Why do you old timers keep running?

well, a sample size of one isn't very convincing (see OP's link).

i run because i love it. makes me high and happy.

To keep most of you young whiper snappers wanting to be us when you grow up.

I go into a restaurant. There are a bunch of folks my age slabbed over with fat. They breathe heavy just walking. Their whole life is their grandkids. That's all hey talk about.

I weigh roughly the same as I did when I was in my 20's. Short of any surprise diseases, I can still walk at a regular gait and bound up stairs. I can actually see my feet when looking down.

It'll all go one day but not because I didn't work out. Running keeps the fat guy that is trying to get out of me at bay.

The only thing worse than an old man still running is an old man not doing a damn thing.

I love it! Well, maybe not when it is 21* cold and grey with a snow on the ground and the wind blowing in Ohio.....

But even that sure beats looking out the window and NOT being able to get out there and run. I weigh about three to five pounds more than when I ran in college 30 years ago. I have a high stress job and my running keeps me sane. It is such a part of my lifestyle now, I do not even think about if I will go out for a run, I just run twice a day and lift some weights. I am not nearly as fast as I was 20 years ago, nor even 10 years ago, or even five, BUT I CAN STILL RUN!

"You don't stop running because you get old,you get old because you stop running"

Jack Kirk

The Dipsea Demon

that ^

I still have unfinished business and hopefully always will. Times and abilities can change, but my desire does not.

The morning run just makes the day better.

When I can't run - the weight goes on too quickly.

I can go on long runs with the high schoolers I coach.

There are new challenges: age groups, longer races.

Going to races is fun.

Runners are good people and I like hanging with them.

It feels so good to finish in the top 10% of a race and beat so many people younger than I am!

You and Bob Wildes, what you guys said.

I run because I want to.

When I was younger and people asked me why I ran, I could never explain it. Now, 40 years later, I still can't.

Because I love the process of working hard and improving (I started again at age 48 after about 20 years, so I'm still getting faster for a while, I hope). Even though I'm slow, I feel like an athlete, and it's a good lifestyle to be thinking about sleep and nutrition. It perhaps is mostly an illusion or my imagination, but I like to pretend that being engaged in this struggle puts me into a community of hard-working athletes of all ages and abilities, from pros and old slow people like me. We are all engaged in a similar process. Plus it feels good to be able to make better decisions about when to push and when to rest (having screwed up those decisions countless times when I was younger). Perhaps most of all, it feels great to run hard while not being overtrained- it just feels good during and after, and I look forward to the next run all the time.

I'm still trying to break 15, gosh darnit

Running, it's better than the alternative.

I stopped on my run this morning to talk for awhile with an 85 year old fellow out walking his dog. He's out there every day, leaner than I am and in pretty good shape.

I hope to get there some day.

J.R. wrote:

Running, it's better than the alternative.

I stopped on my run this morning to talk for awhile with an 85 year old fellow out walking his dog. He's out there every day, leaner than I am and in pretty good shape.

I hope to get there some day.

And to be able to lick your own balls ?

I'm 51. I realized in my mid 40's that I should cut my mileage back. I enjoy it more. And, I ran under 16:40 last week. My goal for this year, and it's only January.

I've been running since 1971. I simply love it and can't imagine my life without it.

run tin tin wrote:

And to be able to lick your own balls ?

Come back when you're sober and reread your post. You'll realize that it was idiotic instead of funny.

I didn't run much in my 20s. Started back in my thirties. In my forties, getting faster every year and never been in better shape.