I was reflecting on my up coming 50th birthday today and discussing with my ‘pod buddies’ at work  whether my best days were ahead of me or behind me. My colleague Rob then added “it depended on which way you were looking.”  This really struck a cord with me and on my lunchtime 17k around the bridges (which in a Perth spring was a wondrous run.) I digested his comment. Rob had summed up why, as runners, we do what we do. Each of us ,I believe , through running, is looking forward and sees their best days ahead of them whereas the general public, when they age, turns around and sees their best days behind them. This is a powerful vision and it certainly made my 17k run disappear in the blink of an eye as I devoured Rob’s  insight.

Rob has totally encapsulated what makes us runners tick as we age. I have been lucky enough by putting in the extra hard yards and following my ‘Golden Rules’ (Remember those, if not there is a category for them on this blog) to be able to lay down some running times I thought beyond me. By looking forward to my best days I was achieving goals that seemed impossible a few years ago. Changing my training with the help of Raf from the Running Centre in 2015 ( http://therunningcentre.com.au/ ) had laid the foundation for 2016 and hopefully beyond. As Raf always use to say to me ‘age is just a number’. At the time my confidence was low and I took this onboard but didn’t really believe it totally. Now I am more convinced. I understand that eventually ‘Father Time’ will come calling and start to eat away at my times and I will be dragged kicking and screaming back to the pack , but with good training and hard work I will try my best to make it a slow transition.

 

As we age, as runners, I believe we have opportunities to achieve our ‘best days’. These may be by just working harder and smarter (by following my blog for example)  or getting a qualified coach from an awesome running centre (see above) to give you new training ideas. Nutrition is another area I believe we can all probably improve on and I will be making a big effort next year as I give a sub 2:40 marathon time one more tilt in my 50th year on this wonderful planet.  Also as we age I believe we are better equipped to handle the longer distances as marathons and ultra-marathons become more manageable.  Ultra marathons also take away the need for pace and concentrate more on distance, another opportunity to shine as I also believe as we age we have a higher pain threshold. (This may have something to do with bringing up kids (in my case three wonderful Daughters)  and all the challenges this presents, bless ’em ! )

So when it comes to your best days look forward, do not turn around and look behind you, there’s nothing there worth looking at…….