Marathons are the ‘Fountain of Youth’ for 71-Year-Old Runner
Minutes matter. For Barbara Brady, one minute in particular changed her life.
“I remember running a 3:56 for my first marathon, and I needed a 3:55 to get into Boston,’’ Brady said. “I didn’t realize that. I thought I would have to be like a superstar. And this guy was like ‘You know you almost qualified for Boston?’ So I decided I could be a minute faster.’’
Brady did just that, and ran her first Boston Marathon in 1994. She was 50.
“And I thought ‘Wow, wouldn’t that be neat if I ran it again at 60. So I did,’’ she said. “And then I thought, ‘What about 70?’’’
Brady was injured during her qualifying year to race in Boston when she turned 70, so she is settling for running her third Boston Marathon at the age of 71 on April 20.
Last year, the Boston Marathon had 201 participants between the ages of 70 and 74. Only 22 were women.
This year, Brady is one of 23 women in this age group. For Brady, Marathon Monday will mark her 81st marathon — more marathons than years she’s been alive.
“I feel like it its sort of a fountain of youth,’’ she said.
The queen-size bed in her home is covered by a quilt made entirely out of race day shirts. In her hallway, she has two corkboards filled with finishers’ medals and bib numbers. In her closet, six race jackets are hanging. Below, four pairs of running shoes are neatly stacked on the floor. A few extra boxes of unused pairs line the top shelf — just in case.
The Starting Line
Brady began running at the age of 26 after giving birth to her third daughter. She said she was feeling drained and wanted to do something to feel better. Brady and her husband Phil, who have been married for 50 years, began running together.
“We got up to running three miles,’’ she said. “When we went on a skiing trip, we found we had gotten really good at skiing. We weren’t tired, so we would also go out at night and the friends we went with were actually worried about us. So when you get sort of positive feedback like that, it’s wonderful, and you don’t want to quit because you don’t want to lose that. It was just amazing, the stamina.’’
That stamina translated to more than just skiing for the couple. Aside from competing in countless road races together, they’ve also hiked the Grand Canyon — twice — and are avid bikers. To celebrate their retirement in 2006, the couple biked from the Canadian border to Mexico.
“You know that you’re a runner if you can do that; you know you have the endurance,’’ Brady said.
She decided to run her first marathon in Los Angeles when she was 45. That’s when she fell in love with racing.
“I call it an ego trip,’’ she said. “You’re out there and people are cheering for you. Little kids want you to sign their hand. And here you are, just a regular person, and they’re treating you like you’re a superstar.’’
Pleasantly surprised by how well she had done in L.A., Brady decided her next goal would be to qualify for the “Super Bowl’’ of marathons: Boston.
Marathon Monday
Brady’s first Boston Marathon was in 1994, on a cool, breezy day perfect for running. She had run the Los Angeles Marathon six weeks before, and knew she was ready for the iconic route.
“When you first get on those buses, everyone is really hyper,’’ she said. “And you’ll be sitting next to someone and you say, ‘Oh, this is my first Boston’ so of course everyone is going to give you advice.’’
Her first Boston was a race she will never forget. The people and the crowd support made the race different from others she has run.
“They had the official aid stations, but they had a lot of people who weren’t official also giving you water. It is just really special,’’ she said.
The 1994 marathon was years before there were tracking chips in bib numbers. To help runners know their exact time regardless of their heat’s start time, marathon organizers would mail a program back to runners, telling them to add or subtract so many minutes from the final time they saw at the finish line clock to finally know your official time. Brady still has the program.
Unfortunately, Brady does not remember her second Boston Marathon as fondly. It was a scorching 90 degrees in 2004 and she remembers runners standing around in just shorts or singlets without feeling cold before the race had even started.
“That was scary,’’ she said.
It was so warm that day that the Boston Fire Department set up a station halfway through the course and sprayed water at overheated runners to cool them off. Brady finished 17 minutes behind her goal time, and said it took her longer to recover because she had pushed herself so hard.
“I didn’t have nearly as good of a time,’’ she said. “But obviously I’m coming back, right? It’s a funny thing about your bad experiences, they’re very memorable.’’
At the time of her second Boston Marathon, Brady was nearing the finish line of another daunting goal: completing a marathon in all 50 states.
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Cross-Country Marathon Running
Brady ran 40 marathons in four years, managing to run a marathon in all 50 states. It was a lofty goal she had been thinking about for a while, she said, and decided to finally make it a reality at 64. Brady and her husband would map out marathons, hop in their white Roadtrek camper, and travel cross country for weeks at a time.
“Now looking back at it I don’t know how I did it,’’ she said. “During those four to five years, marathons are your life. You are always either training for one or recovering from one.’’
Brady completed three marathons in three weeks during their first trip. She’d later notch five marathons in six weeks during another trip.
“When you get close to the end you’re thinking, ‘Well if I do one more, I can get that state done,’’’ she said.
Brady was 68 when she completed the challenge.
“For one hour after you finish you think you’ll never do that again, and then you’re thinking, ‘Maybe it’s not so bad,’ and I go back for more,’’’ she said.
After completing her 50-state goal, Brady had put her body, especially her ankles, through a lot. It would be two years before she’d run another marathon.
Back To Boston
Brady was nervous about qualifying again for Boston. She had promised herself she would run Boston at age 70, and had already postponed that dream because of her ankle injury.
Her worries were unfounded. After two years off, she was still 17 minutes under the qualifying time after finishing the Los Angeles Marathon again.
Brady is now training at her home in California, running four days a week. The training includes one long run (up to 22 miles), one speed-work run, one hilly run, and then a “light’’ six-to-eight-mile run. On off days, she cross-trains by riding her bike or using the elliptical at the gym. She also completes strength training exercises three times a week.
For Brady the hardest part is waiting, and tapering her mileage before the big day.
“The tapering is hard. Physically it’s easy, but mentally it’s hard because you feel like you’re losing everything,’’ she said. “I just want the day to be here.’’
The Fountain of Youth
Brady and her husband still run, bike, and hike together. They also travel. The couple went to Thailand and Vietnam for two weeks in February. Brady said that she always makes running a priority, never going more than two days off before lacing up again.
“I’m scared to quit,’’ she said. “I don’t want to lose it.’’
A few years ago, researchers at the German Sports University Cologne took a close look at the finishing times of 400,000 marathon and half-marathon runners between the ages of 20 and 79, according toThe New York Times. They found that older athletes keep their physiological placticity later into life.
“The study found no relevant differences in the finishing times of people between the ages of 20 and 50. The times for runners between 50 and 69 slowed only by 2.6 to 4.4 percent per decade.’’
A study in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society also reported that a faster walking speed correlates to a longer lifespan.
“You read all this stuff and they tell you to exercise, but the thing is I’ve done it my whole life,’’ Brady said. “You see all those people with knee problems and stuff so when I have to go to the doctor and I’m sitting in the waiting room I find myself going, ‘How old are these people compared to me? Because they seem like they’re really, really old.’’’
Brady said this year may be her last Boston Marathon. Maybe.
“And then I’m thinking again,’’ she said, “well maybe it won’t stop. Maybe I should try again when I am 75.’’
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