738/finish-line-antarctica.jpg)
I’ve always encouraged people to have or start a bucket list. Those crazy things that propel us or compel us into action…living life. I also believe that one’s bucket list is what drives us to fulfill our dreams.
There have been a few times in my life that a bucket list idea comes along that so compelling…that to not jump on it would be a travesty. This is my tale of bucket list adventures.
It was soon to be my sixtieth birthday and to celebrate that milestone year my goal was to run a marathon. My wife and I are both runners, I’d run many half marathons, but never a full. My wife had run one marathon and decided she was happy to be done with the whole thing.
I hit sixty, January of 2013 and resolved to run a race every month for the year. My first marathon was the Disney World Marathon in Orlando. Not my favorite race, but I made it through. My next major event was the Paris Marathon and this changed both our lives.
I’m standing on the Champs-Elysees, in the shadow of the Arc de Thiomphe , (yes my heart was pounding) in this excitable state I struck a conversation with another American waiting with me in the queue. He mentioned that he and a friend had just run the Antarctic Marathon, sadly, his friend has broken his ankle and didn’t finish, however, he went on about running a marathon on every continent. The idea of running a marathon on every continent just about made my head explode.
As soon as I arrived home and gushed like a school boy who just got his first A+ in algebra, I flooded her with information and excitement about running a marathon on every continent. She had the look we have before agreeing to a root canal, yet, wanting to smile…telling me to go unpack and take a nap. (maybe you’ll forget about it!)
And so, it began, the bucket list of a lifetime.
Would you like to hear about running a marathon on the continent of Antarctic? From riding the waves through Drake Passage on a Russian spy ship, running in a penguin crossing area, discovering a world of white and beauty like none other?
Join me on August 16, for a story and photolog of Antarctica.
Webinar will take place August 16 from 10 am -11am MNT, register online.