Better by far
In the long run, it seems older runners are more suited to ultramarathons. By John Hanc
How far will an ageing ultra-distance runner go? On 1 March, the day after his 80th birthday, Bill Dodson of Mountain View, California, tested his limits.
On a frigid day in Caumsett State Park on Long Island – competing in a 50 kilometre (31 mile) race that was also serving as the US Track & Field National 50K Championship – Dodson made a dogged effort to set a record for the 80 to 85-year-old age group.
Judging from some of his previous performances, the existing record – 5 hours, 54 minutes, 59 seconds – seemed well within his grasp.
But as the wintry day wore on, flakes began descending, and by the time Dodson was on his final 5K loop, it was snowing heavily.
He struggled on, slipping and falling twice on the slick pavement. Both times, he arose and continued to shuffle along.
“I pushed myself to the absolute limits,” he says.
Indeed: With the finish line in sight, he fell again. But he crawled across the finish line – missing the record by eight seconds.
That day, Dodson, a retired computer programmer and grandfather of six, was exposed to the elements more than twice as long as the overall winner of the 50K, Zachary Ornelas, 23, of Michigan, who covered the distance in 2 hours, 52 minutes.
So was Dodson’s effort admirable or foolhardy?
Probably the former and not the latter, says a long-time researcher of ultra runners. “It seems to me like he’s just driven towards a goal,” says Dr Martin D Hoffman, a professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at the University of California and principal investigator in a study of such runners.
Dr Hoffman says the findings of the study, involving 1,212 subjects, include: “The injury incidence in the ultra runners wasn’t higher than what had been reported in other studies of runners in shorter distances.” Another was that younger and less experienced runners in ultramarathons – races longer than the 26.2-mile marathon – were most at risk of injury.
Theories abound as to why: ultra runners, especially older ones, tend to run for a long time, but not very fast. They know how to pace themselves. They are experienced
and can marshal their resources appropriately for the big day as opposed to grinding out the miles in training day after day. And, since ultras are often held on trails, the pounding the runners’ joints endure could be less severe than it would be in a big-city marathon on unforgiving pavement.
“Ultra runners are typically older than your average runner, no question about it,” says Mike Polansky, president of the Greater Long Island Running Club, the organiser of the 50K in which Dodson competed in March.
“It takes people who are a little bit crazy,” he adds.
Maybe so, but the attributes that have enabled these runners, mostly men, to go the distance are some often attributed to older people: patience, caution and a reliance on well-established patterns.
Dodson, who at 5ft 9ins tall and 10 stone 4lbs was blessed with a physique suited to a runner, has competed for years without problems. His one major injury, a herniated disc at 70, came from pulling at an awkward angle on a stubborn weed in his garden.
On 11 April, Dodson was back in the hunt for another ultra record, this time at the National 100K Championship (just over 62 miles) in Madison, Wisconsin. For 15 hours on a sunny, 60F day, he circled a 10K (6.2-mile) loop around Lake Wingra and the University of Wisconsin Arboretum. He finished in 15 hours, 5 minutes and 47 seconds, beating the national record for 80 to 85-yearolds by more than two and a half hours.
Dodson calls it the high point of his 30-year running career. And, he adds, recalling his long, cold day at Caumsett State Park six weeks earlier, “it was great to finish standing up.”
The younger and less experienced were most at risk of injury