Just ask Liz Pittinger, Harry Chapman and Roger Brockenbrough. Ranging from 39 years old to 77, these “older” athletes are proving there is no age limit in endurance sports!
Liz Pittinger, 39, went from her first swimming lesson to practicing with one of the top master’s teams in the country in just a few short months. She captured gold in the 50 free and 100 IM after surviving stage I breast cancer after going from zero to 4000 yards a workout in less than a year.
Harry Chapman, 59, was waking up one morning and realized his pants really were size 44. That led him to do putting on a swimsuit. “I was completely out of place,” he says now. Two years, close to 100 pounds and thousands of laps later, here he is at the same pool on yet another Sunday. At age 57, Chapman picked up the dreaded 1st leg of triathlon and used it to drop 100 pounds.
Roger Brockenbrough, 77 in 1985, at age 51, started training for triathlons. “I soon found that in spite of my non-athletic background, I really liked the training, meeting others who were getting involved in the sport, and competing.” Over the past 25 years Brockenbrough has competed in 200 triathlons (8 ironmans) and duathlons, winning 31 national medals and 20 world medals.
What’s the point you may ask?
Triathlon (or the sports as individual efforts) is timeless. No matter what your age is or ability, if you are upwardly mobile, you can run a triathlon. After all, isn’t the Ironman mantra “anything is possible”? Heck, they even have division for disabled participants. Pittinger and Chapman each were looking for ways to get on track with their health and chose swimming. Chapman incorporates biking as well and look where he is now, 100 pounds less of a man.
Don’t let anyone tell you that you cannot do it because you are “too old” or you can’t swim as well as you think you need to. Triathlon is a great avenue for health and exercise in a competitive atmosphere without worrying about injuries from contact sports (swim wide at the swim start to avoid that free-for-all).
As always consult a physician but if you are on the fence about training for a triathlon because you think it’s a “young person’s sport”, think again and get in there!
Source: Ryan Falkenrath at falkeetriathlon.blogspot.com
