[HN Gopher] The world's oldest ultramarathon runner is racing ag...
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The world's oldest ultramarathon runner is racing against death
Author : gmays
Score : 56 points
Date : 2023-05-09 20:32 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (thewalrus.ca)
(TXT) w3m dump (thewalrus.ca)
| ftxbro wrote:
| > "Dag Aabye is eighty-one, lives in an old school bus on a
| mountain, and is pushing his body to its absolute limits"
|
| I like Dags.
| andrelaszlo wrote:
| As in the graphs? Haha.
|
| Dag means day in Scandinavian languages.
| jebarker wrote:
| I think they're quoting the movie Snatch
| walrus01 wrote:
| I like caravans more
| taneq wrote:
| Me mams terribly partial to periwinkle blue.
| lostgame wrote:
| My 'hubby' just completed her first ever half marathon this
| weekend at the Toronto Marathon.
|
| Meeting her at the finish line; I clearly in no way had any clue
| just how intense and borderline insane marathon running really
| is. She'd been training for about a year, but tbh I hadn't really
| seen her do it a lot, since she was usually at the gym, and I
| guess just the idea of processing that she just did a 22km run,
| going up and down various hills as well; was honesty mind
| blowing.
|
| It's gotta be a labour of love, because holy cow; it seems tough.
| cmehdy wrote:
| It is so incredibly rewarding and peaceful once you get past
| the odd zones that come and go in the first dozen (for me at
| ~5k and ~10k actually). I've never ran more than marathon's
| length, but routinely ran half-marathons for a couple years
| before my knees gave up and took much of my mental fortitude
| with them. I never found through other activties anything quite
| like it, there is just so much peace along with the body's
| releases.
| jfengel wrote:
| At 53 I am beginning to acknowledge that I will never run a sub 4
| hour marathon again. That's not just age; my priorities are
| different and I don't want to put in the hours it would take. I
| want to keep doing a marathon per year, but I can see that there
| will be a day when I can't.
|
| I already skipped last year due to an injury. I think it's
| better. I'm being careful about recovery.
|
| I don't mean to be maudlin. I have probably five decades left to
| live, and much to do that isn't running. But there's a loss of a
| part of identity that isn't thrilling me.
| vanilla_nut wrote:
| As someone who can run at a pretty competitive pace, speed
| isn't everything. I notice that operating at the top
| competitive levels of most sports tends to destroy your body
| pretty quickly -- lots of stress injuries, sprains, accidents,
| etc, simply because you're pushing it so hard so often. When I
| really tried to push it, I could go faster and further... at
| the expense of actually enjoying myself.
|
| I trail run in a much more relaxed way now -- enough to get a
| good workout, but definitely not as competitively as I used to
| road run. I've also picked up trail biking, and it's been SUCH
| a relief to just _not think_ about my speed. I focus more on
| the experience of enjoying nature and I feel like that 's a
| much healthier place to be. You can still push it occasionally,
| but there's a really pleasant niche at 60-80% of your max
| capacity! I also get the opportunity to share the sport with
| friends who aren't quite as speedy as me; turns out it's more
| fun to be social during an activity than to push myself.
|
| And I have to say: at 53, even 4 hours is very very
| respectable. Try to remember that these things are first and
| foremost hobbies that are supposed to be fun!
| gms7777 wrote:
| I went through this at much younger and I completely understand
| the feeling of loss of identity. I was a college rower back in
| the day, and at my peak I was doing 11 workouts a week, plus
| weightlifting. I finished school and it was hard to not
| completely lose enthusiasm for rowing because I knew I was the
| fastest I would ever be because I'd never have that kind of
| time again to train.
|
| As an athlete, there's a big difference in mentality between
| trying to get better over time vs just trying to not get worse
| too quickly.
| jebarker wrote:
| I'm 41 and have been running since I was 17. The past decade
| I've spent doing increasingly difficult ultramarathons. Until a
| few years ago I really thought that if I just stayed consistent
| I'd be able to run my whole life - I still hope I can as it's
| my therapy. But I just lost 8 months and counting to a knee
| injury sustained during a race. It's been a real wake-up call
| that my body is going to have something to say about my plan.
| Training time is also at a premium now as I have a 2 year old.
| Amazing (and hopeful) to see someone still doing hard trail
| ultras at 81.
| 1-more wrote:
| My second powerlifting meet a dude had SEPTUAGENARIAN
| embroidered on his belt and he wasn't the only septuagenarian
| at it; the other was a judge's mom whose third deadlift
| continues to be the best strength sport attempt I've ever
| watched live. Granted this is a much easier sport than
| endurance running IMHO, but my point is there's room to do
| sports for a while yet.
| freetime2 wrote:
| I would suggest that aging endurance athletes who are
| struggling with injury and recovery look into cycling. In my
| local community there are a lot of guys in their 60s and even
| 70s who enter 100k and 200k races and touring events
| doubled112 wrote:
| Good cardio and strength without the impact.
|
| Plus you can coast a bit when you need to breathe.
| robbyking wrote:
| I'm in the same boat -- I'm 45 and a mediocre mountain bike
| racer, but over the last few years my motivation to train has
| gone down considerably. The problem is bike racing has been my
| "thing" for so long that's it's weird to think of cycling
| season coming and going without me.
| zwieback wrote:
| If you compare yourself to other people in your age group,
| would that mean less of loss of identity?
| version_five wrote:
| I ran my last marathon at 37, and I remember realizing that the
| lead-up to that was the fittest I would be from then on. Not
| that I've given up on fitness since, but it's definitely
| something to come to grips with. And I agree with you, a lot of
| it is priorities.
| patentatt wrote:
| I'm closing in on 40 and trying to run my first sub 4 hour
| marathon before then. I figure you don't really _start_ running
| that fast _after_ 40, so this is my last chance to ever be a 4
| hour marathoner.
| johtso wrote:
| This is one of the things I love about rock climbing. It really
| seems like an activity that people can gracefully continue into
| their later years (if you're lucky enough to stay able bodied
| enough).
|
| Activities that are hard on your body, and 100% physical, can
| be really unforgiving when it comes to the aging process.
|
| With rock climbing you can kind of shift your focus.. maybe do
| more trad climbing instead of sport or bouldering. Focus on
| different types of climbs, maybe more technical slabby climbs
| where you're on your feet more. You can still feel like you're
| genuinely participating in the activity you love, even if you
| can't do exactly the same things you did before to the same
| extent.
| swalling wrote:
| Dag is amazing but he's probably not the world's oldest
| ultrarunner.
|
| Bernd Heinrich is 83 and recently wrote a whole book (highly
| recommend) about running and aging, Racing the Clock. There's
| also the Bay Area legend Eldrith Gosney who is the same age and
| still kicking.
| https://ultrasignup.com/m_results_participant.aspx?fname=Eld...
| wging wrote:
| Haven't read Heinrich's latest, but his Why We Run (also known
| as Racing the Antelope, for weird reasons) is an amazing book.
| tootie wrote:
| This is just so alien to me. I know it's not rare but the idea of
| pushing my physical limits or competing for no reward holds
| absolutely no appeal for me. I only aim to be healthy which is
| hard enough with a chronic illness.
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