INTRODUCTION

Sanity and Vanity

When I first wrote this book, I had just turned fifty. Now, as I’m updating this new e-edition, I’m rounding the corner on sixty-seven. In the intervening years, many thousands of you have read the first version of this book and changed your lives by the simple act of putting one foot in front of the other. I know because of the hundreds of heartfelt letters and emails I received from you that make me laugh, cry and jump for joy at the same time. I am both thrilled for you and grateful to you.

Last year, over eight and a half million women walked or ran in a road event. When I first wrote this book, there were just over two and a half million. Together we have created a revolution not just in running, but also in fitness, in women’s empowerment and in re-defining what “aging” means.

The changes in these subsequent years have brought new knowledge, attitude, equipment, events and expectation that definitely call for an update. A whole generation of women are running and walking who never even knew a time without proper shoes or clothes, to say nothing of myths and restrictions. We’ve moved to a new level, and yet there are many women who are longing to begin a walking or running program and don’t know how. This updated version of Running and Walking for Women Over 40 is for them. It takes the proven basics of the first edition and adds new information we need to go forward.

I was originally inspired to write this book because after turning forty, my wonderful and totally predictable body began to change. Suddenly I was encountering grey hair, hot flashes, a little jellyroll around my waist and mood swings. Running had always provided the ballast in my life, and I turned to it again to help me through these changes. The physical act of running had never failed to correct every imbalance in my life, and I had hope that it would help again. It did! It still does! Wonderfully.

When I ran, I didn’t feel anxious or depressed. I never had a hot flash on the run; it was as if movement regulated my mood and temperature. Best of all, I knew that being out on the road was one of the best things I could be doing to help prevent heart disease and osteoporosis—and that made me feel I had some control over my health and my future.

The next seventeen years were some of the most enlightening of my life, largely made possible by an activity I’d done for fifty-five years and now find more important than ever. While change is inevitable, running and walking not only enable you to cope with this reality but also offer you a way to triumph over it and feel better than ever. I’m counting on my knowledge and my training to keep building a foundation for a fit and rewarding future. I want to share what I’ve learned with you, so you can use it, too.

You’re never too old to start. Every day I am meeting more and more sixty, seventy, even seventy-five year old women who are just beginning to walk or run. They are amazing, fearless and accomplishing incredible things. I joke that they have old bodies but new legs, but here’s the truth: the human body responds positively to fitness at any age; we have science to prove this. Many active fifty-five-year-old women are in better shape now than they were at twenty-five because of regular exercise. Others are seeking to gain back fitness they lost—and they can. And then there are those who say, “I’ve always wanted to be an athlete and now it’s time for me.” Isn’t it time for you, too?

I run or walk every day because it’s magic. I’m not kidding. In a funny kind of way, running has given me everything I have or am. Running and walking keep me sane. In the purest sense, it is a little window of time on my own, or with friends, when I can be free of everything else. With this freedom, I can create, dream, or just drift along and enjoy nature around me. It’s my space. My sacred alone, peaceful time, and nobody can invade it. In a world full of chaos, pressure, unpredictability, relentless email and constant demands, where everybody seems to want a piece of me, my hour a day gives me a chance for a quiet perspective, and it allows me to control much of my destiny. I have found that if I can control my body and give a little peace to my soul, I can transfer that power into all other aspects of my life.

And, to top everything, running or walking is so simple. It’s wonderful how something so simple can give so much back to you, and that may be another element of its magic.

Ever since I began running when I was twelve, there was a palpable difference between the days I ran and those I didn’t: my running days gave me a sense of accomplishment no matter what else happened in the day. Missing a day wasn’t a major tragedy or anything—sometimes you can’t help it or just don’t feel like it. But a day I didn’t run was just a day without a secret little victory, a victory that empowered me in everything else I did.

My daily outing these days may be a walk, a slow jog, or a run—it has manifested itself over the years in various forms. After early years of discovery and awkwardness to cocky years of invincibility, I moved in my twenties into the arduous and pressure-filled years of world-class competition and training. I wanted to discover what it felt like to push my ordinary body to its limits and I was amazed how an average person, working hard, can accomplish the extraordinary. We are often the worst judges of our phenomenal capability.

In my thirties, I gave up serious competitive running for a career that had room for only the barest minimum of fitness running and found you could do a lot with a minimum of time! In my forties, when I had my own business and more flexibility, I decided to treat myself to more consistency in my daily running. I not only found renewed fitness but also discovered ways to cope with my changing body. In my fifties, I threw myself back into a demanding corporate career; I never could have done it without the base strength and confidence my earlier fitness gave me.

In my sixties, I was inspired by many women seventy and older who were giddy walking and running beginners and accomplishing the unimaginable. They even made me jealous, inspired me back into marathon running, and transformed me—again. Let me tell you the truth, my sixties have been the best decade of my life. But then, I probably say that about each decade when I’m in it.

In all of these eras of running and walking, training hard or easy, doing less or more, the activity has never failed to keep me fit, energetic, positive, and, yes, fearless. There is little now that I feel I can’t do. Running has never failed to give me back more than I put into it. There is not much in life that offers that kind of return; that is why I call running and walking a bonus.

Despite fifty-five years of experience, I can still remember the difficulty of starting, starting again after a long layoff or injury, and the struggle to progress. I can remember what it was like to feel jiggly and conspicuous. I have had plenty of self-doubt. I learned fast—but had to re-learn—the single hardest part about exercise: getting out the door! And I created techniques for eliminating excuses. Later, I learned how to stay fit on twenty minutes of running a day in the midst of career pressures and travelling around the world. Then at sixty-two, how I could re-train myself for five and six hours of straight running and walking. What a feeling! It was like discovering a new planet.

Through running, I learned marvelous lessons in success, failure, humility, persistence, self-belief and mortality that have served me well in business and life. And maybe most important, I learned how not to feel guilty or defeated when I missed days, turning them around so I was more motivated and better focused the next time I ran or walked.

I have learned that change is inevitable. That sounds obvious, but at twenty-five, I had a ‘bullet-proof’ mentality and would have told you that I’d always be strong and lithe; at sixty, it’s astonishing how closely others and I have succeeded. But nature is insistent. Veins show, cellulite is harder to take off, skin is looser, and the waist thickens. And that’s just the outside; there are plenty of internal changes as well. Although I am determined to stall this aging process as much as possible with consistent exercise, I also now have to deal with the fact that my body gets niggles and twinges that it never had before, interrupting the exercise process. The body just doesn’t snap back as fast as it did.

But the point is this: it still snaps back! So, although we can’t control everything, we can still control a lot. For women who are only beginning fitness program at forty, sixty, or beyond, this response is nothing short of dramatic. Many find that, for the first time, they can reach the weight they want to be and get into better physical condition. Women over forty who have been reasonably active all their lives can find a new outlet for their energy in age-group sports events—some easily outrace people young enough to be their children!

Every day I’m finding more ways to be fit, trim, healthy, energetic, and positive while dealing with my changing body. I have plenty of room for improvement, and my challenge at sixty-plus is to find ways to keep fit that will work well for the rest of my life and that require no more than the hour a day I’m willing to give. Anybody can look great if he or she has plenty of money and is willing to work out all day long. But most of us have to live in the real world, where that’s not possible. This book gives you the tools to achieve fitness without spending time and money you don’t have.

But to get results, you need to get started—that’s your most important commitment. Twenty minutes of exercise a day, every day, will get you on the road to sanity, where you feel in control of your life. Thirty minutes a day, every day, will get you on the road to vanity, where you can control your weight, restore skin and muscle tone, and feel great about your body. Forty-five minutes a day gives all this plus weight loss.

While any amount of exercise benefits your health, once you get past the thirty-minutes-a-day zone, you start to reap major rewards. If the following statistics don’t get you moving, nothing will.

Before you say ‘I just don’t have time’, remember that the time doesn’t have to be all at once. Fifteen minutes in the morning and fifteen minutes at noon or after work give you the thirty minutes you need. (It’s easy this way to add five more minutes in the morning and again in the evening and bump your exercise time to forty minutes!) Before you think of a second excuse, remember that we always have time to do the things we really want or that are truly important. Your health, your fitness, your sanity (and, yes, even your vanity) are priorities. If you don’t feel good about yourself, you can’t feel good about much else.

For much of my life, I’ve been a pioneer. As one of the first woman marathoners, I achieved fame first by registering for and wearing a starting number (number 261!) in the 1967 Boston Marathon, which banned women runners. By running in that race, I debunked the idea that a woman couldn’t thrive and succeed running long distances.

To prove that my physical capability was not unique, I then spent the next ten years organizing women’s races in more than twenty-seven countries as part of the Avon running series. The races demonstrated that women everywhere not only wanted to run and walk, but that they could. These pioneering events laid the trail for millions more women, and they resulted in what has become a social revolution—women everywhere, regardless of age, size, or capability, began to experience the same joy, magic, and accomplishment that I had discovered as a young woman. The resulting empowerment transformed many of these women’s lives in everything they did, far beyond running or walking. With this demonstrated interest among women around the world, I worked with other women to lobby the International Olympic Committee to include a women’s marathon in the Olympic Games. We were successful! The women’s marathon became an official event beginning in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games, creating a huge goal for women with talent, inspiring all of us, and maybe most importantly, showing the whole world that women, too, have unlimited capability. Now there are more women runners in the United States than men. Fifty-five percent of running event participants are women, and many of them are us—the over forty!

In those early years, I was the only woman I knew who ran. There were no women’s gyms, no walking groups, no guidelines, no women’s shoes, shorts, or bras. Every time I ran longer, people tried to convince me the Earth was flat—any day I’d fall off the edge and suffer dire consequences like big legs, a moustache, or a ‘displaced’ uterus, all dreadful, made-up myths. We know now how ignorant that kind of thinking is, but we must also realize how, even now, we are held back by more subtle myths and our own fears.

Now I find I am a pioneer again, this time in the realm of aging, but I am no longer alone. There are many thousands of you over age forty and well beyond who also are ready to challenge myth and tradition. Like me, you are determined that aging and the changes it brings will not deprive you of fitness, energy, good health and good looks. At the same time, the physical and mental shifts occurring after age forty pose challenges. Once again, we are charting our own map.

Those who missed the fitness movement as young adults should take heart. Your happiest and fittest days can still be ahead of you. Those of us lucky enough to have caught the train to fitness as young adults are experiencing a midlife that our parents and grandparents never dreamed possible. For many years, we’ve had no guidelines. Now we have this book, and we have each other. Let’s go forward together as pioneers of the next generation of fitness, pushing back the barriers and limitations of age, just as we did the myths and ignorance surrounding active women in the past.

Have fun. Be fearless. Be free.

Love, Kathrine

Twenty Golden Rules for Running and Walking

  1. Make a goal and write it down. Whether it’s completing your first mile walk or entering a local fun run six months from now, a goal keeps you focused and motivated.
  2. Make running or walking a priority in your daily schedule. It is an investment in yourself; it’s not selfish or indulgent.
  3. Try to run or walk every day until it becomes a part of your regular routine. Then, if you wind up doing it only three times a week, you’re still maintaining your fitness level.
  4. Don’t over-think it; just put on your shoes and go!
  5. Make a record of every walk or run on a handy and visible calendar. It keeps you honest! And it’s motivating—you’ll be amazed and proud of your progress.
  6. Running or walking is the single most time-efficient method of fitness. If you invest thirty minutes a day in your workout, you get back thirty minutes of benefits, plus a lot more.
  7. If you can’t find a full thirty minutes to do your entire walk or run, try doing fifteen minutes in the morning and fifteen minutes in the evening.
  8. Something is always better than nothing. Even ten minutes can give you a sense of accomplishment and contribute to your fitness.
  9. Don’t feel guilty about missing a workout. Just start again as soon as you can.
  10. Invest in a good pair of walking shoes for walking and running shoes for running. Tennis shoes or fashion sneakers won’t do. Buy your shoes at an athletic store where the salespeople are runners or walkers.
  11. Find a training buddy. When someone’s counting on you, you won’t skip a workout, particularly when it’s dark, cold, or rainy. It’s also a good safety precaution.
  12. Move fast enough to puff a little and work up a sweat, but avoid going too fast too soon. Your goal is sustained exercise that is comfortable but keeps you working. If you can’t carry on a conversation while you’re running or walking, you’re going too fast.
  13. Put ice on sore muscles for about ten minutes after a workout. This speeds recovery.
  14. Walk or run with your kids, partner, spouse, the dog. It’s a great way to combine family time with exercise.
  15. Drink water all day long. No matter how much you think you’re drinking, it’s almost never as much as you need.
  16. Diets alone don’t work because they slow metabolism. Exercise keeps fat off because it raises metabolism. Eat a well-balanced, reduced sugar and fat diet so you’ll have the energy to exercise harder and burn even more calories!
  17. Leave your iPod at home or in the gym. You need all your senses alert when you’re running or walking outdoors.
  18. OK, I know you won’t do # 17, so just plug in one ear so you can hear things.
  19. Running or walking regularly makes you feel good about yourself. If you’re not good for yourself, you’re not your best for anyone else. Your walk or run is an investment in YOU; you deserve to feel good.
  20. You are never too old, slow or big to begin to walk or run. Embrace the joy!
​
It’s never too late to start fitness or get it back. Here I am at age 62, in the last mile of the very difficult 2010 Motatapu Marathon in the South Island of New Zealand which included twenty-six miles of mountain climbs and twenty-eight river crossings. Although I stayed in shape all my life by running four days a week, this was my first marathon in thirty-two years. I was curious if a person could do it again. You can! (MagicMemories)