How dangerous is distance running for old folks?
Older runners who are in excellent shape, with years of marathons under their collective and not very long belts, can still be cut down in mid-stride by a cardiac arrest. That’s the lesson suggested by the autopsy of famed 58-year-old endurance runner Micah True (AKA Caballo Blanco), who reportedly died from an undiagnosed enlarged left...
The Boston Marathon is thundering toward you
Patriot’s Day is coming on April 15, which means the granddaddy of marathons (well, American marathons) will be run in Boston, which means we’ll see a lot of stories about granddaddies who run marathons. Older marathoners are considered feature-bait, because they are thought to be unusual. Marathon-running preteens are also unusual but also possibly a...
Celebrity News
We don’t talk much about celebrities on this site, but we have our heroes like anyone else. This is the justification for noting that legendary ultra-runner Micah True, 60, has gone missing in a New Mexico wilderness area. True, who is also known as “Caballo Blanco,” is one of the central characters in the Chris...
Fun run from the walking dead
Look at the face of a person skiing. OK, that sounds dangerous. Instead, look at the face of a person who has just made that final steep run and slid into the back of the lift line. Smiles. Maybe a look of steely self-satisfaction. Ruddy exhilaration. Actual human emotion. Now go to the gym...
Mahjong can wait (till I finish my intervals)
A retirement community in South Carolina is forming a triathlon team. And by triathlon, they don’t mean some hokum bocce-croquet-cribbage contest (which could be fun, OK, but it’s not a triathlon). This event comprises a respectable 350-yard swim, 13-mile bike and 3.1-mile run/walk. Retirement communities used to...
Saturday hash: January 21, 2012
This is where we ball up all the loose ends of the week and shove them in a drawer, which we’ll open in six months looking for something else and say, “Oh. Remember this?” A guy was arrested this week for surfing off a beach…in Chicago. The perp isn’t quite...
Doing well with less: older runners slower but just as efficient
When olds are active…really active…they are a special class. They don’t perform like younger athletes. They don’t recuperate like younger athletes. And they shouldn’t train like younger athletes. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t similarities. A study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research (and summarized in yesterday’s New...
Exercise and weight loss: Do these running shorts make me look “skinny fat”?
Over the past month or so, the web has blessed us with a handful of articles on the limited effect that exercise—especially running—can have on weight loss. Some of the arguments are simplistic (albeit accurate enough): people who work out a lot tend to eat...
Olds just won’t stop running marathons
If you were out pounding the pavement yesterday morning, you might have missed the New York Times story on the aging world of competitive running. Writer Tom Sims notes that 30 years ago, “the median age for a marathon runner was 34 for men and 31 for women....
It’s not that unusual: over 60 and radically fit
There’s a condescending “good for you” tone to many profiles of very fit seniors. The implication is that tough old birds are also rare birds. We much prefer articles like this recent overview of senior athletes—runners and bikers and mountain hikers—living in the Los Gatos, California, area. The...
Sarah Palin places second again
At 47, Sarah Palin is a few years shy of fitting into this site’s target demographic. But still, credit is due the former Alaska governor for her performance last weekend in the “Jump Right in and Run” half-marathon hosted by Iowa’s Storm Lake Running Club. Running under her...
