A study from Ulrich Laufs, MD, from the University of Saarland in Germany, compared the telomeres of twenty year olds to fifty year olds with both age groups divided into sedentary and exercisers, particularly runners.
(Did You Know? Telomeres are the ends of DNA strands that show the signs of biologic aging. The shorter the strands, the more the aging.)
They found that the telomeres of the 50ish marathoners were barely “older” than the 20-somethings. The telomeres were 40% shorter for the sedentary 50 year olds than for either of the 20 year old groups. The 20 year olds had similar lengths regardless of exercise.
I ran the Columbus Marathon yesterday. After deciding never to run another marathon after the 2009 Flying Pig, the challenge of qualifying for the Boston Marathon was too great. (Boston requires a tough qualifying time because there are too many who want to run than they have spaces due to narrow streets.) I trained more diligently, kept hydrated during the race, went my pace and thoroughly enjoyed it. See you in Boston next April.