Why Some Women Run Faster As They Grow Older: They Figure Out That It’s OK to Try

New York Times science writer and amateur runner Gino Kolata noticed something peculiar about results of races she was running in: older women seemed to have better times than younger women. In a recent 5K in Pine Beach, New Jersey, the fastest woman was 37 years old; the fastest woman in the 45 to
49 age group beat the fastest woman in the 20 to 24 and the 40 to 44
age groups. Kolata reports that the same thing happened in another five-kilometer local race, the Eden Family Run, in Princeton, N.J. There, the top female runner in the 50 to 54 age group beat the top females in the 20 to 24, 25 to 29, and 40 to 44 age groups.
Kolata’s effort to find out what’s up with that takes her to Mary Wittenberg, president of New York Road Runners, who thinks part of
the answer is that most female runners shortchange themselves. Look at
them before races she said. Men warm up and do strides, short runs to
prepare to take off at the starting line. A lot of women hang back,
often because they are embarrassed to be out there with the men, acting
like determined athletes, Ms. Wittenberg said.“They are too
inhibited to put their full passion out there,” she said. “They are
almost afraid to be serious about a sport. They think that if they’re
not the best, they shouldn’t care so much.”
Kolata also talks to Dr. Vonda
Wright, an orthopedic surgeon at the University of Pittsburgh Medical
Center who holds running clinics for beginners and
for those who want to compete. Wright tells her that women often get the impression that
they should not put much effort into runs. That’s the message of some
ads and magazine articles telling people to run easy, and that, Dr.
Wright said, “can be negative information” for women who might like to
compete. It is too tempting, she said, “to be lulled into thinking
that’s enough.”
Interesting. Read more in the New York Times.