Off Their Rockers

The English Channel is a swimmers’ Everest. Climbers who’ve bagged the tallest peak outnumber swimmers who’ve crossed the Channel, so going by head count, the watery conquest is the rarer achievement than the snowy one. Record breakers seek fame, and possible fortune if their books sell, in both arenas: on Everest for being the oldest to get to the top, through the Channel for being the oldest or fastest to get to the other side. At 61, Sue Oldham, an epileptic from Australia, became the latest champ in the oldest female category (2006). The prior record holder, Carol Sing of San Diego, was 58.

At 70, George Brunstad, went the distance and became the oldest male finisher (2004). A national and world Master’s swimming champ, Brunstad credits Tom’s of Maine mouthwash for keeping his mouth clean and fresh through 15-plus hours of sea water intake. The press made a fuss over Brunstad–it gave them an excuse to talk about his Matt Damon connection (uncle).Meanwhile, the world’s trophy rivers have begun to attract age and speed record breakers, the most spectacular so far being Martin Strel. At 52, the unstoppable Slovenian jumped in at one end of the Amazon, then bobbed up 65 days later: after fending off piranhas, gators and bloodsucking toothpick fish along the way. Bogged, bewildered, and totally bushed, Strel passed up the celebratory press conference (fastest and the oldest to navigate the entire Amazon) in favor of the ER at the nearest hospital, which admitted him at first sight. No stranger to exhausting swims, Strel had already broken speed and endurance records on the Mississippi (2360 miles, 1998), the Danube (2000, and the Yangtze (2487 miles, 2004).

• Source: www.amazonswim.com/main.php. Same source for photo.

Phillippa “Phil” Raschker is the only athlete over 50 to make the final cut for top amateur athlete of the year–the Sullivan Award, and she’s done it twice: 2003 and again in 2007. Three finalists for the earlier locker-room Oscar were superstars young enough to call her mom if not granny: Michael Phelps, Apolo Ono, and LeBron James, for his pre-NBA exploits. It’s no surprise LeBron won and Phil didn’t–on the world master’s stage she wins everything, but not in the publicity department. At recent count, LeBron’s got 7 million googles to her 2,450, which puts their relative media value in perspective. As of this post, swimmer Phelps is a 1.2 million google guy; Ono far back with 66,000 hits–compared, even, to Ono, Phil has coped with a huge fame deficit, not to mention a perks and support-system deficit. LeBron’s a zillion-dollar pro now, but there’s a big difference, say, between Phelp’s “amateur” status and Phil’s amateur status.

Phelps can train and compete full-time, whereas Phil did both in her off hours–for instance, spending three sleepless nights prior to the Sullivan ceremony 2003 catching up on her clients’ tax returns.Along the way, Phil’s created a gold glut in the trophy case, ten from the Italy meet in 2007, 58 world championships since 1988, setting records in sprints at various distances; hurdles; high, long, and long and triple jumps; pole vault, shot put, pentathlon. Here we’ve got the most decorated competitor in any sport in Master’s memory, yet Raschker is sure bet to stump a Jeopardy panel. She doesn’t need a press agent or a crowd handler. Sure, she gets the occasional mention in the NY Times, and lots of coverage in the master’s media, but to what can we attribute her lopsided overall lack of notoriety, the falling records hardly anybody notices? Not Raschker’s sex; two other dominatrixes of track and field, Florence Joyner and Wilma Rudolph, would never stump a Jeopardy panel. On the google count, Joyner leads Rudolph 425,000 to 271,000 (Rudolph would have more had she not run her races pre-computer) but both outgoogle Raschker by factors of 10 and 20.What’s the difference here? Not racism or sexism, but ageism devalues Phil’s accomplishments–same story with all the other over-50 record breakers. Her latter-day dominance comes from training and genes, but since lots of other seniors train hard with far less success, credit the genes.As three-time Tour de France winner, cyclist Greg LeMond put it recently in Velo News:

“Your genetic potential does not change in your career. It’s there at 17-18—the only thing that changes when you race professionally….is that you’re trying to figure out how to be at your peak.”

From what I can gather, Phil played sports in her youth, but didn’t get serious until her late 40s. What if she’d started an Olympic-level regime at 15? If, as LeMond suggests, the same right stuff that makes her great now was in her then, she’d be famous for winning everything in her girlhood. Why is having done it later any less impressive?

The world’s trophy peaks were first climbed by Europeans, then Americans, the occasional Aussie or New Zealander (Hillary), assorted rock/ice stars with German, French, Italian, British and U.S. names. Sherpas invisible, except Tenzing. No Japanese names on the glory list. Thanks to Dick Bass, who bagged the Seven Summits at 50, age records were set and broken; today, his Japanese successors (male and female) are the oldest on everything (Everest, Seven Summits, Denali, etc.) The Japanese have built a monopoly on thin-air geriatrics: no other country has dominated so completely in any aspect of the sport. Why is this? Training?

An article by Gina Kolata (NYT, 1/31/2008, begins as follows:

“You know what is supposed to happen when you grow old. You will slow down, you will grow weak, your steps will become short and mincing, and you will lose your sense of balance. That’s what aging researchers consistently find, and it’s no surprise to most of us.

But it is worth remembering that the people in those studies were sedentary, said Dr. Vonda Wright, a professor of orthopedics at the University of Pittsburgh.

Dr. Wright, a 40-year-old runner, decided to study people who kept training as they got older or began competing in middle age. She wanted to know what happens to them and at what age does performance start to decline.

Their results are surprising, even to many of the researchers themselves. The investigators find that while you will slow down as you age, you may be able to stave off more of the deterioration than you thought. Researchers also report that people can start later in life — one man took up running at 62 and ran his first marathon, a year later, in 3 hours 25 minutes.

It’s a testament to how adaptable the human body is, researchers said, that people can start serious training at an older age and become highly competitive. It also is testament to their findings that some physiological factors needed for a good performance are not much affected by age.

Researchers say that you should be able to maintain your muscles as you age, including the muscle enzymes needed for good athletic performance, and you should be able to maintain your ability to exercise for long periods near your so-called lactic threshold, meaning you are near maximum effort.

But you have to know how to train, doing the right sort of exercise, and you must keep it up.

“Train hard and train often,” said Hirofumi Tanaka, a 41-year-old soccer player and exercise physiologist at the University of Texas.”

Etc….

Amen to the above. From the fitness establishment, we hear that minimal and sporadic exertion: a lap in the pool at turtle speed; a mile or two of foot shuffling on a treadmill; a few reps with small hand weights, will help keep you in shape. The idea, I guess, is not to intimidate or discourage people, but it backfires when the minimal exercise makes no difference anybody can notice. Push yourself until you’re dripping in sweat, and you get noticed right away. But sweating, grunting, heavy breathing goes against the patronizing party line for oldsters: take it easy, don’t overdo it, you might keel over, die from a massive heart attack. So what? Maybe before that happens, you’ll be in shape and happy with yourself.

 

 

 

Late-in-life athletes have a psychological advantage, especially ex-couch potatoes. Stick with me on this: if you excel in your teens or 20s, whatever the sport, it’s odds-on your personal best is old news, soon to be ancient history. For a childhood athletic flop like me (the only kid in phys ed who balked at the forward roll; the only kid in Little League to be relegated to the scorer’s table–too inept, even to sit on the bench) there’s a belated upside: redemption in your 50s and beyond.

A latent aerobic talent came out with my gray hair–I’d have bet my IRA against it (the talent, not the hair)– but it put me on mountaintops and in bike races. Biking and climbing can’t erase my childhood humiliation (0-18 in high school tennis matches, in JV football, ran away from every play to avoid collisions) but at least my wounded ego now lies under a pile of medals from senior time-trial bike sprints. No big deal in the overall scheme of things, but I’m feeling a lot better on the bike and off the antidepressants. It’s nice to finally win something–age category or whatever–but an ex-couch potato gets an extra boost from rapid self-improvement.

Think of it this way: athletes from college and high school can never outdo their youthful exploits. They ran their fastest miles, dashes, etc., long ago, and now they’re fighting lag and sag, trying to slow down the slowdown. Here’s where a couch potato has two advantages: (1) We didn’t blow out knees or shred an ACL in early athletic tussles, our moving parts have less wear and tear; (2) We have no prior jock history, except abysmal, to live up to. When you start racing a bike at 53, as I did, you’ve got several euphoric years of getting faster; unlike, say, Lance Armstrong, who faces decades of decline. Meanwhile, people my age are supposed to be slouching toward the exits, and I clocked my fastest 10-mile time trial (22 minutes 35 seconds) at 62. Can I top that at 63 and beyond? Probably not–what training giveth, aging taketh away, but from a couch-potato base, later rather than sooner.

Why the skydive crowd at the far end of the actuary tables? Better to end life with a bang, hitched to ropes, than waste away in a gurney bed, hitched to tubes? Survive the fall and you’re rejuvenated; don’t survive and you’re liberated, like the Indian who flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest. With a death-defying leap, you can forget your age: momentarily or permanently. No  there’s a crowd at the static line and if you don’t, you’re liberated, like the Indian who flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest. So the parachute, the hang glider, the parasail provide two ways to forget your age, momentarily or permanently. No wonder there’s a crowd on the static lines and age records don’t stay unbroken for long. Oldest skydiver, at the moment, is Australia’s Frank Moody. In 2004, the 101-year-old was in a pub minding his beer when bar mate egged him into a sky dive. His 3000-meter tandem drop with instructor Karl Eitech landed Moody in the Guinness Book of Records. Eitech said it was strange to jump with a man who was alive before planes were invented. Moody said he was pushed.

www.abc.net.au/perth/stories/s1134109.htm

 The same year Moody took his record dive, his female equivalent, 100-year-old Estrid Geertsen broke the woman’s record, strapped to an expert over Roskilde.

Meanwhile, in the parachute department, a diminutive 92-year-old with fake knees, a hearing aid, and no prior plummets, donned his flight suit and exited a plane at 3500 feet.  “I always wanted to parachute but my wife wouldn’t let me,” said the ex-pilot, Herb Tanner. “She died last year.”

Then there’s Milburn Hart, who tried to break the solo sky-dive record at 96 (in 2005, over Brementon, WA) and lived to tell the story.  Jim Foreman, NBC News, Seattle, brought Hart back to the studio to watch the video clip. Here’s part of their running commentary:  

FOREMAN:  Hart did not go readily, but had to be coaxed out of the aircraft. And once off, the jump didn’t go quite as planned.

Hart: I sort of slipped and hit my shoulder on the plane. And that’s what caused the problem.

Foreman: Hart dislocated his shoulder as he left the plan and could not control his left arm. He had no way to steer his way into the landing zone…As the ground came rushing up at him, so did deadly obstacles, like trees, buildings, and power lines. Somehow, he missed them all, and landed in a patch of shrubs.

HART: I was trying to get me as soft a place as I could to land…See, I was going 80 miles an hour when I went in there. And that’s pretty fast. It wasn’t a real landing. It was a landing to save my bacon.

FOREMAN: Despite hitting face first, Hart’s only injury was from hitting the plane at the start of the jump. Hart is still waiting to hear from the folks at the Guinness Book to see if his jump in fact gives him the record. At the very least, he has a great story to tell around the retirement home.

HART: I think it wasn’t a bad deal. It could have been worse. 

On the women’s side, oldest female chutist, Sylvia Brett, 80, pulled the rip cord over Bedfordshire, England in 1986. She made Guinness. 

 http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/204473_jump20.htm

 

From the geezer jocks should be carded department:

As he stumbled over the finish line at the end of yesterday’s London marathon, “Buster” Martin was on course to make history. But his claim to be the oldest man to complete the 26-mile route is now in doubt after it emerged he may not be quite as advanced in age as he has claimed.

Buster, who works for Pimlico Plumbers, had told organisers he was 101. It now appears he may be a slightly more sprightly 94.

 

Buster, whose real name is Pierre Jean Martin, reportedly told NHS staff that he was born on September 1, 1913, not 1906, as had been previously claimed.

He has previously made the headlines in September 2006 when it was revealed he was the UK’s oldest employee.

A source at Guinness told The Times that Buster “appeared to be a fake, and more so, one being exploited by his company, which is using him to promote their services”.

An official spokeswoman has confirmed he will not be entered into the Guinness Book of Records because it is impossible to verify his age.

She said: “We have to be quite stringent. If we do not have sufficient evidence we cannot verify it.”

“It is a real shame because it is such a lovely story.”

Charlie Mullins, managing director of Pimlico Plumbers, said: “He is adamant that is his age. That is what he told us and we did all the standard checks and they all came back to us that that his how old he is.

“He has got British citizenship from the Home Office that says how old he is.”

He added: “This is not about a world record but an elderly man doing a great thing for charity.”

Buster eventually finished the course in just over ten hours.

Guinness World Records lists the oldest man to complete a marathon as the Greek runner Dimitrion Yordanidis, aged 98, in Athens in 1976. He finished in seven hours 33 minutes.

The oldest woman to complete a marathon listed by Guinness World Records was Jenny Wood-Allen who completed the London Marathon at the age of 90 in 2002. She finished in 11 hours and 34 minutes.

Source: DailyMail UK

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-559574/Buster-busted-The-oldest-London-Marathon-runner-isnt-101–hes-ONLY-94.html

Jeff King. Moved to Alaska in 1975, began racing in 1980, one of four mushers to win Iditerod 4 times. At 50, in 2006, King became the oldest winner in Iditerod history. Operates a kennel near Denali National Park, tinkers with sled design, added a seat belt, heated handlebars, invented a sit-down frame dubbed the Iditerod Barcalounger.

• Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_King_(mushing)

New guidelines from the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Heart Association: “brisk walks” around the neighborhood don’t count for real exercise, any more than knitting does, or puttering in the garden. To be polite about it, the report calls brisk walking “a great start”, then goes on to say it takes several hours a week of training–stretching, balancing, aerobics–to stay strong, fit, and limber.

Walking, per se, doesn’t do much. A consultant on the guidelines, Miriam Nelson at Turfs University, prescribes a 45-minute daily routine to build muscle, shore up bones, breathe easier at full speed. And if you take Vonda Wright’s word for it (an aging expert–all experts are aging, come to think of it–at the University of Pittsburgh) a long-term commitment to sweaty exercise makes us happier, less gaga, more likely to remember things, like where our car keys are.

So shelve your walking shoes and get to the gym, unless you believe the Harvard researchers, who recommend brisk walking to cut the risk of heart disease by 30% for gerigals, and for geriguys, 50%. Who knows which study, which expert to believe?

Sister Madonna Buder, seems to buy the “moderate intensity” advice from the Harvard faction: “just get off the couch, get your foot out the front door, and start moving”, but Sister Buder’s an odd source for it: the oldest female Ironman finisher in the world whose idea of moderate intensity is an hour swim and a 7-mile run, followed by 25 miles on the bike.

The Harvard faction touts much less: 30 minutes of moderation five days a week, perhaps in a senior-friendly gym with light weights, trainers versed in arthritis, osteoperosis, etc.  Two useful sources: The International Council on Active Aging (matches gyms with customers, at various “fitness levels” www.icaa.cc/facilitylocator.htm). The American Council on Exercise (www.acefitness.org). All the above from U.S. News & World report.

This sport is full of repeat champions who compete at multiple distances and stay on top as they age. Willy Sawall, Gus Theobald, James Grimwade, Gary Little have broken more than 30 world records between them. Other notables: Arthur Thomson, Andrew Jamieson, Gerhard Weidner. In the 50K walk, Germany’s Weidner set multiple world records through four age groups, after a quarter-century of wear-and-tear, he was only five-percent slower. A triumph of fitness over longevity: how did he do it? A small group takes home the medals in this sport. Why?