Keep on running: How one club is hoping to supercharge its over-50s

Northampton Road Runners have started a new group to help Masters athletes stay fit and run for longer

Sep 26, 2024

Northampton Road Runners of all ages enjoyed the recent Amazing Northampton Run, a half-marathon event which runs through the town

One thing most of us running obsessives agree on is that we want to continue with the sport for as long as possible.

But as we get older, that laudable aim gets harder. It takes longer to recover from injuries, muscles ache and atrophy, we often get slower. Let’s be honest, it’s rubbish.

Now, one running club is aiming to help its older athletes counter the scourge of Old Father Time.

Northampton Road Runners, known locally as NRR by those from the midlands town in the UK, is starting a new running group for members feeling the effects of age and wanting to do something about it.

The NRR Over 50’s Running Group is the brainchild of the club’s chairman Roger Taylor, who said he wants runners to look ahead to an exciting future in the sport rather than back at what used to be.

It will act as a community where over 50s runners can learn from each other, discuss how their bodies are feeling and unlock the training methods that will improve their longevity.

Members will get help with supervised gym sessions at the University of Northampton, interval sessions, training runs and via peer group mentoring sessions.

Roger said: “When I first started with NRR there were many ageing runners who were really unhappy with what was happening with their bodies.

“They talked about the times they were still trying to achieve. They couldn’t cope with not being who they used to be.”

He said many of them struggled with the changes in their bodies to the point where they simply stopped running.

Inspired by accounts such as that of runner and author Richard Askwith in his book, ‘The Race Against Time - Adventures in Late-Life Running,’ Roger hopes to attract new members to the group so more runners can benefit from the knowledge they acquire.

In his book, Askwith goes from “a miserable fifty-nine-year-old: a knackered, demoralised runner on the verge of giving up his favourite sport for good” to having his love affair with running rekindled through timely adjustments to lifestyle and training.

Roger Taylor, pictured centre, is keen to help runners keep going in the sport for as long as possible

Roger believes the same theory can be applied to the runners of Northampton: “I’m getting to that age myself as well, so I’ve been doing some reading and looking at videos of ageing masters doing really well.

“There are older, sometimes much older runners, still going strong. I started looking at what people had to do to continue to be a runner.”

He told Running Tales that the worst experience a runner could have is getting a long-term injury, and that the longest of those occurs when getting older is allowed to stop someone running.

“I’ve had bad injuries,” he said. “When you get over it, that feeling of elation, you can’t describe it.

“Imagine what not being able to run at all does for someone’s morale.”

He said that while muscles naturally atrophy over time, the fitter someone is then the longer they will remain healthy and active.

“How to do that?,” he said. “Don’t just go for a plod each day. It means exercising your body as a whole - weights, intervals, hill sessions.

“We have got our older runners together and are trying to educate them, to start giving them the tools to do it on their own.

“It is not about taking all the older runners and putting them in a safe area. We still want them integrated in the body of the club.

“The problem when you are ageing is one day you are strong and flexible, and any injuries heal quickly. Then suddenly, as you get older, it takes longer to recover. Your muscles are less flexible.

“This is about improving your ability to keep muscles strong and prevent those injuries.”

While he is as keen to get as many older club members involved as possible, Roger stressed that the exercises and advice suggested through the group are certainly not compulsory.

The club’s runners can choose how they want to train without feeling any pressure, and some may simply want to continue just running.

“Runners won’t all want to do this,” he said. “Many just want to go out and run.

“That’s part of the fun and joy of it. Let me run through a woodland and I’m happy, and that’s all I want.

“But I also feel there is a stark choice to make: confront the possibility you might not be able to continue to run for as long as you want or make some modifications and see if they help.”

The new scheme includes a private Facebook group containing around 30 to 40 older runners.

“I want people to feel they are doing the very best they can. They are not alone,” Roger said.

“I’d like to think that someone in their 50s, maybe doing parkrun and feeling alone when facing the challenges ahead, would find this club is somewhere they could go.

“There is no all-encompassing solution but we also know running is not over.”