This was a very thoughtful essay.
But at the end noting that Ed was the progeny of an ultra blue zone father changes the whole tone.
It would have been interesting to have checked to see if he was carrying a polymorphism for high expression of FOXO3. That probability is very likely with the corollary being that the exercise and fitness actually had much less to do with his remarkable "fitness markers" identified in the lab.
The lesson to learn, is "pick your parents well".