This was in today's "Dear Abby" column in the paper:
DEAR ABBY: I am a 55-year-old female who competes in triathlons for fun, fitness and health. I consulted my doctor because I was having foot pain. When I told him I was a runner and was preparing for a marathon race, his response was, "At your age, you could hardly call it a race."
I was shocked. I repeated the insulting comment to my husband, who has never supported me in this nor attended my races. He replied, "Well, you don't actually consider yourself an athlete, do you?"
I am so offended that I want to dismiss both my doctor and my husband. I just finished a race with 5,000 women. Every one of them was fabulous and serious, no matter how old or what they looked like. It was the spirit of the sport that mattered. At what age does one stop being an athlete? -- OLDER ATHLETE, EUGENE, ORE.
This raised some interesting questions in my mind about support, encouragement, or the lack thereof. I don't want to discuss the "athlete-yes-or-no" question. Instead, I'd like to know how people out there deal with non-supportive spouses, friends, co-workers, doctors, etc.
My own experience includes being teased by my co-workers for "getting beat by a 70-year-old woman." (This was after a big meet where they viewed my results on the Internet.) This came from men who are at least 50 pounds overweight and can barely walk from their cars to their desks.
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Former Member
At work most people would respect somebody who runs 4+ days a week if they look anorexic but when I was training with my Masters group 6 days a week was viewed as "wasting time goofing around in a pool" as if I was just floating on a noodle with a few beers. My project manager chewed me out a few times over my hurry to leave at quitting time. Her thing was running and maybe an aerobics class, and she was a nonswimmer.
If somebody at work is trying to keep me late (without cause) I now tell them that I have "an appointment", NEVER that I want to make a practice. I'd rather make up a story that I am going to AA, anger management class, group therapy, etc than to say I am going to go swim.
At work most people would respect somebody who runs 4+ days a week if they look anorexic but when I was training with my Masters group 6 days a week was viewed as "wasting time goofing around in a pool" as if I was just floating on a noodle with a few beers. My project manager chewed me out a few times over my hurry to leave at quitting time. Her thing was running and maybe an aerobics class, and she was a nonswimmer.
If somebody at work is trying to keep me late (without cause) I now tell them that I have "an appointment", NEVER that I want to make a practice. I'd rather make up a story that I am going to AA, anger management class, group therapy, etc than to say I am going to go swim.
