Posted on 05/20/2014 9:51:59 AM PDT by Phillyred
A friend recently turned 30 and at her party — along with the cake, gifts, and general merriment — I felt a responsibility to offer a warning that I would have appreciated when I reached that age.
I told her that she was about to lose many of her close friends to an insidious cultural practice that snakes its way into our lives just as adulthood is waving its hoary hand.
I'm not sure how, or when exactly, it happens, but if you are one of those infected it takes over and pretty soon you can't relate to your friends anymore.
I'm talking about running marathons.
Why is it that seemingly normal people turn 30 and then feel compelled to start training for marathons? They don't run towards or from anything, they just start running.
I can't tell you how many friends I have lost to this obsession. My birthday friend waved off my concerns as, well, insanity. But I've seen too many friends and loved ones give in to this crazy compulsion not to try to hold up a stop sign.
It doesn't make sense — 30 isn't the age to start running, long distances in particular. It's the age you start lying down.
A lawyer who used to represent injured workers told me that 30 is the age where the body starts breaking down — backs give out, knees get wobbly.
Humans actually start to shrink after 30 as muscle tone deteriorates and gravity has its way.
Most of this lawyer's clients had their first injury at around age 30. So why would we start taking up an activity that's so hard on our backs and knees, not to mention the big pump?
Researchers at places like the Mayo Clinic continue to warn that running more than 60 minutes a day can scar the heart.
Big butts
Unless a pack of wolves is chasing me, or there is a sale at Dairy Queen, there's no reason for me to run anywhere, let alone do a marathon.
marathon-300-rtr206u8 A marathon runner hits his stride in Vancouver's Stanley Park. (Andy Clark / Reuters)
But I'm having trouble keeping track of all my friends who have taken up this "sport" and, despite all my protestations and my logic, it turns out we human beings are designed to run. Long distances, in fact. And for reasonably long periods of time.
Our gluteus maximus is responsible for this. In other words, as studies have found, we have big butts that do relatively little work when we're walking on flat surfaces but they come in incredibly handy to propel us during running.
According to evolutionary biologist Daniel Lieberman at Harvard University, our huge bumpers give us the balance that other bipedal animals get from tails, and they also aid in making us superior runners.
Our ability to run apparently helped in our evolution as well because while there is no way we could beat one of the other great apes in a fight we could definitely outrun them.
We also had to run to catch some of the animals we wanted to eat.
Even though many animals, like dogs and cats, run faster than us, as the distances get longer we're actually able to catch up and beat some of the fastest creatures on the planet.
Add to this the configuration of our ear canals, which give us the incredible balance needed to run on two legs, and you see why we might make ideal marathoners.
Being relatively hairless also helps. It makes it easy to get rid of excess heat.
'Marathon Boy'
Of course all that evolutionary stuff was clearly useful for our cave dwelling ancestors, but what does running a marathon really mean in our modern world, I want to ask.
Well, I may have to concede that argument as well.
I do recall that when the 9/11 attacks shook the world, New York City especially, in September 2001, the New York Marathon two months later became a symbol of perseverance.
I remember then cabinet minister John Manley going to run that marathon as a show of solidarity with our U.S. neighbours. It was potent reminder that we are in this together, for the long run.
The same can probably be said for all the charity and worthy-cause marathons that keep cropping up and occupying the ambitions of so many of my friends.
I suppose that if you think of running in socio-economic terms, it is also an incredibly democratic and accessible activity.
Unlike so many other sports, there is no expensive equipment required, just some decent shoes, I guess. No hockey-style body armour or graphite rackets, just the open road and the will to push yourself forward.
There was a beautiful and moving documentary last year called Marathon Boy about Budhia Singh, a child from the slums of India, who became a sensation for his ability to run long distances at a very young age.
He ran half-marathons when he was three, marathons and, in the most famous instance, more than 64 kilometres non-stop at four.
Budhia was loved and admired, not just for his abilities as a runner, but because of what the running represented. In a country where most live in abject poverty, to see a young boy, especially from the slums, rise to fame and notoriety for his abilities, is the great American/Canadian/Indian dream.
So maybe the marathon is more than a yuppie rite of passage, or friends going through an early mid-life crisis.
But maybe this summer, when my friends and loved ones take on the selfless task of long-distance running — either for charity or for their own insanity — I'll cheer them on and try to not to mock, from the comfort of the sidelines of course.
Doing HIIT does just as good, is quicker and much better on the knees.
Myslef and most of my friends are in our early 30’s and we all, independently of each other, took up different forms of exercise right after 30. Be it running, weight lifting, cross fit, or biking we are all doing something now we were not doing before turning 30. My dime store psychology says its to prove to ourselves we still can ;-)
I took up running last year after never having even run to the mailbox in all the prior years.
I went from no running ever to running for fun. I do the occasional 5k and 10k and plan on training for my first Half (13.1 miles) which takes place in October.
For me, it’s all about the camaraderie. I train with others that I met through the running programs, and we don’t try to break any records, we just have fun. No injuries so far, but like I said, we do it for fun so we aren’t going that fast lol.
I get that. And that’s great. I just don’t get the whole over-advertising about it all.
I'm not in a hurry. And I just like to run. It's great to be able to move so freely, take in the sights and sounds of wherever I happen to be...and then go out for ice cream.
“Friend of mine started biking (road) at 52 and went all in within three years. He’ll 100 miles each day on Sat. and Sun., and then 40ish miles each day during the week.
Joined a local bike club, got a new set of friends and is really in shape. Does not hang with any of his old friends.
Hey, it’s his life.”
Biking is totally different from running on pavement. Biking for most bike riders is a healthier addiction.
One of our younger relatives in his late 40’s rides his bikes over 10k a year. Most of the time, he rides his bike 10 miles to work, a lunch time sprint and about 20-30 miles home. The longer trip home relaxes him and gets rid of work related tension.
His knees, ankles and hips are in great shape. Only advice from his doctor is “don’t waste your/our time and your money on physicals and eat more. See me if you are sick or hurt yourself. Keep riding those bikes. Ride different bikes during each week.”
He rides with a similar group as you noted. Most of them bust the hump with 100 miles plus on Saturday. If they ride their bikes on Sunday, they use their simple bikes like we used to have as kids on simple rides with their kids/wives and around their home towns. Some of the younger and more addicted riders do hump busting rides on Sunday too. When they get to their mid 30’s, the Sunday rides become shorter fun rides.
A large % of his riding group is 50 to 70+ age wise. They look and act like they are 20-30 years younger.
“I’ll start running when I see a runner smiling.”
BOL! I adopted that reality about 4 decades ago.
did not work out so well for the very very very first marathon runner ...
Bingo!
I've been a walker for about two years now. My goal is to walk 7-9 miles, 4 days a week. I've got a super trail where I live, just be careful of the Lance Armstrong wanna-bes.
I celebrated my 60th birthday two weeks ago by making a complete round trip from my house to the end of the trail, a bit more than 15 miles. Slept like a baby, was not sore the next day.
A fat porker mentioned the same thing to me some years ago. I told him I didn't have to look in the mirror to find my d!ck.
[ According to evolutionary biologist Daniel Lieberman at Harvard University, our huge bumpers give us the balance that other bipedal animals get from tails, and they also aid in making us superior runners.
Our ability to run apparently helped in our evolution as well because while there is no way we could beat one of the other great apes in a fight we could definitely outrun them.
We also had to run to catch some of the animals we wanted to eat.
Even though many animals, like dogs and cats, run faster than us, as the distances get longer we’re actually able to catch up and beat some of the fastest creatures on the planet.
Add to this the configuration of our ear canals, which give us the incredible balance needed to run on two legs, and you see why we might make ideal marathoners.
Being relatively hairless also helps. It makes it easy to get rid of excess heat. ]
The whole “Out of trees and onto the savhanna” theory is daned brainless, if it were true why would we even lose our body hair, baboons LIVE in the savanna and they have fur, so why not humans....
Not to mention the shape of the nose, and the amount of body fat that would actually make it HARDER to shed excess heat.
If we came down from the trees and started walking upright in the savhanna we would look like bipedal baboons... Not like something entirely different...
“I’m a big fan of exercise, but running is hard on the body, especially the knees....and even more so for women.”
Add the hips into your equation. Women for many reasons seem to wear out their hips before we do. If they run, they often seem to need new knees and hips.
In our cul de sac as we all have aged in the last 35 years, the women our age, who ran, all have new hips and knees. My wife used to get kidded by female co workers, gals in her bridge group, church groups and on our block that she never ran. She is now in her early 70’s and still has her original knees and hips. We try to walk twice a day up and down our hills and on flat land about 1.5 miles each trip. She wears a couple of sizes smaller dress and slack wise than when we got married, and she is about the same weight before our kids came along. Her secret has been the walking and Italian eating habits.
Swimming is good too, less strain on joints as well.
Personal experience which led to running marathons: In the late winter of 1977 my father-in-law mentioned to me that Spring Lake (Mrs. JimRed’s hometown and our residence at that time) would be having a five mile race on the Monday of Memorial Day weekend. I had been running a little to stay fit for skiing and rec basketball, but hadn’t really trained since high school, so I decided to start a workout program to get ready to try it.
It hurt like heck (warm day, out too fast at the start, rookie mistakes) but I managed to finish 125th of about 500 in 33:15. I had nothing to compare it to, so I was surprised when some guys in my age group (30-35) who were regular racers told me I’d finished ahead of them. That was the incentive to train regularly, and to enter more races that summer.
Eventually I was breaking 30 minutes for five miles regularly, and over the next year and a half tried 5k and 10k races, an 8 mile up and down Garrett Mountain (Paterson, NJ) and a half marathon. 27 races all told, but entry fees were cheap then! I was HOOKED!
The marathon was the logical progression in the series of challenges. On 30-50 miles a week and a longest training run of 15 miles, I finished my first in 3:22:15 at Philadelphia. Hooked again! Now the goal was three hours, another challenge. Then the goal was Boston, needing a sub- 2:50:00 to qualify. Squeezed out a 2:48:45, then finished Boston the following spring in 2:56:57.
Bottom line: It’s all about the challenge and improving. And an occasional age group trophy or medal is nice, too!
Fat porkers are disgusting.
“Swimming is good too, less strain on joints as well.”
We lived in Sacramento for a few years. We had a nice pool, I would swim before work and in the evening. Often it was too hot to walk, and I just swam more.
As someone who has been jogging since 1971, I think running has gone way down in popularity.
I don’t know the statistics. But if I go shopping for real running shoes, they are a lot harder to find. Most athletic shorts are basketball style, where there used to be racks of shorts good for actually DOING something.
And when I was in college (think 1970s), lots of folks jogged. I finished a math class at the local community college this spring, and there were not many students who looked capable of jogging very far from their computer screen...or their donuts.
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