How To Age 15 Years in 45 Minutes--or--She Only Looks Her Actual Age Just-After a Tough Race.

After the Groton Road Race I went to the website to see pictures from the race. I noticed from browsing the pictures that there was one of me from the start of the race in addition to the usual finish-line picture. While browsing around I saw that there was a shot of a group of young women who had gathered just in front of my group. This got me thinking: I never saw any of them again and yet don't remember passing any of them. Just out of curiosity, I punched one of their bib numbers into the results page and got a huge shock!

1. # 258 finished 9 seconds ahead of me! Well, that would account for why I never saw her again.
2. OMG! She is 39 years old--I would have thought maybe 25 from the starting line picture.

3. It was easy to find her finish-line picture since it was evidently on the same page as mine. Okay, she sort of looks like she could be her actual age based on her finish-line picture.
4. But, if running makes you look 14 years younger than your actual age--except for a few minutes just after running--then this is a very nice feature of running.
5. On the other hand. The genetic endowment which gave our 39 year-old the ability to out- run all but about a dozen of around 200 women in the race, could also account for resistance to the ravages of age.
6. Hey, it is a theory. I think I look just as old and decrepit at the start as at the finish--maybe I didn't push my self as hard or I just have the genetics to finish in the top 1/3 of the guys while our 39 year old is in about the top 1/20 of the ladies.

dbp