2 . People in Detroit, Michigan take their sport seriously. Comerica Park, the home of the Tigers, a baseball team, and the Little Caesars Arena, which is home to the NHL’s Detroit Red Wings and the NBA’s Detroit Pistons, draw enormous crowds. Far older than both is the Cadieux Café, on the eastern edge of the city. Locals there take part in a game called “feather bowling” most nights.

In the game, developed from Flanders, players roll a wooden wheel along a rough earth lane (路) towards a pigeon feather planted at the other end. The idea is to get your wheel as close as possible—while blocking those of the opposing team or knocking them out of the way.

Everyone in Grosse Pointe in Detroit plays feather bowling. Photos of champions line the wall of the Cadieux Café, which is founded in the 1930s by Belgian immigrants, says John Rutherford, a musician who has co-owned the place since 2019.

Having been preserved for the best part of a century, feather bowling is now spreading. A few other bars in Michigan have set up their own lanes. Having seen a video of people playing feather bowling at the Cadieux Café, Dave Plate decided it was exactly the game to bring to a large space he had rented, and flew to Michigan to learn it. Last year, he opened a bar with the game in a neighborhood in New York City. The lanes are now booked up for weekends in advance. Most of the players are young, and a growing number of parents are bringing their children, too.

Mr. Rutherford welcomes the copycats. The Cadieux Café, he says, could become to feather bowling what St. Andrews in Scotland is to golf: somewhere true fans will always want to play. But he’s critical of what competitors are offering—something like golf court. “For it to be truly feather bowling, you need a real dirt course like ours,” he says. Even worldwide, Detroit may now be a good place to play the game.

5 . Starting to run at 60 has certainly turned my life upside down. I made a bucket list and managed to tick off a few things already. And then I started running.

I heard about a running program in Delhi. It targeted women who had never run before, with the aim of getting non-runners fit enough to run 6 kilometers in 10 weeks.

Despite the painful slowness and my constant out-of-breath state, what emerged from the early morning runs was a definite sense of happiness. At the end of a run, I felt better, happier, and energized. I’d started running because, at my age, I felt I needed to be active, and here I was bursting with energy and getting stronger by the week.

In February this year, I ran my second full marathon and won a gold medal in my category. There was also the silver in my first full marathon and my first half marathon. It’s been a journey of nothing but fun. I run. And I was hooked.

There have been moments of aches and pains, tripping and falling down, but these are nothing compared to the thrill of taking part in your first ever race, at 60. The aches are nothing compared to the energizing rush you get at the end of a run. In the early days, there were also many moments of self-doubt. Those moments were far worse than the occasional aches, but the joy of running quickly outweighed the bad.

Conclusion? “Start running” was the best thing to add to my bucket list, and if you haven’t yet done so, please, do it right now.

6 . In late 2021, I began to have a little bit of a midlife crisis. When my father was 48 years old, he had a heart attack that nearly ended his life. As I _________ my mid-forties, I knew that I needed to make a change in my life. I wanted to do something _________ to prove to myself and everyone else around me that I wasn’t going to have the same fate.

As I was trying to determine what kind of _________ that I wanted to set, I found a _________ called The Rut. The Rut is a series of races that are _________ in Big Sky, Montana every September. There’s multiple distances, but the 28 Kilometer _________ is the most popular, as well as the most _________ of the entire series. This race is regularly listed in the top ten most difficult races in the world. It involves almost 8,000 feet of elevation (海拔)_________ . This was the type of race I was _________ .

I also did a detailed training __________ . Even if I was traveling for business, I would stick to it and never __________ a workout (训练). And then came race day.

That day, Big Sky Montana, was unseasonably __________ , almost 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The race is going almost entirely above tree line, which means that you just are __________ to the elements (恶劣天气) nearly the entire time. Many people __________ out of the race halfway. But I finished it. When I reached the finish line, I was greeted by my wife and children, also friends that had traveled with us to Big Sky that day. This was the biggest challenge I had made for myself, but I __________ it.

Life Skills Show

8 . 2024 Seattle Marathon’s Summer Events

The Seattle Marathon Association (SMA) is a non-profit organization proud of providing a quality running event in the Pacific Northwest. Join us for our annual family-friendly run at Seward Park with views of Lake Washington and Mount Rainier. Dogs welcome! Choose your distance: 5k, 10k or Half Marathon! Kids are welcome to participate in the Kids Fun Run, a quick 1k run with specially provided snacks waiting at the end.

At 3:00 PM, June 21 — Early Packet Pickup

At 7:00 AM, June 22 — Event Day Registration & Packet Pickup

All finishers will receive an event me dal and a technical fabric shirt.

●Top 3 overall men & women participants in the 5k (must come in under 25min), 10k (must come in under 45min) and Half Marathon (must come in under 1hr 30min) races will receive cash prizes at the finish line.

●In addition, in the week following the race, non-cash awards will be emailed to the top three runners in each age division. Age divisions are as follows: 14 and under,15-19, 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60-69, 70-79, 80-89 and 90+.

We offer free entries for athletes who can prove qualifying time(s) within the last 2 years. Please note that we only offer free registration and do not cover any transportation, accommodation, food or visa fees. Please contact us with proof of your qualifying time(s) within the last 2 years for a free entry to the race.

9 . Joy Chapman,70, retired from work in 2018 but decided she’d never become a “boring” granny. She joined local gym and got herself a hard workout routine which sees her in the gym every day for two and a half hours. She said, “I was afraid of turning 70, but I don’t feel my age at all.”

As her confidence in the gym improved, she hardly spent a day without going to the gym. “When I first started, I would come home feeling tired,” she said. “Every muscle ached, but as I progressed, my fitness levels improved and I got better. I would never have believed in 100 years that I would love the gym so much.”

Joy said, “Working out and staying fit stops things from getting me down.” The granny has been longing for living since losing her husband in 2011, when he was just 58—making Joy realize life is valuable. She said, “My husband died very young and very quickly. He became ill in February, was diagnosed (诊断) in March and died on April 22. No one could believe it. Everybody was shocked at his death. When he died, it made me think deeply of my life and I am quite a confident and strong person as a result.”

Every day when she does her workouts, Joy meets up with a group of pals who help keep her young. She said, “I’ve made brilliant friends. As soon as I step in the gym, there is friendly humour with the receptionists, the trainers, the cleaner-everyone. They all think I’m mad, but in a nice way. I’m the fittest granny in the town. I’d advise other people in later life not to be scared by the gym. Give it a go, because it’s just great.”