I was beaten in a race today

[Dotandtime]

By a woman of 78.

I'm mid 50s so no spring chicken myself, but goodness she was amazing. It was 15 miles trail running on a tough undulating course. It nearly broke me, despite being a regular, fairly serious runner.

I'm in complete awe and also fascinated by the way some people seem old in their 50s and others seem to get another 2 decades or more.

I take part in lots of races, and age doesn't make a difference at all does it!
I find it really inspiring and liberating- I hope to be continuing to run at whatever age.

My Mum regularly beats me at parkrun and in races. Annoying as I’m the one that introduced her to running! 😂

Wow! Scientists should be studying her for the secrets of long life, she sounds amazing.

Joking aside, I think some people just get really lucky with their physiological make up and genetics. Couple that with a healthy lifestyle and they just keep going.

Old age kind of fascinates me. I used to work with the elderly and the number of people in their nineties who were in better shape mentally and physically than those in their 70s/80s or even 60s was surprising.

She was tiny, which I suspect helps longevity as a runner - less weight to drag around and less cumulative impact over the years.

Ah wow, that's amazing and very inspiring.

I used to do parkrun with a guy in his 80s, he often finished in around 25-30 mins. Just looked him up and he's now V90(!) and still parkrunning. Apparently did a 6 hour 30 minute marathon at age 80.