{"id":15856,"date":"2024-11-02T08:01:42","date_gmt":"2024-11-02T09:01:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=15856"},"modified":"2024-11-02T09:28:43","modified_gmt":"2024-11-02T09:28:43","slug":"running-the-new-york-city-marathon-at-70","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=15856","title":{"rendered":"Running the New York City Marathon at 70"},"content":{"rendered":"
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After a lifetime of running, a writer reflects on why he\u2019s coming back for one last race.<\/p>\n

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I\u2019ve been training to run the New York City Marathon on Sunday. At age 70, even in the best conditions, it would be a slog over 26.2 miles, longer than five hours. That is less a time for a race than a recipe for short ribs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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There is no such thing as an athlete aging gracefully, my physical therapist has long reminded me. Last week, I aggravated a hip injury. It\u2019s not the finish I\u2019m worried about now. I may not even reach the start.<\/p>\n

Either way, this was likely to be my last marathon. I\u2019m old and slow, increasingly broken down despite diligent strength training. These days, I\u2019m running nearly two hours behind my personal best of 3 hours 57 minutes. My finishing time for a half marathon in September was listed as \u201cticketed for loitering.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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I feel enormously frustrated at possibly having to drop out of New York at the last minute after months of training. But I\u2019m also weirdly amused at the arbitrary timing of the injury \u2014 a mile into an easy five-mile run \u2014 and curiously accepting of whatever happens on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Perhaps because I\u2019m a reporter, I view the setback with some detachment. I turned 70 with a dispassionate, almost clinical, interest in what happens next. It is an age when careers have been made, children have grown, retirement beckons to those who haven\u2019t yet embraced it. Our athletic careers have been shelved in dusty remembrance. Our bodies have weakened. But the thrill of unexpected possibility still awaits.<\/p>\n

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After a lifetime of running, a writer reflects on why he\u2019s coming back for one last race.I\u2019ve been training to run the New York City Marathon on Sunday. At age 70, even in the best conditions, it would be a slog over 26.2 miles, longer than five hours. That is less a time for a race than a recipe for short ribs.Listen to this article with reporter commentaryThere is no such thing as an athlete aging gracefully, my physical therapist has long reminded me. Last week, I aggravated a hip injury. It\u2019s not the finish I\u2019m worried about now. I may not even reach the start.Either way, this was likely to be my last marathon. I\u2019m old and slow, increasingly broken down despite diligent strength training. These days, I\u2019m running nearly two hours behind my personal best of 3 hours 57 minutes. My finishing time for a half marathon in September was listed as \u201cticketed for loitering.\u201dI feel enormously frustrated at possibly having to drop out of New York at the last minute after months of training. But I\u2019m also weirdly amused at the arbitrary timing of the injury \u2014 a mile into an easy five-mile run \u2014 and curiously accepting of whatever happens on Sunday.Perhaps because I\u2019m a reporter, I view the setback with some detachment. I turned 70 with a dispassionate, almost clinical, interest in what happens next. It is an age when careers have been made, children have grown, retirement beckons to those who haven\u2019t yet embraced it. Our athletic careers have been shelved in dusty remembrance. Our bodies have weakened. But the thrill of unexpected possibility still awaits.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15858,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15856"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15856\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15859,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15856\/revisions\/15859"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}