Aging (dis)Gracefully

The New York Road Runners have this fun little quirk when it comes to age groups. Here are some age groups:

12-19
20-29
30-39
40-44

Notice anything? The first few span 8 or 10 years each, while the last only spans 5 years. I'm new to running – started when I was 38 – and all of a sudden I was in this age category where I was being compared to people 8 years younger than me.

It was, in a word, depressing. I'd get to the end of a race, feeling pretty good about myself, and have a few hours of euphoria before the results were posted.

Now, don't get me wrong: I'm not that competitive. I mostly run to get some good exercise and enjoy time outdoors. I run to finish a race, not to break records.

Still... I like to check my pace afterwards, and see how I did compared to other runs I've done. Basically, to see if I'm getting better or worse. And while I look at the NYRR results, there's a little column that says "Age Place", which describes where you were in your age-and-gender category.

This was always depressing. 800-and-something. 900-and-something. Even 1000 from time to time. Ugh.

A couple of weeks ago I turned 40. And now I'm one of the Young Turks in my age group, and it's a smaller group. Today my age place was 130.

I'm not any faster, but the numbers look a lot kinder. I think I'm going to like being 40.