The rise of over-40s fitness fanatics
Is this how you have a midlife crisis these days? Sharon Stephenson investigates.
At 3 o’clock this morning, while you were either asleep or wishing you were, a bunch of mad souls were setting off on something called the Ultra Easy 100km Sky run. The name is laughably misleading: it’s a 107km ultra-marathon that came about when someone decided they’d like to try running an ‘‘easy’’ mountain bike race course. It began in darkness and involves summitting several mountains, including the 1630m Mt Alpha and the 1963m Mt Pisa.
Meanwhile, nearly a thousand other mad souls have chosen to spend their Saturday cycling 150km around Mt Taranaki in the BPO Around the Mountain Cycle Challenge. As you read this, some are probably making their second lap.
There are dozens of these endurance events happening around New Zealand every year – there are five ultra-marathons happening next month alone – and they’re increasingly dominated by those approaching or currently enjoying middle age.
Triathlon New Zealand CEO Claire Beard says of nearly 200,000 Kiwis who enter triathlons each year, almost half are 45 or older. The average age of the Auckland and Queenstown Marathons was 36 and 38, respectively. And Time magazine has pointed out that the average age of runners in the New York marathon has climbed steadily since the 80s to 41, as it ‘‘infiltrated more and more bucket lists’’.
Many of these middle-aged fitness fanatics are presumably going home to well bedded-in lives, with long-term partners and a full complement of kids, high-pressure jobs and financial responsibilities. Statistics suggest one in five will have experienced mental illness, one in four a miscarriage. Many will be fighting the physical transitions typical from the late 40s – fat redistribution, decreased muscle mass, and a drop in testosterone, oestrogen and progesterone.