THE residents of Nottingham have woken up to an odd sight in recent weeks - a middleaged man pounding the highways of the shire.

It's not the sheriff chasing Kevin Costner, or, for older readers, Richard Greene. It's a more modern - and I'm glad to say successful - lawman, Steve Green, the retiring chief constable of the county.

Steve is standing down after eight years in charge and before he goes he's doing a sponsored run to every police office - 50 in all - in the county to thank staff and raise money for two police charities.

He'll soon face the same question as everyone leaving a high-pressure job - what on earth do I do now? It's about the most important question that we ever ask ourselves. How we answer it has a huge impact on our own well-being and that of family and loved ones.

Retirement is one of a handful of life-changing episodes. It's traumatic for everyone, but often it's the people who have had big, responsible - and yes, I know, well-paid - jobs who experience the biggest wrench.

There you are, one day taking decisions that affect the lives of a million people, dealing with ministers and mandarins, managing thousands of people and a multi-million pound budget. The next, well there's the dog to walk and those rose bushes that need pruning.

I've known high-ranking police officers who could not cope with this experience - you probably know colleagues who were the same. They're the ones who are always calling in at the office with a wistful look in their eye - just to say hello, of course. Call it loss of responsibility, loss of status, maybe, but it makes them a shell of their former selves. That is a tragic waste of what should be among the most fulfilling years of your life.

I don't think retirement will hit Steve like that.

He didn't start life with any advantages and had to work his way up. He served the public, not the establishment. He was very much my idea of a chief constable.

He did two of the hardest things that any police officer has to do - he did what was right, not what was popular and he looked for sustainable solutions rather than quick fixes. He leaves his force with crime figures at their lowest for 20 years. That took hard work and I am sure his job often consumed him and his every waking hour.

But when I meet him now, I see he has retained a sense of perspective and that is vital if you want a life after work.

Retirement shouldn't be a time for regret and yearning for past glories. It should be a time for developing new skills, interests and, yes, maybe putting something back through voluntary or community work. Every day I meet retired people who have taken on new roles like this. Community champions, I suppose you would call them. They bring huge energy and wisdom to whatever task they do. We would be a lot poorer without them.

So I think we owe it to ourselves to make the most of retirement. We owe it to families, of course, but to others too.

The charities Steve is running for were set up in memory of two police officers who were murdered while on duty. One was only 19. They never had the chance of a happy, fulfilling retirement; not even a chance to prune those roses. Let's just think about them and others like them next time we're moping around at a loose end and wondering if they miss us back at the office. Let's resolve to do something different - who knows, we might even enjoy it.

* Chief Constable Steve Green is raising money for COPS (Care of Police Survivors) and the Christopher McDonald Memorial Trust Fund. You can find details of the charities and make a donation through the force website www.nottinghamshire.police.uk