Ethiopia’s Worknesh Degefa may have won the 2019 Boston Marathon at 28 years old—but that makes her an infant compared to other elite long-distance runners: Lawrence Cherono, of Kenya, took home the men’s gold this year at 30 years old in a sprint finish to beat 29-year-old Lelisa Desisa; Desiree Linden, who won the infamous 2018 Boston Marathon and placed fifth in this year’s race, is 35 years old. Yuki Kawauchi of Japan won last year at 31; and Edna Kiplagat of Kenya, the second-fastest woman in Boston this year, is 39 years old.
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Of course, this pattern isn’t unique to the Boston Marathon (though it may help you score that BQ later—more on that in a bit): Shalane Flanagan won the 2017 New York City Marathon at 36, then Mary Keitany took home the victory the following year, also at 36. And who could forget Eliud Kipchoge, arguably the world’s greatest athlete, crushing How to Train for the Boston Marathon How to Train for the Boston Marathon?
While you’ll find a few middle-aged athletes in other sports (Patriots’ Quarterback Tom Brady is 41, Dara Torres was the oldest American swimmer to compete in the Olympics at 41, and Tiger Woods just took home his fifth Masters win at 43 years old), running might be one of the only ones in which you don’t just hang in there with age—you actually improve. Even better, this effect doesn’t just apply to the top-of-the-top elites. When it comes to running, recreational athletes can tap into the benefits of aging, too.
Why Marathoners Age So Well
From a logistical perspective, runners typically turn to the marathon after college. “Many college runners compete in the 10K, 5K, and steeplechase, then move up to the marathon after they graduate,” says Timothy Quinn, Ph.D., associate professor of kinesiology at the University of New Hampshire, who has researched running efficiency in older athletes.
This corresponds well to physical changes that promote endurance training as you near and enter your third decade. “As you age, you lose fast-twitch muscle fibers (the ones associated with sprinting) and gain slow-twitch muscle fibers (the ones associated with endurance),” says Greg Grosicki, Ph.D., an assistant professor and director of the exercise physiology laboratory at Georgia Southern University, noting that this makes the half marathon, marathon, and ultra distances ideal for runners in their 30s.
He’s right: Ultramarathoners peak later in life than marathoners, according to the Road Races Came Roaring Back in 2023; Road Races Came Roaring Back in 2023 published in the journal notes that “the age of peak performance increases with increasing race distance or duration.” (Runners between 35 and 45 have the fastest ultra times.) So, the older you get, the more you may want to target higher-mileage races.
“You don’t usually see people winning the 400-meter sprint at 35 years old,” Grosicki says, but your muscles are actually more primed to qualify for (and run!) the Boston Marathon at 35 than at 25. And that’s pretty convenient considering you have five extra minutes to qualify in the former age group.
There are some cardiovascular changes working in your favor, too. “It’s true that your VO2 max (the maximum amount of oxygen your body can utilize) declines slightly with age, but you get other advantages that make up for it,” Grosicki says. (Plus, Rob Gronkowski Named Boston Grand Marshal than marathons.) One such advantage: “The left ventricle of your heart, which pumps blood to your muscles, increases in size, as long as you maintain your training,” Grosicki says.
Consistent training is crucial, though. A German study of over 900,000 marathon and half-marathon times showed no decline in performance up to age 55—and even then, a drop wasn’t guaranteed. The researchers’ conclusion? “Performance losses in middle age are mainly due to a sedentary lifestyle, rather than biological aging.”
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The Myth of Bad Knees
But isn’t running hard on your joints as you get older? “This is really overstated,” Quinn says. “Ankles, knees, and hips are better served by moving, so this isn’t as much of an issue if you maintain your training.”
If you worry that running will cause chronic joint issues like arthritis, the research doesn’t back this up. A study DAA Industry Opt Out The Boston Marathon Elites Prove Endurance Athletes Peak in Their 30sBut Why found that veteran marathoners had about half as much arthritis as their non-running counterparts. Not only that, but a Races & Places published in the journal Osteoarthritis and Cartilage, shows that regular exercise actually helps prevent cartilage damage caused by arthritis by minimizing the inflammatory molecules that cause the pain and stiffness.
And even though some people indeed experience joint pain as they get older, Quinn says this is likely due to weight gain and a decrease in training—not age itself. “There are certainly people who give up running because of their knees, but this is likely more weight-related than running-related.”
Grosicki agrees: “Age-related running injuries most likely happen because people take time off, then jump back into the sport too quickly,” he says. Instead, you want to stick with a consistent exercise routine throughout your life (including strength training as you lose muscle mass with age), and slowly ease back into it if you’ve taken a hiatus.
Older and Wiser
When it comes to endurance sports, it takes trial and error—a.k.a. time and experience—to learn what works for your body: your no-fail strength-training strategy, the gels that don’t screw with your stomach, and so on. “You gain knowledge from accrued training,” Grosicki says.
That means training smarter, not harder. In Quinn’s Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research study of competitive distance runners, “younger people were running miles and miles and miles, while the older runners were able to find a better balance between running and recovery,” he says. “They seemed to understand what happens to their body, and they also ate a better diet.”
Ultimately, on the bell curve of performance, Grosicki calls the mid-30s the “sweet spot,” during which you can tap into all these benefits—those slow-twitch muscle fibers, a larger left ventricle, and the wisdom of experience—before experiencing any age-related decline. “It’s very possible that 28 or 30 is just the tip of the iceberg,” he says.
Aging Doesnt Slow Your Running Down That Much Degefa and 29-year-old Desisa.
