You Go, Granny Girl!
Today’s Wall Street Journal has an article about a small group of marathoners, titled “Over 80, It’s Anyone’s Race.” The article talks about the women’s 80-to-90-year old division of the New York City Marathon, which will five contestants. (Meanwhile, 21 men age 80 and older will also race.)
Are these runners the cusp of a trend? Perhaps. We’re all getting older, and the population is aging, too: 25 percent of the population will be 56 or older, well into AARP territory. But the people of that age aren’t settling into rocking chairs just yet. “Since 2003, the number of finishers 80 and above for all road races has risen 23% compared with 16% for all age groups,” writes Matthew Futterman.
Though the best runner in the whole race will finish in just over two hours, winning isn’t on the mind of those women. Since their best time will be something over six hours, that’s understandable. But their enthusiasm is something that snowboarding adults of all ages can take inspiration from.
Is running good for you? Mary Wittenberg is the chief of the New York Road Runners Club. Never heard of it? That’s the group that puts on the marathon. Speaking of older runners, Wittenberg says “These are the sunniest people. Maybe you have to be that way to run marathons in your 80s, or maybe it’s just that running makes you so damn happy.”
The focus of the article is Joy Johnson, an 81-year old in San Jose, California who started running at age 58.
Running has been good for her. According to one man who has conducted one of the training camps Johnson has attended over the years, “She is someone you really can see running when she is 100. She just has that smile on her face all the time.”
Johnson, who spends an hour a day reading the Bible, cites words from the book of Isaiah as an inspiration: “But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”
There are certainly obstacles to being an elderly runner.
Dr. Alexis Chiang Colvin, a sports-medicine expert at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, said aging affects every system the body uses in long-distance running.
An elderly heart doesn’t pump as fast or as hard, so oxygen — the body’s gasoline — doesn’t circulate as efficiently. An average 60-year-old pumps 20% less oxygenated blood than a 20-year-old, Dr. Colvin said. Like all human tissue, the lungs become stiffer and less expansive. Muscles atrophy at an increasing rate and ligaments and tendons grow brittle making injuries far more likely. Muscle strength generally peaks at 30. After 70, it declines 30% per decade.
Johnson does her best to compensate, alternating walking with running during marathons. She trains regularly, putting in 30 to 55 miles a week, and runs the stadium seats in a high school football stadium, and runs three marathons (and eight other races) a year.
One of her friends says “She’s going to die doing those marathons,” which is just fine with Johnson: “I want to die running. That’s my goal.”
There are worse things to aspire to in this life. So if you think you’re too old to get physically active, just think of Joy Johnson.