October/November 2024

Age Is Not Just a Number

Buzz Burrell
Oct 2024

If you want to piss me off, just say, “You’re only as old as you think you are.”

Not only is that cliché flagrantly and scientifically incorrect, but it is also insulting. It’s like telling a 5-foot-tall person they could dunk a basketball if they just believed it.

Age is not just a number. It is a self-evident and very well-documented biological process with a very well-known outcome (aka death).

So why do such strange sayings persist?

I’ve noticed only relatively young people use them. They fear aging so they invent fanciful stories to allay their own concerns.

Fear of aging is a fear of death. Everyone knows they’re going to die, but it’s human nature to keep it out of mind to focus on living, surviving and thriving. So, I’ve softened my stance. Because, making up stories is also part of human nature. Since the dawn of time, humans have created complex stories to feel more comfortable in this unfathomably vast world.

Aging is a topic among most of my friends, simply because we experience its profound effects every day.

I was in Sierre-Zinal a few months ago, the most competitive mountain race in the world, but you won’t see me in the video of Kilian's insane descent, being chased down by a fast Kenyan, and his desperate sprint to win by less than 2 seconds. They finished eating their lunch before I finished my race. I would have easily won my age division except one didn't exist. I was the oldest person to finish by six years. Last year at the Matterhorn Ultraks Extreme, I was 10th out of 36 in my age division. But that was the 50+ division, which is as high as they go, and 16 of those runners couldn’t finish at all. I was 71.

I’ve become significantly slower these last few years for no other reason than the calendar pages turning. This is extremely annoying. My numbers are unavoidably declining, but other aspects are working quite well.

With age, our strength, speed and flexibility plummet, while endurance hangs in there. Hopefully, despite these other aspects declining, the “don’t be stupid” meter goes up (at least, it did for me, but it was a low bar). Interestingly, we also should have more time and resources as we age. In the past, I could not attempt some projects because I was working a job, but now my successful work life has enabled me to literally travel the world. The paradox of this trade-off is if my current physical ability will let me do these projects that I didn't have time for earlier. The “athlete’s life equation graph” is very simple and should be carefully calculated: your time, resources and intelligence lines on the graph go up, just as the line indicating your physical ability quite annoyingly is going down. So, take real good care of yourself and when those two lines intersect, be ready to hit it.

By dispensing with the fanciful stories and facing aging with honesty and clarity, your motivation factor will oppose these other trends and become stronger. Because, by this stage of your life, you are acutely aware there will not be another chance. This is your time. I’ve had more focus these past few years than any other time in my career.

A few months ago, President Joe Biden had the democratic nomination sewn up and appeared on an infamous TV debate. We suddenly realized his functioning was shockingly poor, simply due to his age. Amidst calls for him to drop out, he insisted he was staying in the presidential race, emphatically stating, "If the Lord Almighty came down and said, 'Joe, get outta the race,' I'd get outta the race.”

Then one week later, he did just that.

The Lord Almighty has not yet spoken to me. Or maybe She has, but I wasn't paying attention. As of now, the US presidential contest is in far better shape, and while I am unfortunately not in that good of shape, I am nonetheless still in the race. I’m headed to a solo start of Tour du Mont Blanc by a new route variation. When I can’t make the cutoffs in a race, I’ll join Joe and bow out. I will not hang on and inconvenience race directors or volunteers.

Aging is certainly not just a number or a matter of perspective. But after thinking it through, the whole question misses the point. If you define your sport by the numbers, they will irrevocably go down just as the calendar pages turn with equal certainty. But most ultrarunners define their sport internally rather than with external validation. This is a new wave of understanding—even at the summer Olympics this year, the pinnacle of achievement for most sports, athletes notably shifted to a focus on process rather than outcome.

The Olympics inspired me to consider my own version of excellence. How indeed should I spend the time I have? During these times of alienation, the pursuit of excellence is a path to intimacy with ourselves and our communities. Whether 25 or 75, we can try to be the best humans possible.

After one of the best 1500-meter races in history, in which he came seemingly out of nowhere to blow by both the Olympic and World Champions, winner of the gold medal, Cole Hocker, said, “I told myself, don’t be soft. You’ve gotta go with it. You’re going to regret this for the rest of your life if you don’t go with it.”

This is true for all of us—at any age.

Guest