OLDER TRIATHLETE

Oft am I by the women told "Poor Anacreon! Thou Grow'st old Look! How thy hairs are falling all!" Whether I grow old or no, By the effects I do not Know; But this I know, without being told, "Tis time to live, if I grow old, "Tis time short pleasures now to take. Of little life the best to make, and manage wisely the last stake.

By Anacreon, 6th century B.C

IF YOU THINK THERE IS NO PLACE FOR AN OLDER TRIATHLETE, THEN YOU BETTER READ THIS.

It's probably time we started to re-think what old age is.

I believe the past norm of retiring at 55 or 60 or 65 and slowing our lives to a crawl until we die is becoming a thing of the past.

Often I hear of people who work hard all their lives, retire, and within a few years their health starts going downhill.

It seems unfair that this happens just when they leave behind the mental and physical alertness necessary to survive during their working years.

However, what if its the slowdown that is actually the cause of the onset of poor health and lethargy. I think that's a good argument for being an older triathlete.

I think of it as the hunter-gatherer syndrome.

When Grog the caveman headed out every morning to kill something for food or search the countryside for roots and berries, he was at his prime.

He was in great shape from all that walking, running, fighting and climbing. He demanded physical and mental fitness from his body to keep up with his way of life.

When the day came that he reached the ripe old age of 20 something, he most likely retired and left the food hunting to Norf, the younger 16 year old caveman. So all Grog had to do was sit around the fire, eat the mastodon that Norf dragged home and did little else.

His body responded. He grew fat, content and lazy. One day when he wandered too far from camp and a mastodon much like the ones he used to kill for food trampled Grog because he was too slow and out of shape to get away.

The moral of my little story is.....just because we reach some magical preset age is it in our best interests to shut everything down?

Is it good for us to lose our physical and mental sharpness? I think not. Our bodies will gladly oblige. If we demand little of it, than that's exactly what we'll get.

Little.

It will begin to shut down because it senses that the needs of the hunter-gatherer are no longer necessary.

So why not be an older triathlete and maintain a healthy lifestyle for well into your senior years?

How about Al Gordon?

In 1931 he took over an underwriting company called Kidder, Peabody and Co. He went on to spend 8 decades as an investor and executive.

Oh, and also...HE WAS A MARATHONER INTO HIS 80's.

I should also mention that he still buys stocks. He buys long term.

By the way....HE'S 105 YEARS OLD! WHAT AN OLDER TRIATHLETE HE WOULD HAVE MADE!

Then there's Waldo down there in Quinter, Kansas. Waldo BEGAN long distance running at the age of 65. At age 75 he decided to start running competitively.

At age 80, he set a Kansas state record for the ten-mile run for his age group. He went on to set records in running, long jump, discus and shot-put into his 90's and 100's at the Senior Olympics.

Oh, and that's no all....

At the time of this writing, Waldo was still working and had just been named Americas oldest worker. He's a beekeeper. He's 104 years old.

WOW! I wonder what would have happened if he had retired at 65 and did nothing? Hmmmm.

Lets lose this way of thinking that we have to shut things down because we retire or reach a certain age.

If you are reading this and are nearing retirement and the thought kind of worries you a bit. You know like....what will you do with all that spare time? Well, you've come to the right place.

Why not get yourself a bike, some spiffy running shoes and an annual swim pass and become a triathlete? Don't stop there? Become an Ironman!

JOE BRUNNO-AGE 71 is a rough-water swimmer and a shining example of just what can be accomplished if we look beyond the years and always live life to the fullest.

Start out slow.

So what if it takes you 3 or 4 years to get to your first race? It took Waldo 10 years and then he was just getting started!

So many triathletes would "love" to have all the time they wanted to train without having to worry about work. That's a big advantage for an older triathlete who has perhaps retired and has all the time in the world to train.

Just use common sense, check with your doctor and away you go. Your body will never know there was a big slowdown. It will keep sharp for you. You will just love your retirement and will always have something to do.

For sure someone will ask you if retirement is boring you. Well, here's how you answer.

"Nope. Big race coming up. Gotta go pump iron."

I would bet that most of you who have read this far are between 20 and 40 and shaking your heads and think I'm crazy.

But I bet you know someone who is bored and retired or soon to be retired. Maybe a parent or favorite aunt or uncle. Well, mail them this page and send them on down to "Ironstruck." You might just be doing them a great service.

Besides, wouldn't it be something if you stood together at the start of an Ironman one day down the road?

I was in one Ironman race where there were three generations of the same family in the race. Daughter, mother, grandfather. How cool is that?

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