The Power of Exercise

Real adventurers are few these days. Steve Fossett was one.

He was declared dead yesterday, months after went missing on a routine flight. Fossett had set many world records, among them he was the first person to circumnavigate the globe alone in a hot-air balloon and the first fly solo around the world in a plane without refueling. He competed in the Ironman in Hawaii, considered the toughest of those races.

But here's what struck me when I was reading his obit this morning in the New York Times: "As a child, he suffered from asthma, but he pushed himself athletically. He loved hiking and other outdoor adventure."

Theodore Roosevelt also was sickly as a child, until his father bought him a set of weights.

I never stop being amazed at what exercise can do for us.