Any senior runners/joggers here?

[Peregrine Took]

I've been running - now jogging - for 30+ years. Mostly I hate getting out there but I feel wonderful afterwards. I try to go daily (2-5 miles) but not when its icy as I'm scared to death of falling.

My knees are not good so I land softly. Its pretty discouraging being passed so much by the young folks, especially on busy days, but I just keep watching the trail for rocks and either listen to the radio or say a centering prayer.

I hope I will continue to be able to keep up this regime as I get even older!! I really admire the 70 and 80 something people I see out there. I try to catch their eye and give them a "thumbs up." Sometimes they notice sometimes they are just looking straight ahead.

[mama]

1. Kind of...

Not sure what you mean by "senior", but I'm 55. I started running around age 28 and ran for fitness up until about 45. Not a lot, usually 15-20 miles per week. For a few years between 45 and 54, I hardly ran at all, basically life just got too busy to fit it in.
But I was always proud that I could go out and do a 3-miler at any time. I wonder what percentage of Americans can do that?

Now I've been back at it again. I take longer runs now, and go at an easy pace. I'm in the north too, but this winter has been exceptionally mild. I also fear being injured by slipping on the ice! I load lots of npr podcasts to my mp3 player, and feel like I'm feeding my mind at the same time I'm strengthening my body.

When I first started running, I also greatly admired the "older" people who show up at races. I still do! I hope I'm still out there when I'm 80. I feel great now, and hope to be able to keep it up.

[ZenLefty]

2. No, but I have a story for you

A while back, me and ZenLeftyGirl went showshoeing in the mountains. The weather report said there was a 10% chance of snow. What it didn't tell us was that the other 90% chance was for a blizzard with gale force winds, sheets of heavy snow and whiteout conditions everywhere. Because about 2 miles up the trail, the tiny little flakes that had been coming down turned into just that.

We were well prepared and well dressed for the weather, but with visibility at 10 feet, snow covering our return tracks faster than we could make them, and blowing snow from all directions at once, it was very treacherous. Rocky, lots of slopes, lots of places we lost sight of the trail or any landmarks. We had to huddle around the iphone to see the gps and figure out where we needed to go. When the gusts came up, we had to stop and hunker down or we'd get blown over. It was really bad, but we're troopers and we never panicked, just kept following what markers we could to get back to the car.

About halfway back, we encounter an old man running up the trail. Dressed in black, ski goggles over his leathery face. He looked like the kind of guy who runs that trail seven days a week 365 days a year and never skips no matter what the weather is. Here we were thinking this blizzard was life threatening and we had to get back to our car immediately, and he just runs past us and waves. When he passed, I said "Dude!" What I wanted to say is "Dude you're going to die out here stop running and turn back!!" but I was too dumbfounded.

By the time we got back to our car, pushed the snow away from the doors, pried our snowshoes off, got inside and got the defrost working, he was already back down the trail. Just hopped in his jeep and left.

[DreamGypsy]

4. Turned 60 last year, former distance/ultradistance runner, now doing some 'adventure' runs...

I ran track in 9th grade (1967), but only because I was a nerd and wanted to get a better grade ('A') in PE since the school district included PE classes when computing GPA. Ran a 220 leg in the medley relay. Also ran the mile in one meet and managed a 5:10.

Didn't really run again until 1974 when I started grad school at Stanford. There was a group of faculty and grad student runners there called the Angel Field Ancients and I did some casual running with them on campus, in the foothills, on the Angel Field track, and occasionally in the Stanford stadium for time trials (best mile was a 4:49). One day a friend mentioned he was go to run Boston marathon and I said, "Gee. I'd like to run a marathon, too.". He asked the telling question "Have you ever run a 10K or other race?" and I replied in the negative. He suggested that it would be a wise move to try a shorter race first. I upped my training and 2 years later did a 20 miler in just under 2 hours.

I ran my first marathon, Avenue of the Giants, in 1979 in 2:43:23. The next year I ran Boston and one other marathon. In 1981 I ran my first trail marathon, Pike's Peak (~7000 ft climb and 7000 ft descent) plus 3 road marathons. The next year 8 marathons and, on the day after Christmas, my first road 50 miler in ~6:50. In 1983, at age 30, 8 marathons and a trail 50 miler. 1985 brought a new challenge with my first trail 100 miler, the Western States Endurance Run, plus 2 fifty milers and 9 marathons.

The racing schedule went on until May 1991 when life sort of hit the fan as my wife and I both began telecommuting and traveling for our jobs, while at same time we were establishing a farm and building a house in a new community. I basically went cold turkey on running until about 2004 when, at age 52, I picked up casual training again. In 2006 I ran my first road marathon in 15 years with a time of 3:24:44. I also did 4 trail 50Ks and flat 50 mile run in 7:21:10.

I continued running races through 2011 with one more marathon, numerous 50Ks, four 100K's, one trail 100 miler - Bighorn in 2008 at age 55, and three 24 hour runs of 117 miles in 2008, 119.5 miles (2009), and 112 miles (2010, at age 57).

My total racing mileage from 1978 to 2011 is 6394 miles (10,291 kilometers) at an average pace of 9:17 per mile. Of my ~100 marathons, 35 were under 3 hours, with a personal best of 2:40:39. My best 100 mile time is 18:16 in 2009 as a split in a 24 hour at age 56. My best 100 mile finish was a 9th place at Western States.

My running interest now is unsupported adventure runs with small groups of friends (3-5 people) in interesting locations. These runs include circumnavigation Mount St Helens in Washington (~45 miles), a Grand Canyon double crossing (South rim to North rim to South rim, ~42 miles, lots of uphill), 3 days of running in Zion National Park, and just last week, 5 days of trail running around Sedona AZ. The pace is slow, the company is great, and the scenery is spectacular.

I too anticipate running into my 70's.

I hope you continue to enjoy the benefits of running. Someday, out on the trail, years from now, perhaps we will pass and share a mutual thumbs up.

[AngryOldDem]

5. I'm 52 and have been running for about 2 1/2 years.

It was something that I never thought I could do (bad flashbacks to gym classes), so just to see if that were true I joined a Walk to Run program at my local Y. Since then, I've done several 5Ks and some 10Ks, and one 15K, and am going to try my skill at a half-marathon here in a couple of weeks. Depending, my time per mile is 9:30 to 10:00.

I try to get out as much as I can, work and weather permitting.

Speaking of falling -- I DID fall on black ice a few months back. I went out, assuming that things were dry enough, hit a patch of said ice and fell straight on my tailbone. It hurt like a mother for weeks. I'm glad I landed where I did rather than straight on my back or my head, because I flew straight up to the point where I felt horizontal for a few seconds. Luckily, I was at the end of my block so I hobbled back home and called it a day.