The Denver Post did an interesting article on the success of 40+ year olds in endurance sports, featuring Marshall Ulrich (multiple winner of Badwater), Bernie Boettcher, Matt Carpenter, and more. My favorite quotes:
"They aren't winning despite their age. They are winning because of their age."
"What we are seeing is a new phenomenon in that we have athletes who are basically athletes their entire lives," says Chris Carmichael, Colorado Springs training maestro to Lance Armstrong and a former pro bike racer who finished his second Leadville 100 this year at the age of 46, this time in less than nine hours. "They just keep on going. They just keep on getting more efficient with their use of oxygen. After years and years of aerobic training and competing, they are, in a sense, smarter athletes."
Take Bernie Boettcher. On his 45th birthday last month, the Silt legend reset his master-class record and logged his fourth overall win at the Imogene Pass race above Telluride. It was his 267th race in 260 consecutive weeks. In those five years of every-weekend racing in sneakers and snowshoes, he's tallied 115 wins and 208 master-class wins."At the end of suffering, there is a reward, and it's a really neat feeling to overcome that suffering," says Boettcher, his blue eyes gleaming beneath his trademark wide-brim straw hat. "After a while, that feeling is irresistible. You plow on through because you know it's so good."
You can read the full article here.
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The Denver Post did an interesting article on the success of 40+ year olds in endurance sports, featuring Marshall Ulrich (multiple winner of Badwater), Bernie Boettcher, Matt Carpenter, and more. My favorite quotes:
