At 73, Ed Whitlock ran a marathon in a amazing time of 2:54.

Wow! 2 hours and 54 minutes. This is discouraging and encouraging at the same time for me. Discouraging, because I will be never able to catch up with this guy. To run a marathon under 3 hours is almost impossible for me and other very fit young people. I am  34 years old and in very good shape. This is a pretty good time even for competitive young runner.  

And it is also encouraging at the same time to realize that age is really just a number. And if we keep pushing our aging bodies to their limits consistently they will not stop performing. This is an amazing thing to realize: When we get older, our physical and mental  performance and our bodies will only deteriorate, if we stop pushing it.

Ed is obviously a very fit and strong guy. And you can be too! To the very old age. The question is: Are you willing to do the work that is required?

Ed is not waisting a single day without exercising. He is mainly running. His training consists of daily 3-hour long runs through cemetery.

If you think, that you are not able to do that because you are too old for that. Think again.

Age is just a number

A decade later, in 2005, Abrahams became the first 60-year-old to break 50 seconds in 100-yard free-style. His best time during those intervening 10 years actually slowed by only 0.34 seconds.

To swim 100 yards under 50 seconds requires a lot of explosive power and endurance in speed, skills we are suppose to loose firs when we age. But apparently with a proper strength and speed training it is reversible.

My personal best for 100-yard free is 1 min 11 seconds. I guess I have to practice a lot to keep up with some 60 year old guys who are much faster and stronger than me.

Here is one:

The Ukrainian Tatyana Pozdnyakova won the 2003 City of Los Angeles Marathon in 2:29:40 at age 48 .

The Los Angeles Marathon is not some small-time affair. It attracts elite runners from around the world. Pozdniakova finished more than three minutes ahead of the second female finisher in the highly competitive field. Pozdniakova won the Los Angeles Marathon again the next year, at 49.

“I don’t think about age,” she told a newspaper reporter. “My age is very high for top marathon runner, but my head is strong. It is not about your body. It is about discipline in preparation.”

Hm, I hardly know anyone in their twenties who can run 1 mile as fast as Pozdniakova runs a whole marathon.

She averages a mile in about 5 min and 43 seconds on her whole marathon. That’s really fast. I can run a single mile in about 6:15 if I try really hard and I consider myself as an athlete in early thirties.