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.
My bf and I both run, but he doesn't swim... except for maybe a few laps after he runs. And he's a longtime runner with a marathon best of 2:36, a time I couldn't get in several lifetimes. Also he runs some ultra-distance races (50-100 miles or more) which is beyond me at this point.
However, he says he'd never be able to swim the distance I do. I doubt that... I bet he'd do fine if he worked with someone on the technique, but be that as it may, he finds swimming hard enough to find what I do impressive.
So our support is mutual... I've gone to some of his ultra's, and he's gone to my meets and o.w. races.
And we both run races of 5k to marathon distance.
So we're cool w/ each other. But I've heard comments from people... once while in the gym doing weights, some guy said, "girls shouldn't lift. They'll get too big." ("Yeah, that'll scare away guys like you, so what's not to like!") Or if I get running injuries, friends will say, "well at your age, that's bound to happen." Oh but a lot of things that "happen to" ppl my age are high blood pressure, weight problems, diabetes, high cholesterol, etc. etc.
Should mention that swimmers are not alone in the strange comments, judging from what I've heard from others and on running forums. One that women have said they heard (I never did myself) is "your uterus will fall out"--which would explain the presence of so many uteruses strewn along race routes, no doubt... :rolleyes: I've also heard "I've never seen a runner smile." What we have to pose for pictures while we run? On one run, a man called out to me, "do you have a light?" Oh yeah, like I can't go running w/out my cigs and a lighter, can I? ;) A classic on a cold day is "Your lungs will freeze!"
I just keep on running and swimming. The numbers tell the real story: resting pulse in the thirties; last bp reading 99/47. Peace, all!
My bf and I both run, but he doesn't swim... except for maybe a few laps after he runs. And he's a longtime runner with a marathon best of 2:36, a time I couldn't get in several lifetimes. Also he runs some ultra-distance races (50-100 miles or more) which is beyond me at this point.
However, he says he'd never be able to swim the distance I do. I doubt that... I bet he'd do fine if he worked with someone on the technique, but be that as it may, he finds swimming hard enough to find what I do impressive.
So our support is mutual... I've gone to some of his ultra's, and he's gone to my meets and o.w. races.
And we both run races of 5k to marathon distance.
So we're cool w/ each other. But I've heard comments from people... once while in the gym doing weights, some guy said, "girls shouldn't lift. They'll get too big." ("Yeah, that'll scare away guys like you, so what's not to like!") Or if I get running injuries, friends will say, "well at your age, that's bound to happen." Oh but a lot of things that "happen to" ppl my age are high blood pressure, weight problems, diabetes, high cholesterol, etc. etc.
Should mention that swimmers are not alone in the strange comments, judging from what I've heard from others and on running forums. One that women have said they heard (I never did myself) is "your uterus will fall out"--which would explain the presence of so many uteruses strewn along race routes, no doubt... :rolleyes: I've also heard "I've never seen a runner smile." What we have to pose for pictures while we run? On one run, a man called out to me, "do you have a light?" Oh yeah, like I can't go running w/out my cigs and a lighter, can I? ;) A classic on a cold day is "Your lungs will freeze!"
I just keep on running and swimming. The numbers tell the real story: resting pulse in the thirties; last bp reading 99/47. Peace, all!
