https://dontdieretired.com For anyone who has no intention of slowing down: lifelong movers and people who never got round to it. Real stories, practical plans and daily encouragement to do more, not less, with the years ahead. en-GB https://dontdieretired.com/stories/steve-james-200-marathons-coastline/ https://dontdieretired.com/stories/steve-james-200-marathons-coastline/ Wed, 04 Nov 2026 06:00:00 +0000 stories How a retired banker ran 5,240 miles around Britain's coast in 200 consecutive marathons while University of Exeter researchers tracked what it did to his body, and how to start running or build towards back-to-back long days yourself. https://dontdieretired.com/eat/geoff-collis-pilot-to-baker/ https://dontdieretired.com/eat/geoff-collis-pilot-to-baker/ Tue, 03 Nov 2026 06:00:00 +0000 eat How an airline pilot learned to bake during the pandemic, went back to flying, then chose the bakery for good, and how to bake your first loaf this week or turn a baking habit into something bigger. https://dontdieretired.com/curious/machu-picchu-lizarraga-bingham/ https://dontdieretired.com/curious/machu-picchu-lizarraga-bingham/ Tue, 03 Nov 2026 06:00:00 +0000 curious How Hiram Bingham reached Machu Picchu in 1911, who was already there, the charcoal inscription left by Agustín Lizárraga in 1902, the 2022 study suggesting the Incas called the place Huayna Picchu, and how the objects taken to Yale went back to Cusco. https://dontdieretired.com/move/girls-outside-mountain-bike-rides/ https://dontdieretired.com/move/girls-outside-mountain-bike-rides/ Mon, 02 Nov 2026 06:00:00 +0000 move How a group of women in Colorado's Roaring Fork Valley turned a Tuesday mountain bike ride into a 15-year habit: the motto, the tailgate and why the group keeps them riding. How to start mountain biking on easy graded trails, or ride harder terrain with a group if you already ride. https://dontdieretired.com/curious/terracotta-army-discovery/ https://dontdieretired.com/curious/terracotta-army-discovery/ Mon, 02 Nov 2026 06:00:00 +0000 curious How farmers digging a well near Xi'an in 1974 found the Terracotta Army, how a local curator reassembled the first soldiers, the long argument over who discovered it, and how a famous claim about ancient anti-rust technology was overturned in 2019. https://dontdieretired.com/explore/nancy-zelick-pacific-crest-trail/ https://dontdieretired.com/explore/nancy-zelick-pacific-crest-trail/ Fri, 30 Oct 2026 06:00:00 +0000 explore How a retired Intel researcher from Baker City, Oregon, walked the Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada in about seven months: the snow, the gear, the food and why she thinks pace mattered more than youth. How to start multi-day hiking, or build towards a long trail if you already walk. https://dontdieretired.com/curious/lucy-fossil-hadar-discovery/ https://dontdieretired.com/curious/lucy-fossil-hadar-discovery/ Thu, 29 Oct 2026 06:00:00 +0000 curious How Lucy was found at Hadar in Ethiopia in 1974, how she got her names, what her bones showed about walking upright, where she has travelled since, and where the museums' accounts of her disagree. https://dontdieretired.com/ai/satoshi-tomokiyo-ai-ciphers/ https://dontdieretired.com/ai/satoshi-tomokiyo-ai-ciphers/ Wed, 28 Oct 2026 06:00:00 +0000 ai How an amateur codebreaker's list of unsolved ciphers became a test bed for AI, what the machines can and cannot yet do, and how to try codebreaking yourself, by hand and with a free AI assistant you check line by line. https://dontdieretired.com/curious/david-warren-black-box-flight-recorder/ https://dontdieretired.com/curious/david-warren-black-box-flight-recorder/ Tue, 27 Oct 2026 06:00:00 +0000 curious How David Warren of Australia's Aeronautical Research Laboratories came up with the cockpit recorder after the Comet crashes, why it was rejected at home, how a British visitor changed that, and where the accounts disagree. https://dontdieretired.com/travel/dave-bell-peru-to-kenya-row/ https://dontdieretired.com/travel/dave-bell-peru-to-kenya-row/ Mon, 26 Oct 2026 06:00:00 +0000 travel How a former Royal Marine from Bere Regis rowed more than 15,000 nautical miles alone, from South America to Africa, without a support boat or a single stop. What the row involved, and how to get from your first rowing stroke to a long, steady session of your own. https://dontdieretired.com/move/sola-alegbe-swimming-teacher/ https://dontdieretired.com/move/sola-alegbe-swimming-teacher/ Mon, 26 Oct 2026 06:00:00 +0000 move How a Londoner who nearly drowned as a child learned to swim at 48, left her job at Transport for London and qualified as a swimming teacher. What the first lesson is really like, and how to start if water frightens you, or go further if you already swim. https://dontdieretired.com/curious/lascaux-cave-discovery/ https://dontdieretired.com/curious/lascaux-cave-discovery/ Sat, 24 Oct 2026 06:00:00 +0000 curious How four friends found the Lascaux cave paintings in 1940, what the dog Robot did or did not do, why the cave was closed in 1963, and how you can see it today. https://dontdieretired.com/curious/frank-worsley-james-caird/ https://dontdieretired.com/curious/frank-worsley-james-caird/ Fri, 23 Oct 2026 06:00:00 +0000 curious The voyage of the James Caird in 1916: who was aboard, how Frank Worsley navigated with only four sightings, the crossing of South Georgia, and how the 22 men left on Elephant Island survived until August. Plus where you can see the boat today. https://dontdieretired.com/curious/percy-shaw-cats-eyes/ https://dontdieretired.com/curious/percy-shaw-cats-eyes/ Fri, 23 Oct 2026 06:00:00 +0000 curious How Percy Shaw turned a nightly drive, two tram lines and a cat on a fence into the cat's eye road stud, how it cleans itself, and why the Second World War made it. https://dontdieretired.com/curious/percy-spencer-microwave-oven/ https://dontdieretired.com/curious/percy-spencer-microwave-oven/ Fri, 23 Oct 2026 06:00:00 +0000 curious How a self-taught engineer who sped up wartime radar production turned stray microwaves into a way to cook, why the famous melted-chocolate story is probably too neat, and how long it took for the oven to reach the kitchen. https://dontdieretired.com/think/virginia-ordaz-delta-college-degree/ https://dontdieretired.com/think/virginia-ordaz-delta-college-degree/ Fri, 23 Oct 2026 06:00:00 +0000 think How a retired fire dispatcher from Stockton, California, finished the degree she started in 1989, and how her mother finished hers more than 40 years after her last class. How to find out what your own old credits are worth, in the US and the UK. https://dontdieretired.com/earn/alex-worsick-train-driver/ https://dontdieretired.com/earn/alex-worsick-train-driver/ Thu, 22 Oct 2026 06:00:00 +0000 earn How a BBC radio producer from Accrington became a trainee train driver with Northern: the application, the 20 weeks in the classroom and the 230 hours in the cab. What it takes to drive trains in Britain and the US, and how to test a career change of your own. https://dontdieretired.com/connect/cincinnati-tinker-team-repairs/ https://dontdieretired.com/connect/cincinnati-tinker-team-repairs/ Wed, 21 Oct 2026 06:00:00 +0000 connect Cincinnati's Tinker Team has restored nearly 1,400 household electronics in a year and a half, with no budget for parts and no experience needed to join. What they fix, why repair is worth learning, and how to find a repair event near you. https://dontdieretired.com/move/darren-miles-slalom-skateboarding/ https://dontdieretired.com/move/darren-miles-slalom-skateboarding/ Tue, 20 Oct 2026 06:00:00 +0000 move Darren Miles has skateboarded since he was a boy in Essex. In 2020 he switched to slalom, racing between cones, and this October he was picked to skate for Great Britain at the world championships in Asunción. How he did it, why a new skill is worth learning, and how to get on a board safely. https://dontdieretired.com/travel/clipper-race-atlantic-oban/ https://dontdieretired.com/travel/clipper-race-atlantic-oban/ Mon, 19 Oct 2026 06:00:00 +0000 travel Two Scottish crew in the 2025-26 Clipper Race sailed the 3,115 nautical miles from Washington DC to Oban on 70ft racing yachts. How a race crewed by non-professionals trains its sailors, what the work on board asks of your body, and the routes into crewing in the UK and US, from a club taster to a five-day live-aboard course. https://dontdieretired.com/ai/chieko-asakawa-ai-suitcase/ https://dontdieretired.com/ai/chieko-asakawa-ai-suitcase/ Sun, 18 Oct 2026 06:00:00 +0000 ai How a suitcase that bumped into a wall became an AI guide for blind travellers, what the trials have shown, and how to try AI that describes what a camera sees, with the two habits that keep it safe. https://dontdieretired.com/eat/ron-wallace-heaviest-pumpkin/ https://dontdieretired.com/eat/ron-wallace-heaviest-pumpkin/ Sat, 17 Oct 2026 06:00:00 +0000 eat Ron Wallace's 3,156lb pumpkin took the world record a week after Ian Paton's 2,856lb 'Bagheera'. How the two growers got there, what a gardening trial found, and how to grow a first pumpkin of your own next year. https://dontdieretired.com/move/donnajean-wilde-five-hour-plank/ https://dontdieretired.com/move/donnajean-wilde-five-hour-plank/ Fri, 16 Oct 2026 06:00:00 +0000 move DonnaJean Wilde of Magrath, Alberta, held a forearm plank for five hours at the Huntsman World Senior Games in St. George, Utah, and Guinness World Records is reviewing it. How she got there, what a large review found about holds like the plank, and how to build your own. https://dontdieretired.com/connect/gary-mckee-jogle-pub-run/ https://dontdieretired.com/connect/gary-mckee-jogle-pub-run/ Thu, 15 Oct 2026 06:00:00 +0000 connect Gary McKee of Cleator Moor ran about 900 miles from John o'Groats to Land's End in 30 days for the Licensed Trade Charity, with more than 83,000 people taking part online. What a national survey says volunteers get back, and how to turn your own miles into a team fundraiser. https://dontdieretired.com/explore/stargazing-for-beginners/ https://dontdieretired.com/explore/stargazing-for-beginners/ Wed, 14 Oct 2026 06:00:00 +0000 explore A beginner's guide to stargazing: letting your eyes adapt, the planets you can find without a telescope, why a red torch matters, the honest challenges of cloud and cold, and observatories and astronomy societies near you that will lend you a look through their telescopes. https://dontdieretired.com/explore/trevor-barry-saturn-decagon/ https://dontdieretired.com/explore/trevor-barry-saturn-decagon/ Wed, 14 Oct 2026 06:00:00 +0000 explore In September 2026 the journal Science Advances described a decagon, a ten-sided atmospheric wave, around Saturn's south pole. One of its authors is Trevor Barry, an amateur astronomer who left school after Year 10 and spent 30 years in the mines of Broken Hill. How a homemade observatory ended up in a scientific paper, what the evidence says about looking up, and how to find Saturn this month. https://dontdieretired.com/move/jose-graca-kona-ironman-podium/ https://dontdieretired.com/move/jose-graca-kona-ironman-podium/ Tue, 13 Oct 2026 06:00:00 +0000 move José Graca of Kailua-Kona finished third of 246 in the men's 50 to 54 group at the 2026 Ironman World Championship, after a sprint over the last mile. What the race asks for, what the weekly activity guidelines say, and how to work towards a long triathlon from where you are now. https://dontdieretired.com/travel/fiona-govan-greek-swimming-holiday/ https://dontdieretired.com/travel/fiona-govan-greek-swimming-holiday/ Mon, 12 Oct 2026 06:00:00 +0000 travel Fiona Govan marked her 50th birthday with a guided swimming holiday from Sivota, in western Greece, swimming about 4 km a day in the slowest group. What a swimming holiday is, what the NHS and RNLI say about swimming and open water, and how to work up to one from the pool or the lake. https://dontdieretired.com/think/david-smith-hat-einstein-tile/ https://dontdieretired.com/think/david-smith-hat-einstein-tile/ Sun, 11 Oct 2026 06:00:00 +0000 think David Smith of Bridlington, a hobbyist with no training in mathematics, found 'the hat': the first single shape known to cover a flat surface only in patterns that never repeat. How he found it, why he could not prove it alone, and the free tools that let you put the same tiles on your own table. https://dontdieretired.com/stories/lhakpa-sherpa-eleventh-everest/ https://dontdieretired.com/stories/lhakpa-sherpa-eleventh-everest/ Sat, 10 Oct 2026 06:00:00 +0000 stories Lhakpa Sherpa of West Hartford, Connecticut, climbed Everest for a record eleventh time on 17 May 2026, working as a guide. How she trained around ordinary jobs, what the NHS says about going above 2,500 metres, and how to build towards a high summit of your own, from a first hill to Mount Washington.