Chicago and New York Marathons from
2001 to 2016 found that, on average,
elite marathon times began to decline
after competitors reached age 35.
James Smoliga, a physiology professor
at High Point University in North
Carolina and one of the co-authors of
the study, said the decline is due to
both physiological and cultural factors
and, as in all things, there is bound to
be individual variation.
Although the number of muscle
fibres people have decreases with age,
that typically doesn’t start happening
until after people turn 50. Smoliga said
there are a number of reasons why there
may be declines in performance before
then, including that people in their late
30s and early 40s are satisfied with the
success they’ve already achieved, feel
burned out, are struggling with injuries
or have other life commitments that
prevent them from training as much as
they did when they were younger.
If national-level athletes are healthy,
hungry to keep competing and have
family or sponsorship structures that
allow them to keep training full time
into their 40s, Smoliga said they will
likely fare better than the average age-
group winners he and his colleagues
looked at in their study.
That’s exactly DuChene’s situation.
“ The drive to compete and to run
is definitely still within me and that
hasn’t changed much or at all,” she says.
Over nearly two decades of training
and racing, DuChene has learned to
balance work, family and running.
Today the marathoner works about
one day a week as a registered dieti-
cian and is supported by her husband
and three children as she continues to
chase her running dreams. Much of her
training is done on her own during the
day while her kids are at school, but shealso makes occasional trips from her
home in Brantford, Ont., to train with
coach Scott-Thomas and the Speed
River Track and Field Club in Guelph.
DuChene believes she’s been able to
perform so well at a later age because
she hasn’t spent her whole life running
hard. She played hockey in college and
started running afterward to stay fit.
She also took three complete physical
and mental breaks from high-level
training when she gave birth to her
three children.
“You definitely have to have balance.
When you’re putting everything into
one sport or one career and that’s your
entire focus, that can be dangerous,”
DuChene said. “Having a family and a
career aside from my running career is
what has allowed me to be successful
in my running.”
DuChene is not the only Canadian
marathoner who could find herself onABOVE Reid Coolsaet
racing the 2019
Victoria Marathon
OPPOSITE
Coolsaet at the
2019 Ottawa
Marathon after
crossing the line as
the first Canadian
male finisher44 Canadian Running September & October 2019, Volume 12, Issue 6
Matt^Cecill