Older women tend to out pace younger women in running races

When I started to run competitively, one of my training buddies told me that just because you're younger and have been running for years, don't be shocked to see someone 10-20 years older pass you by. Your ego won't get it, but trust me it will happen. And sure enough, when I started to race 5ks and 10ks it happened. In one race, someone who could be my granny sped by me like the Roadrunner, and yes, my ego was bruised because in theory I should have been faster than a AARP member. Youthful arrogance I tell ya!

The NY Times ran this interesting article, "See Jane Run. See Her Run Faster and Faster" where writer/runner Gina Kolata points out something that appears, on the surface, to be unusual in running races: older female runners tend to out pace time wise their younger counterparts. Gina shares her observations:

"But the women were different — their times were all over the place with older women beating younger women in almost every age category. The fastest woman was 37 years old; the fastest woman in the 45 to 49 age group beat the fastest woman in the 20 to 24 and the 40 to 44 age groups.

The same thing happened in another five-kilometer local race, the Eden Family Run, in Princeton, N.J. 

There, the top female runner in the 50 to 54 age group beat the top females in the 20 to 24, 25 to 29, and 40 to 44 age groups."

Amongst the experts, the conclusion is that older women push harder to see what they are really capable of physically not really caring what anyone thinks of them while the 20-somethings push only so much as to not make the guys look bad or to not seem like determined competitors. Having been a runner for almost 20 years now, I totally get this notion, and I can see in many ways how it is also similar to how women compete with men in the business world. Most women hold back their talents and don't really push themselves to their full capacity until they get a bit older and wiser.

In our 20's, we women expend more energy trying to please others and trying to fit in that we squelch our full capabilities. We want to be agreeable. We want to nab a man so we don't behave like the guys in the competitive arena as to not threaten any male ego. We only do what we know for sure we can succeed at as to not ruin our "perfect girl" image.

As you head deeper into your 30's into the 40's, you've been through enough life to realize that all that holding back you did got you not far and not much of what you really wanted. All those people you were trying to please are now annoying you because you start asking, "Well what about me? What have you done for me lately?" Well, nothing much.

So now, as an older more confident you, you want to see just how kick-ass you can be. You are free from the people-pleasing and onto the me-pleasing. Try it. You just may happily shock yourself by just how powerful you are and by how much you really can accomplish.