Age Is No Barrier to Running

Photo by Raúl Nájera on Unsplash

We live in an age-conscious society. How old you are seems to matter. Whether young or old, barriers can be placed in front of you.

Fortunately, the world of running is different. Yes, running acknowledges the impact of age on physical performance. However, instead of dismissing its aging runners, races provide age categories within races. In running, the age focus is geared toward leveling the playing field.

Instead of alienating older runners from races, age categories offer inclusiveness. That is certainly not always the case in the wider world, where the age groups are too often played against each other. Age can sometimes feel like a massive barrier to what society has to offer.

We all get older, and there isn’t much we can do about it. Admittedly, accepting this fact is another matter, and not always easy for a runner.

However, there comes a point when you have to finally face up to the fact that you are not going to be the exception to the laws of nature. Your running times will drop off.

Therefore, on reflection, age must be at least a mental barrier in running. Well, not necessarily.

Once you grudgingly accept the 50-year-old you will not run as fast as the 25-year-old you, running barriers can become self-imposed. The mindset can change.

For someone who has run for most of their life, it’s like starting a new running chapter. Chapter one, your younger running days are done and dusted, and now chapter two begins.

However, there is no reason why chapter two can’t be just as exciting and just as fun as chapter one, provided you stay fit and healthy. This is where another nod to your age needs to be recognized. Your body won’t cope with your previous weekly mileage totals and will require more rest days.

However, learning about your body and its limits as you age can be as interesting and enlightening as how you learned to push yourself to the limits when at your running peak. Running in your 40s, 50s, and beyond is a new challenge, and as runners, it is the challenge of the sport that draws us in.

Therefore, you want to embrace this new challenge rather than bow to society’s preconceived perceptions of the aging process.

Getting older does not automatically equate to a decline in potential, even if it means a decline in foot speed. You may run slower times, but so what? You’re still running, and there is still much to achieve.

It is a severe test of my memory to remember being a running newbie. I have run pretty much all my life in some form or another.

However, I recall the feeling of excitement and anticipation when I first started to run races. The strength of these emotions has gone up and down over the years, but never completely away.

If you have run for a good number of years, you will be oh-so-familiar with the downward curve in race times as you get older. You keep running and racing because you still enjoy the core elements of the sport. But heck, those declining times over your favored distances are starting to become a little soul-destroying.

This is the category I place myself in. When I was in my mid-thirties, I was running a sub-34-minute 10k and a 78-minute half-marathon. Nothing spectacular, but a decent standard nonetheless.

Fast-forward 15 years, and let’s just say I wasn’t running particularly close to those times anymore, and we’ll leave it at that.

If you run races, then the chances are that you’re a fairly competitive soul. When the young whipper-snappers of the day disappear rapidly in the distance, it can be a tough pill to swallow.

However, swallow that pill you do because you love to run, and there is always that happy delusional part in your brain that thinks you could have one more super-fast time in you, one you have not posted for 20 years.

The reality check soon kicks back in because you are running three to four minutes slower over 10k than at your peak.

It would be easy for this realization to create a barrier and to develop the mentality that I am getting older — this is what happens, what’s the point? Well, yes, this is what happens, but it should not mean you enjoy the sport any less, and certainly should not mean you quit.

The following are eight tips to help prevent imposing age-related barriers to your running.

As long as you keep answering yes to this question, then age poses no barrier. To heck with anyone who says otherwise. Times be damned, and form can go out of the window as long as running remains an irreplaceable part of your life, one you continue to love.

I was very watch and time-focused as a runner. I still like to know how fast I run, and it is a useful tool to chart progress when returning from injury. However, it is not the be-all and end-all now. There is not much point in me being a watch watcher these days.

It does not mean running has to be any less serious if you still like to race, or you can’t continue to set realistic running targets.

It’s just an acceptance that other factors may have greater value now. For me, one of them is my running environment. As I get older, I prefer to look at the natural world around me rather than my watch. It is far more interesting and rewarding to the 55-year-old me.

If you still need your competitive fix, concentrate your energy on your age category in races. This can be doubly fun since while you have a good idea where you are in a race overall, you can never be too sure of your position in an age-category race.

This can lead to a pleasant surprise when the race results are posted. However, a word to the wise — you may suddenly find yourself obsessing over the ages of the runners around you!

Myself and another runner stopped to casually glance at the results of an evening 5-mile race a few years back. We were both bemoaning how down our times were. Then we saw I was second and he was third in our age category.

It never occurred to us that we could be in those positions. You can never be quite sure of your position in your age category, a fact that keeps the race relevant throughout. You keep pushing, as you might just make the prize rostrum after all!

Mix your running up. Try getting away from the standard distances you ran when younger. If you run predominantly on the road, head for the trails if possible. By running different race types and distances, it becomes less meaningful to compare your performances against your younger self.

Forget your old personal best times. They are great to reflect on and take some pride in, but they serve no current purpose when you have been running for many years. Set new targets. This could be the best times over distances since you turned 40 or 50, or to simply better your time from your last race.

Realistic targets are fun to strive toward, helping motivation.

Ditch the notion of the loneliness of the long-distance runner and become more involved in your sport. Help out at your local running club and local events.

Marshaling is very rewarding and surprisingly fun. Not only does it make you feel good about giving something back to the sport, but watching and cheering on the runners inspires you to run.

You may not have been the fastest runner, but experience and enthusiasm are tough to beat. Pass your hard-earned wisdom on to younger runners and runners new to the sport. Offer advice where advice is wanted.

Inquire about taking a coaching course and take pleasure in helping fellow runners progress. You may well learn new ideas that could benefit your running, too.

We are never too long in the tooth to learn new tricks. New and interesting ideas can boost motivation at any stage of your running life.

When all is said and done, how do you still feel when running? Running continues to bring physical and mental health benefits regardless of age, and this is perhaps the most important reason to resist erecting any barriers to running just because you are getting older.

Sometimes running may seem harder and take longer to recover from compared to days gone by. However, the benefits remain consistently high.

For me, the physical and mental health benefits of continuing to run seal the deal. Injuries of late have been frustrating, but what they have done has made me even more aware of how much I miss running when unable to do so. Nothing else I have tried has ever replaced the buzz.

If you have never run before, or perhaps last ran as a kid, consult with your doctor before shooting out of the door in a burst of enthusiasm.

The joy of the newbie is the continual improvement you initially experience. However, even here, the time will come when progress slows and times find reverse gear.

Welcome to the club. Yet it is still a joyful club. So you run slower. So your personal bests are a thing of the past. Set new personal bests for your age category or the year if you remain target-driven.

Yet, before you are tempted to let the barrier drop down on your running to abide respectfully by nature’s rules on aging, take a moment.

Am I still enjoying running? Check. Does running still make me feel better? Check. Does running improve my day? Check. Would I miss running? Check.

These are the basics that matter. The competitive soul can be fed through tweaks as outlined in the above tips. Yet the heart of everything good about running remains, and that is ultimately the only thing that matters, regardless of age.