For the Ages
Our September Athletes of the Month, Noah and Liam Klug, represent the intergenerational make-up of the Platte River Fitness Series. We can easily move between featured athletes in their 80’s to those in middle school. This inherent feature of road racing brings benefits that research and science are beginning to understand. For the PRFS it is also intentional. Kids can do a 5K and an adult can do a Mile. Either direction, they commingle and learn from each other. Even more, they form a true community.
In a review of the research on intergenerational physical activity published by the National Library of Medicine, both ends of the age spectrum receive a high return on their energy investment. The highest predictor of longevity is social connection, and our races are both competitive and social. Experts in geriatrics list social interaction as “among the primary goals to be achieved” for the older generation. Road races, along with other formats, have true potential to foster physical activity AND social interaction, a life-affirming combination. They provide both physical and social benefits for younger and older athletes. The research shows that events/programs like those offered in the PRFS may, while offering all of the benefits of physical activity, stimulate cognitive abilities in older adults and may aid in children’s maturation. Activities like running or walking alongside someone many decades your senior positively impacts the social and emotional development and motor control in kids with studies showing a lasting effect. When the kids run the road with us, they learn a truer perspective of “old,” which can help reframe the cultural message that old people are feeble and of little value. For those from the “grand generation,” intergenerational encounters keep our minds sharper and our attitudes brighter and makes it more likely that we keep moving.
Shared physical activity between kids and parents and kids and grandparents have special benefits. (For all the grandparents out there, the study review found that grandparents play a “crucial role” in helping kids normalize physical activity and interactions between the generations.) We didn’t need a research study to tell us that this is true, but it is nice to see confirmation of what we already know. Kids grow into an active lifestyle, learn how to manage the challenges of making time every day to move, and learn self-regulation and discipline. When we are sweating together, struggling for air and for the will to keep going, everyone learns perseverance and how to call forth their unique kind of grit. In every race endeavor, young and old are in the same living classroom. The bell rings when the race begins.
We live in a time, maybe more than any time before, where we are being identified, categorized, classified, commodified, sorted, and tabulated by the generation we were born into. Don’t get me wrong, I find the unique features of the generations very compelling and that their shared histories do matter. They can also be confining and minimizing. Since paradox is part of being human and two things can be true, I think it also matters that we not relax into these definitions and allow them to pigeonhole us nor define relationships that have the potential to sweeten our lives. Sharing time on the road with the kids keeps us young. Sharing time on the road with the old helps them grow. In both directions, the relationships make us wise.
I started the PRFS from the only place I knew how. From my values and my lived experience. One credo we’ve had from the jump is “all ages and abilities.” True community, that thing we all need and hunger for, is formed on a foundation of belonging. I am competitive by nature. I am well aware that there are fancier, flashier events, more competitive events out there. You know, serious races. I’ve run them and absolutely invite others to do the same. There is an intensity to them that can be exhilarating. What they are not always is welcomingly social. Athletes get very self-focused and the conversations before and after are sparse. My favorite races were not those. They were the small town, home-grown events that feel more like a family gathering than a competition. My drive to run well, to strive for good times and maybe even medal wasn’t diminished by the friendly atmosphere. They were fostered by it. Most importantly, I kept showing up because I kept wanting to be around the people.
I often get asked about our races and our series. I sometimes have to fight my own competitive nature to give the truest answer. We call them races but what they are in reality are opportunities. They are opportunities to create and achieve a goal. They are opportunities to move our bodies, something foundational to our health. They are opportunities to try at something, get better at something, and maybe even modestly fail at something. They are places to learn. Races are places to give back to a cause, support something outside and beyond our own interests. They are places to learn to face challenge, to overcome adversity, places to struggle and keep going. They are places to grow. They are places to teach. As their intergenerational makeup shows, they are, in the end, places where community, connection and belonging are found. Young and old, old and young and everyone running in between. Together, all ages and all abilities.