One part personal quest to discover running greatness after age 50, one part investigation into what the women's running boom can teach athletes about becoming fitter, stronger, and faster as we age, Older, Faster, Stronger is an engrossing narrative sure to inspire women of all ages. A former overweight smoker turned marathoner, Margaret Webb runs with elite older women, follows a high-performance training plan devised by experts, and examines research that shows how endurance training can stall aging. She then tests herself against the world's best older runners at the world masters games in Torino, Italy. Millions of women have taken up running in recent decades—the first generation of women to train in great numbers. Women are qualifying for the Olympic marathon in their 50s, running 100-mile ultra marathons in their 60s, completing Ironmans in their 80s, competing for world masters records in their 90s. What are the secrets of these ageless wonders? How do they get stronger and faster long after their "athletic prime"? Is there an evolutionary reason women can maintain endurance into advanced years? Webb immerses herself in these questions as she as she trains to see just how fast she can get after 50. “Where does the running life take you? In this compulsively readable and inspiring account of her own journey to get stronger, faster and happier after 50, Margaret Webb throws herself headlong into adventure, taking us on marvelous runs with trailblazing pioneers of women's running and deep into the science of how to live strong into our 80s and 90s. Older Faster Stronger is like that motivating running buddy you want by your side, for the long run of your life.” — Kathrine Switzer, first woman to officially run the Boston Marathon and author of Marathon Woman “Facing 50, Margaret Webb wondered if she could get younger--or at least leaner, fitter, stronger, and healthier. She succeeded, thanks to a fierce will and visits with some of North America's top exercise scientists and runners. Her tale is absorbing, and the lessons she learned are useful to us all.” — Amby Burfoot, editor-at-large, Runner's World Margaret Webb is a long-distance runner, a volunteer running coach for underprivileged kids, and an author. Her features have been published in magazines and newspapers such as Sports Illustrated Women and the Globe and Mail . CHAPTER 1 SUPER-FIT ME A YEAR AGO, at age 50, I set out on a journey to run my way into a younger self. Just as Henry David Thoreau set off for the wilds of Walden Pond to enter a solitary relationship with nature and understand how to live well, I wanted to enter a deeper relationship with my body and understand how to train it well. I wanted to see if I could run faster and stronger after 50, but more than that, I wanted to enter the second act of my life in the best shape of my life, even fitter than I was as a 20-year-old varsity athlete. Being somewhat more compulsive than contemplative, I threw myself into this project as I would a race. I immersed myself in studies, picked the brains of leading researchers, and cajoled a team of experts into helping me reach peak conditioning. I also sought out mentors, athletes who have found ways to run strong and long into their 70s, 80s, and even 90s but are quite likely the least studied on the planet: the pioneers of the women's running boom. I tried to apply all that I learned to my own training and then, as the finale to my super-fit year, I tested myself on the world stage by competing in the half-marathon at the World Masters Games in Turin, Italy, to see where I stood amongst some of the fittest 50-year-old women in the world. I was not the same person at the start of that race as I was at the finish. When we run hard, we live fully in our bodies and often push ourselves beyond what we thought possible. We finish knowing more about ourselves and what we are capable of--in body, mind, spirit. And in fulfilling our potential in this world. A race expands us. In writing this book, I have been in a yearlong race with myself, and now I hardly recognize the runner or even the writer I was at the start. To borrow a line from Bob Dylan: "Ah, but I was so much older then. I'm younger than that now." But let me take you back to the beginning of my super-fit year, when I was older, at least physiologically, and invite you to join me on this yearlong journey toward a younger, fitter self. It matters not whether you are a runner or do some other physical activity, whether you are older or younger, male or female. For it is my greatest hope that some of the lessons I have learned, the inspiration I have taken from the pioneers of the women's running boom, will help and inspire you to chart your own individual path to greater wellness. Because at the end of my super-fit year, having crossed over the threshold to age 51, I can tell you that the finish line opens to a glorious beginning: the possibility of an entire second ac