Race Against Time

_Tombstone_

She’s 36, with two kids. A competitive marathoner for just two years. And she’s going to the Olympic Trials. Andrea Duke is a late bloomer, trying to beat the clock and runners half her age.

We scramble to plot our life’s course against an unforgiving parade of seconds. Each tick of the stopwatch leads us inevitably, invariably, closer to life’s finish line. It doesn’t ask permission. It doesn’t ask if we did all that we could. It just arrives, and whatever’s left unfinished remains so.

FFS how depressing of a first paragraph is that.

During pregnancy, a woman’s red blood cell production spikes to handle the burden of carrying a child in utero, a natural boost in athletic performance similar to what one would get by doping with EPO. The peak lasts for up to three months post-partum, and although the literature documenting this effect is scarce, it is somewhat well known in elite athlete circles, with many women planning their training around it. In the early 1970s, young female athletes in East Germany were alleged to have engaged in a practice called abortion doping, where women would get pregnant to stimulate the production of red blood cells, then abort the fetus to reap the training benefits without putting on the extra weight and strain on the body.

:eek:

Murph_D

Interesting story, although I'll look around for a bio not so couched in all that "overcoming adversity" claptrap. Fair play to her, hope she makes it.

snailsong

Reminiscent of Sinead Diver. 38, two kids. Took to running in her thirties, 2:34 marathon, represented Australia in the world championships in Beijing.
Originally from Belmullet, my clubmate in Mayo AC.

Can't post links from my phone.

Clearlier

Possibly the most impressive part of her achievement is the speed at which she has done it. In just over 2 years of running to get to 2:41 is really good going. The time itself is obviously good but it's still a fair way off threatening to be an elite athlete (an equivalent male time would be about 2:25). That she has only been running for two years suggests that she probably has a fair bit of scope for further improvement though. I don't buy the idea that she is in this great fight with father time either. There are plenty of examples of very successful marathon runners in their late 30's. I'll be interested to see how she improves but it's too early to say where she's going yet.

TFBubendorfer

Clearly a very gifted runner but a poor article IMHO.

To continue to improve well into your 30s, it requires outworking and defying your own biology. Andrea’s 50-minute improvement in the marathon after age 34, and her transition from hobby runner to Olympic Trials qualifier, is rare.

This is nonsense.

A transition from hobby runner to OTQ is rare by definition, for anyone, at any age. I know plenty of runners who improved by 50 minutes or more, myself included (incidentally, I started running at 34). The stuff about your 30s is plain wrong. Constantina Diṭă-Tomescu was 38 when she won Olympic gold in Beijing - she was older than Andrea Duke will be when Rio comes round.