Age Is Not Just a Number

I'm sixty three years old and I'm due to hit sixty four, later this year. That isn't ancient, but it certainly isn't young either. If I have reason to mention this to people, I'll often get the reply that "age is just a number", or "you are only as old as you feel". My favourite remark along these lines comes from a fellow runner who says; "you don't stop running because you get old, you get old because you stop running" (and he's even older than me). 

What lies behind these different sayings about age is that there is not an exact relationship between how many trips we've taken around the sun and the state of our bodies. Some people age more rapidly than others, be that mentally, emotionally or physically. As long as I am sensible, running long distances in beautiful places is good for my body. It strengthens my heart and lungs, helps stop the rest of me turning to flab and it does wonders for my mental health. According to my Garmin watch, my fitness age is 43, that's not bad - though it's not brilliant either. 

A few years back, I was visiting a physio to have some aches and pains looked at and she remarked that these problems were caused by running, but if I were more sedentary, I'd actually have a lot more by way of joint pain and the like, I just wouldn't think about it; running makes me more aware of my body and more likely to look after it.

However, there is no getting away from it, I am getting older. It's just over ten years since I started running again and five years or so since I started running silly distances. Better late than never, perhaps, but it is late. One of the effects of age is that I'm slowing down. Even as a kid, I was always slow, but I could keep going. When I first started running in my late fifties, I could churn our miles in around 8-9 minutes, these days, it's more like 10-12 minutes on the road and slower over rough ground. Not only that, but I have to work harder in terms of strength and conditioning to keep that sort of pace up. It takes me longer to recover from injury than it used to and I even need more time just to recover from a hard training session. 

I'm not complaining. When you think about it, getting old is a privilege and the fact that I can still enter ultra-marathons when I'm approaching retirement age is pretty good, really. I'm not the fastest old guy out there, but I'm still out there and that's what counts?

So why am I writing this? Mainly, it's just to help me thing and to face up to reality. I can't do what I once did and I have to approach my running with a bit more thought and a bit less gung-ho. It's no use pretending that this age thing isn't happening to me, I just have to work with it and to continue enjoying my time out on the hills. 

This year, I have three major challenges coming up. I'm back for the Spine Challenger again and this time, I want to get more than seventy miles. Six weeks later is the Dalesway Ultra, 80 something miles from the Lake District more or less back to our house and then I finish the year with Lakes in a Day, which is just around my sixty fourth birthday. I reckon that I'm capable of finishing all of these races on a good day, but will the days be good?

Which leaves me wondering what next? I don't fancy running shorter races as they tend to be full of racing snakes and I just feel old and fat plodding along behind them. I like the look of the new Ranger Ultras Pennine Bridleway Ultra, it would be a big challenge, but it looks great. And then there is The Spine. Could I really manage the whole Pennine Way in a week. Something tells me it is just too far and too hard, but something inside me is screaming out to give it a go. 

At some point in the not too distant future, I won't even be able to dream of pinning a number on and heading out to complete an ultra. At that point, I still hope that I'll be squeezing into my tights, grabbing my poles and lumbering up the moor behind our house. Age will win in the end, it always does; but I'll keep running as long as I can!

“The fleeting hour of life of those who love the hills is quickly spent, but the hills are eternal. Always there will be the lonely ridge, the dancing beck, the silent forest; always there will be the exhilaration of the summits. These are for the seeking, and those who seek and find while there is still time will be blessed both in mind and body.” A. Wainwright.

Anyway, enough introspection, I need to go and do some pilates, squats and lunges and tomorrow there are twenty road miles waiting to be run.

The Moor Behind Our House: I'll Take That!