5. Swim a mile.

COMPLETED 28 July 2005, 14 August 2005, 17 August 2005, and multiple times since then

I put this on The Fifty because at the time I was coming up with the list, I'd only swum a mile a couple of times and usually only once in a summer. I would swim a quarter mile, then a half mile, and work my way up to the full mile over the course of a couple of weeks. Wuss I was! It turns out that a mile is no big deal, especially back in the days when I could do half of it breaststroke and half freestyle to break the monotony. Now, after a meniscus repair, I've been advised that breaststroke is not good to knees as old as mine and that I should stick to freestyle. The only problem with swimming a mile now is sheer boredom. That line on the bottom of the pool while freestroking is just not as interesting as was the sea monster breaststroking through the waves toward the unwary prey. Hey! I had to break the boredom somehow!