Reading · Your Best Life Made Easy™: Thriving After 50

Image Credit: John Guccione

I was supposed to be in Lexington, Ohio this past 4th of July weekend. Detroit at the beginning of June. Indy at the start of May.

I wasn’t at any of these places because I decided not to help a multi-billionaire.

While I don’t really make resolutions, I do like to reflect and take some stock of what I’ve accomplished the prior year, see if I’m on track for the new one, and determine if there’s anything I’d like to change.

One thing that stood out was that at 50+ I’ve never been so aware of the clock of life ticking loudly. While you never know how much time you have left at any age, it is when you start to say “let’s get our derriere in gear.”

That led to me vowing to make more of an effort to try new things, and have more experiences in 2026, to see if I could knock some things off my “someday” list.

One of those things that appealed to me to try was something called being a “Flag Marshal.” One of my husband’s retired friends was doing it and having a ball traveling in the U.S. and internationally.

For those of you who don’t know, various forms of motorsports, including the IndyCar® and Formula 1® (F1®) series that I follow, use actual human beings to wave an appropriate colored flag on the sidelines to signal information to the drivers as they participate in a racing event. They also communicate with the other humans officiating the race called “Race Control” in IndyCar and “The Stewards” in F1.

A common example is a yellow flag to indicate there’s an incident, so there should be cautious movement in a portion of the track, or perhaps across the entire track if the issue is big enough. Recently, informational lights controlled by humans were also added, but lights and flags work together to keep drivers informed.

So I got it in my head that I not only wanted to watch races on TV or at a track, I wanted to be part of the action and be one of those flag wavers!

And so began my journey.

Photo Credit: Melanie R. Jordan IndyCars on track at World Wide Technology Raceway, Madison IL

On a dreary late February Saturday morning, this non-morning person was up at 6:45 AM to attend Flag Marshaling class. Check.

Then I needed to get a license from one of the certifying groups. Check.

Then I needed to be accepted as a volunteer for races that had openings.

I naively applied to the Miami F1 race. They would take me to do admin and grunt work to support the experienced Marshals, but I would not get anywhere near the track. I also had to be there four days and the official hotel before taxes would cost me nearly a grand. Not including the fact I had to pay to get to Miami as well.

The pay was $0 (this is true even if you’re an experienced Flag Marshal), but would’ve resulted in a three-day pass for my husband to attend the event. However, I wasn’t going to see any of the track or race at all given these assignments.

Hard pass.

I decided to try to stick with IndyCar because while not all events use outsourced Flag Marshals, a couple of them were drivable from my Chicago suburb (Indy, Detroit, Ohio) and they’d let me work flagging under a mentor right away. You could also be part of individual race team test events at Indianapolis Motor Speedway which actually were paid. I figured the paid events would help contribute to cover some of the unpaid events.

My husband thought I was a bit crazy.

They’re not paying you for the race events because you’re volunteering, and you have expenses to do it?

I didn’t tell him I also needed orange or white clothing (varies depending on event), work gloves and some other items in order to “volunteer.” None of it supplied (F1 does loan you an orange coverall).

I had started a secret section in my home office closet that reminded me of creamsicles as I found on sale items in the required orange and white colors.

I was accepted for all three IndyCar races I applied to and three paid multi-day test events at Indy. The test events starting in April would get me ready for the race events that started in early May.

I was studying my flags and guidelines and dreaming of getting the opportunity to have fun and throw a black flag (for a rule violation) at a driver I didn’t like. “Take that!”

One-by-one the paid test events all got cancelled.

Okay, so my debut would be the Indy Grand Prix (the road course race in early May before the Indy 500).

Little-by-little though, red flags (and not the kind I would throw if the race was halted for weather or a problem), were popping up.

Just a few days before the race, I finally received the logistical info I was hoping for along with some pretty serious safety warnings.

“Don’t believe that the chain link fence, barriers or walls will protect you. They may slow a car a little. Have a bail out plan.” Crap, I was counting on those fences and walls to protect me off track and do more than just a little.
“Watch out for debris. If a car hits in front of you, car parts and hot fluid can come through the fence or over the barrier or wall.” Hot fluid especially didn’t sound good. I was envisioning some ingredient that might eat through my flesh.
“Debris, small stones, tire marbles and carbon fiber will be picked up by tires and thrown at you. They can hit you hard enough to go through your clothing, break the skin and draw blood. Wear safety glasses or good sunglasses and many like to wear a bandana to help protect the face.” Whoa, I may have some wrinkles, but I am not looking to have my face disfigured.

I shared with my husband what I had read. Of course, he was immediately concerned for my safety.

Yet he was also angry that a small fortune was being made on every racing event, and a series that was being run by a multi-billionaire (Roger Penske under Penske Entertainment and Fox Corporation), was asking me to work for free (actually at a net negative when you include expenses), while putting me at such personal risk. It’s also true for F1 owned by Liberty Media and they rake in even more money by far than IndyCar does.

“How is this even legal to not pay people for this?” He wanted to know.

Actually after what I read, I wouldn’t have even cared if I was paid.

The glorious image of me being part of the action, dressed as a creamsicle, and waving a flag at a professional motorsports event was replaced by an image of bodily injury and disfigurement.

Inherently, you know being adjacent to a track where racing cars will be zooming by is not the safest place to be, but I figured being behind barriers, walls and fences would be good enough.

Sure, I wanted to try something new, and combining it with my love of IndyCar seemed like the perfect fit, but this wasn’t an experience I was now willing to have.

Like the Phil Collins song - Something Happened on the Way to Heaven.

So I canceled out my participation and gave myself permission to have being a race fan be the limits of my involvement going forward.

At least there’s no bodily injury or disfigurement involved in that.

And my Flag Marshal license is a kind of cool souvenir.

Photo Credit: Melanie R. Jordan

While I invested a lot of time and some money to realize being a Flag Marshal wasn’t for me, I’m still proud of myself for trying to expand my horizons as I get older.

Some new things are going to work out well. Like I’m closing in on the one-year anniversary of my Substack publication in mid-August and haven’t missed creating a new piece one single week!

I’m also now in my sixth month of volunteering at my local food pantry and have even made a new walking friend. Ah, if only she could run/walk. (I wrote more about finding your people at 50+ here).

Some new things I try are not going to ultimately be a fit, like this situation. But it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try.

Every success and every challenge we experience (or choose not to), makes us who we are and helps us grow just a bit more.

It’s even more important when we’re 50+.

I never want to stop growing in this way.

In fact, I’ve already decided. Next up…drum lessons!

Wishing you maximum health and happiness always!

P.S. Have you tried something new recently that didn’t go as planned? What happened and what did you learn from it?

Please comment. I’d love to hear what others have experienced.

I Decided Not to Help a Multi-Billionaire

Image Credit: John Guccione

Photo Credit: Melanie R. Jordan IndyCars on track at World Wide Technology Raceway, Madison IL

Photo Credit: Melanie R. Jordan

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