Study after study also shows the multiple benefits of aerobic, weight-bearing exercise into older age – and that, far from ruining your knees, as many fear, running may actually help protect them.

More experienced athletes are often better at holding their chosen pace for the entire race. Social media site Strava revealed that the fastest age group for -London Marathon competitors among their users last year was 35-44, followed by the 45-54 group. However, research also suggests the decline in endurance – as opposed to speed – is less steep. For a typical adult, each decade past their 30s brings on average a 9% decrease in aerobic fitness and a loss of 10% muscle. Science suggests that whichever sport you chose, there is a similar pattern, with a gradual decline in the 30s, getting steeper with each succeeding decade. Of course it is impossible to defy the ageing process. Or to the 6,263 over-50s who completed London last year. He’s also 83 – and has competed in every one since it was first run in 1981. Or Kenneth Jones, lining up to start Sunday’s London Marathon. But tell that to 83-year-old Katherine Beiers, who finished the Boston Marathon on Monday, writes Kate Carter. Road racing might seem like a young person’s game. “But we have a long way to go.” The rise of the older runner “We have come a light year, really,” she said. Of her legacy, Switzer said it came as no surprise that women continued to embrace the “sense of empowerment” that came from running.

She founded the women’s running club 261 Fearless, named after her 1967 Boston Marathon number. Switzer has entered more than 30 marathons, winning in New York in 1974 in 3:07:29, and has worked as a television commentator. Now 58% of marathon runners in the US are women. Women were officially allowed to enter the Boston Marathon five years later in 1972, and to compete in the Olympics at the distance in 1984. Switzer said the transformation of her experience of the marathon mimicked the social revolution that had taken place in women’s running and women’s sport in general.

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