Listen up, young folks, while Uncle Middle-Aged Man here explains something to you. You’re running all wrong. Toss those Strava segments and sports watches—those chains you drag around—and enjoy your lives! It’s never too early (or too late) to start savoring life and running by focusing more on how it feels, what you see, what you experience, and who you’re with. That’s how I intended to start this piece, but then I stumbled upon Jason Koop’s Ultracoach article, “Fast(er) After 50?”
Koop writes in the October/November 2024 issue of Ultrarunning Magazine about training for runners over fifty, emphasizing that those over fifty are by no means too old for ultramarathons. However, based on his extensive coaching experience, he notes that the training methods and focus of older runners shift compared to their younger counterparts.
For us beginner runners over forty, Koop’s article offers hope that setting and pursuing goals is still worthwhile. But even more fascinating is Koop’s perspective on how running motivation evolves with age. According to Koop, younger runners are driven by personal bests, Strava segments, or collecting metrics—essentially, they are more ego-centered and externally motivated.
For older runners, however, the motivation for running is rooted in experience. “They want to experience the joy and challenge running and fitness bring vs the reward of seeing how much faster they were compared to previous years,” Koop states. This mindset motivates aging athletes to train in a way that extends their active years as long as possible.
This brings us back to the beginning of this piece. Is my approach to exercise not an original gift to the running world after all, but simply a sign that I’m old—or at least middle-aged? Bah. Nonsense, I say.
Ultimately, everyone chooses for themselves what kind of challenge and way of exercising feels authentic. Still, it’s good to question the concepts and worldviews handed to us. Running doesn’t have to be—nor should it always be—about measurement. Running doesn’t need to be evaluated based on average or peak speed. I recommend a touch of middle-aged wisdom for all runners: enjoy, as Koop puts it, the “joy and challenge of running.”
I, for one, will run my next lap a little more middle-aged—savoring the experience of speed that my body graciously gives me.
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