Worrying number of old folks on here saying their legs are wacked from decades of running

No, more because it’s useless.

Its what makes me happy

August 18th (today) marks 53 years of running and racing.

Except for a little stiffness in my right knee (comes and goes), I don't have any problems. Race 6-8x a year and average 40-45 miles - a bit more on 1/2 marathon builds.

I think it all has to do with the individual. I wouldn't worry about your knees or legs, more about keeping it fun and staying motivated.

Most old people have achy knees/hips and most of them never ran consistently. It's just what happens as you age. My dad has had both knees replaced and he's only 62, he never ran a bunch at any point in his life. Meanwhile I've seen plenty of people older than that who have been running consistently their entire life. Running isn't the reason you'll have knee/hip pain, it's other factors that will be the cause.

Just do the damn things so you don't end up hurting. Like all the stuff we talk about here- strengthening, stretching, flexibility, periodic resting, etc.

It's not so hard, you just need to do it.

chronic high volume running will nearly always damage your joints. You would have to be some kind of hyper aware zen master to notice it, it's not painful until it's too late.

the really dumb thing to do is run through joint pain, but most runners do

more than running can damage your joints, and avoiding damage from running isn't the only thing you need to save them

If you train properly and have no genetic pre-disposition to arthritis, you should not be worried about your body breaking down from serious running.

Runners that strengthen, stretch, and train smart will have good knees later in life.

Runners that just run without doing prehab and rehab work plus just run hard all of the time will get joint problems.

Strength training over 40 is incredibly valuable. Take out 2 runs a week and replace them with gym sessions and you will not only improve the quality of your running, you'll improve the quality of your life.

This. Things go bad as you get old for various reasons. Don't base what you do in life on hopes of avoiding age related issues.

49th training year

Over 100,000 miles. My legs are wrecked from running and I wish I had two more legs to wreck running

Yeah, because they didn’t have the luxury of training in super shoes like you do

I run Marathons/Ultras, lots of them. I know several people in their 60s and 70s that have run 100s and 100s of Marathons/Ultras. A lot of these people are running one or two every weekend, some are even knocking out these 7 Marathons in 7 days series all the time. Is this common? No but it can be done and if you're smart about it running can be (almost) a lifelong activity.

As a doctor, I occasionally see runners with some mild osteoarthritis or a nagging musculoskeletal injury. On rare occasion I see a runner with a debilitating injury (certainly at a lower rate than the general population.

Every single day I see sedentary people with infections requiring foot amputations, PAD that forces them to stop and rest every 30 feet due to relentless pain with exertion, and lower extremity edema that leads to weeping leg wounds and turns a simple walk to the bathroom into a challenge.

We don't have it too bad as far as "wacked" legs go.

My legs are doing awesome at 69, but no one on this site has the cajones to do what I have done to .and this a reality after many serious injuries in my younger years.

I am old and my legs are wacked from almost 6 decades of big mileage running with 5% of it hard. Some of it really hard.

I mostly did the right things- ran primarily on soft surfaces, never ran when injured, never did really big miles (more like a consistent 70 miles/week), stretched, had good shoes, cross and strength trained, etc.

I can no longer really run. I have worn out joints, stiffness and intermittent pain. I did not worry about it then and I don't worry about it now.

I would not change a thing if I could go back and do it again. The enjoyment and benefits from all that running are more than worth any problems I have now. There is a good chance I would not be alive today without all that running, and I may live a decade or two longer than if I did not run. I was and am more alive than I would have been because of the running.

I can still hike, walk, and ride a bike. I treasure all the running related memories. I am otherwise happy and healthy.

Terrific post. Captures the essence of why we all run and the pure joy to be derived from a sense of being alive every day. Thank you.

I also very much agree with the sentiment on here about strength training and flexibility/mobility exercises as we age.

What would you rather have: Worn out joints from a butt ton of mileage and a lifetime of fitness, or worn out joints from hauling a 350lb body around? Or no pain at all in your ankles because both your legs were amputated just below the knee because you got diabetes from being a huge fatto?

Keep running, just take care of your injuries.

These are the people who need to replace joints: fat people who never run, people with degenerative issues, people who do insane mileage for a very long time. None of the people I know that have needed a new knee or hip are runners, for what its worth.