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You Don’t Have to Be Young to Run

(Jeremy Lapak/Unsplash)

Most of us have felt it at some point in our life. The wind streaming past our cheek, the feeling of freedom, the adrenaline that accompanied our headlong rush into the speed of the race. It might have happened when we were four or five, as we screamed in delight as we ran across our lawn, chased by a parent. It might have been at age 18, as I experienced when I ran two miles a day. The experience of running was glorious for many of us, even though it was too often cut short by the duties and complexities of life.

When one works from morning till night and drives home to the duties of family life, it’s quite hard to find the time or desire to put on our running shoes, drive to our running spot, run until we’re exhaustifried, drive home, take a shower (one hopes) and then, perhaps, relax.

Wally Johns would disagree. He’s 71 years old, and he runs three times a week, swims twice a week, and bikes three times a week. He’s training for his next 26.2-mile marathon in Chicago in October, 2021.

Wally has been running for 49 years when he got out of the Navy at age 22. That’s not as long ago as 490 BC when the Greek soldier Pheidippides ran from the Battle of Marathon to Athens to report their victory over the Persians. But it’s still a respectable amount of time, considering the fact that he’s been running ever since.

When he was 26, he impressed his girlfriend, Janet, and astounded her father when he ran seven miles to her house, took a shower, and then escorted her out on a date. Janet’s father watched them go and murmured something like, “Who is this guy?”

Wally Johns and his daughter Diana competing in a sprint triathlon in Newport Beach, California in 2004. Courtesy of Wally Johns)

I suppose that if Wally had heard him, he might have grinned and flung an answer over his shoulder that he was just a guy who loved to run. And love to run, he does.

His first formal competition was in 1978, at the Chicago Distance Classic, a 20-kilometer run through downtown. Thousands attended. Wally was 28 years old, and he was hooked. His first triathlon was in 1984, and he discovered that competitively swimming, biking, and running were things that he could do—and do well.

Over the years, he’s run in seven Ironman triathlons. One has to be in shape for those, but Wally has proven, hands-down, that you don’t have to be young to swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles, and then run 26.2 miles, in that order, all in less than a day. He ran his last Ironman in 2009 when he was 59 years old.

Never a quitter, he continued running the Ironman 70.3, also known as the Half Ironman, consisting of a 1.2-mile swim, a 56-mile bike ride, and a 13.1-mile run. He won first place in his age group (65 to 69 at the time) in 2015 in the 70.3 Arizona race. He’s won his age group in many local races and qualified to race in the Ironman 70.3 world championship in 2015 in Australia. He also qualified for the International Triathlon Union’s “Sprint World Championship” in 2020 in Edmonton, Canada.

Wally Johns with his daughters Maryann and Diana at the Hippoty Hop Half Marathon and 10K Run in Peoria, Arizona, Easter week, 2021. (Courtesy of Wally Johns)

Wally is a perfect example of a person who defeated the “I’m tired after sitting at my desk all day, so, sorry, I can’t run today” syndrome. We won’t discuss my status in that regard. Wally had no time for such non-marathony excuses, even though he spent an entire career as a financial analyst, first for Motorola and then for ON Semiconductor.

After peering at numbers all day, he would run. Now retired and living in Arizona, he gets up at 4 a.m. and runs before Arizona’s summer heat takes hold. He’s cheered on by his wife, Janet, also a native of Chicago. When I asked Wally how Janet, who is also active in sports, felt about the time he spent in competition, he passed on her vote of confidence:

I’m proud of Wally doing seven Ironmans. He’s a role model to our daughters to live a healthy lifestyle. Also, it’s better than sitting in a bar.

One really can’t argue with that. How many financial analysts have raised two daughters to compete with their father in triathlons? Wally is training with his 36-year-old daughter, Maryann, to run together in the October marathon in Chicago. He and his eldest daughter, Diana, have also run in a variety of triathlons and running races.

Triathlons haven’t always been easy for Wally. He’s had two foot surgeries and three knee surgeries. But he keeps going. I asked him why, and he said:

First of all, I do it because I like it. I like staying in shape. When we were in Acadia National Park in 2021, I climbed up Beehive, which is a fairly tough hike. You’re pulling yourself up on rungs embedded in the rocks … It’s hard to push yourself if you don’t like it.

I asked him about getting in the fabled “runner’s zone,” and he replied:

The most vivid memory I have of one of those is going for a run in the forest reserves of Chicago. It was snowing, and I was running on the path. I remember running out. And when I was coming back, mine were the only footprints in the snow. I was like, “It was an easy 10 -mile run!” It was like it was nothing. It was totally quiet in the snow.

When I was a teenager, I watched the 1962 movie “The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner” with Tom Courtenay. I thought perhaps that Wally might have found his running a rather isolated activity, but he stated that his years of running have given him tremendous benefits.

He meets people all the time and belongs to a variety of sports clubs. He’s traveled extensively, competing across the country. He’s healthy, he’s fit, and his confidence that he can be active is solid. He receives tremendous enjoyment from swimming, biking, and running.

Wally Johns is an enduring reminder to Those Who are Sedentary (I won’t mention me) that you don’t have to be young to run.

Peter Falkenberg Brown is a writer, author, and public speaker. One of his recent books is titled “Waking Up Dead and Confused Is a Terrible Thing: Stories of Love, Life, Death, and Redemption.” He hosts a video and podcast channel called “The FalkenBrown Show” at his website peterfalkenbergbrown.com

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A Love of Learning The Great Outdoors

Outside Changes Everything

(Ben White/Unslpash)

My friend Ann, a veteran mother of four, has one piece of parenting advice she passes out consistently to frazzled new parents, particularly if they happen to have a fussy baby: “Get out of the house. Put that baby in a stroller and get outside. Outside changes everything.” She’s right.

Outside really does change everything, especially in today’s world when, by some calculations, up to 90 percent of our lives now happen inside. And each year we spend more than 1,000 hours in front of a screen. It’s an insidious change from the way people traditionally lived their lives, and it’s not for the better. Happily, some folks are beginning to notice.

In his 2005 international bestseller “Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder,” Richard Louv discusses the importance of being outside and interacting with our natural world. “Now more than ever, we need nature as a balancing agent,” he says. Turns out the benefits are myriad, but here’s my top five.

Improve Mental Health

With so much anger, anxiety, and stress happening indoors, simply stepping outside can be an easy antidote. While it isn’t guaranteed to cure all your problems, breathing fresh air and observing nature has definite mental health benefits.

Follow the science: Sunshine is a natural mood-lifter because it boosts the body’s serotonin levels. Serotonin helps stabilize moods and keeps people calm and focused. Outdoor time also decreases hyperactivity in children. As Louv said, “The woods were my Ritalin. Nature calmed me, focused me, and yet excited my senses.”

Follow the logic: Outdoors, children can run and yell, jump and climb; it’s an easy, healthy, all-natural way to burn off excess energy, so much so that children diagnosed with ADHD who spend more time outdoors tend to have milder symptoms.

(Annie Spratt/Unsplash)

Improve Physical Health

It’s important to prioritize the time we spend outdoors. “Time in nature is not leisure time; it’s an essential investment in our children’s health (and also, by the way, in our own)” Louv says. Perhaps that’s because there’s just something about being outside that naturally encourages people to be active.

My plan to relax on the front porch turned into an evening weeding the flower bed—working up a sweat and pulling a sizeable pile of weeds. Turns out being physically tired helped me fall asleep more quickly and sleep better throughout the night.

But the health benefits of being outside don’t stop there.

Sunshine (again!) helps rev up the vitamin D levels, which are critical for a healthy functioning immune system. Plus, those same vitamin D levels also build strong bones and muscles. Outdoor exercise—particularly weight-bearing exercise such as biking, walking, hiking, or climbing—increases strength and endurance even more. Dealing with the changing terrain of the natural landscape improves balance.

There are other, more unexpected health benefits of being outdoors. Optometrists know our eyes aren’t made for screens, and excess time staring at tablets, phones, and computers leads to dry eye and eye strain. Nature provides ample opportunities to exercise our farsighted muscles and build depth perception as we look at things 20 feet or 200 feet or even 2,000 feet away.

Build Confidence

Beyond the mental and physical benefit of being outside, a life spent with nature changes us in many positive ways, perhaps because the things we accomplish outdoors are real—not virtual—and so are the rewards.

Encountering a bear or a mountain lion on the trail and living to tell the tale is about as real and confidence-building as it gets. As Louv says, “The pleasure of being alive is brought into sharper focus when you need to pay attention to stay alive.”

(Will Stewart/Unsplash)

But wild adventures don’t have to be life and death to be meaningful. Walking the length of a log without falling off is its own triumph. Put that log 2, 3, or 5 feet off the ground and bump up the thrill of achievement. Try jumping across a narrow spot on a stream. Fail and you walk home with squishy wet socks and pruny toes; succeed and you walk home with dry feet and a smile on your face.

Hunting and fishing or gathering nuts, berries, or mushrooms in the woods bring their own brand of confidence. Want to grow your confidence? Grow a garden. Invest yourself in a very real way in keeping yourself (and your family) alive by planting, tending, and then gathering up your own food.

Make Social Connections

It’s not immediately obvious, but being outdoors offers social connections. Opportunities to work together on an outdoor project cultivate a spirit of cooperation. Fallen logs are too heavy to be moved on their own. One person catches the fish while another builds the fire to cook over, but both jobs are necessary.

Visit a farmer’s market and you’ll soon strike up conversations with vendors. Do this for several weeks in a row and soon you have new friends you’ll look forward to seeing … and it’s all brought to you by the great outdoors.

Promote Learning

Take it from a veteran homeschool mom—being outdoors is the ultimate educational experience. In fact, many of our best learning moments took place outside. A life outdoors promotes curiosity and the learning of new words and concepts. Being outside nurtures creativity and imagination; it encourages risk-taking and independence.

Why is the sky blue? Why are rainbow colors always lined up the same way? Why don’t earthworms have eyes? Why do hummingbirds hum? What does pileated mean? Why is the sand at the bottom of the sandbox cooler than the sand at the top? Why do flowers smell different? With so many curious, interesting things around them, kids learn without even being aware they’re learning.

(Leo Rivas/Unsplash)

Creativity and imagination take flight as leaves become boats carrying cargoes of dandelion flowers. Trees become houses with leafy roofs. A fallen log becomes a mighty train headed down the rails to adventure. Outdoors, people learn about the interconnectedness of the natural world and its inherent complexities. Fisherfolk protect the rivers, lakes, and streams that serve as homes for trout, bass, crappie, and catfish. Hunters conserve the homes where the deer, elk, bison, and antelope roam.

Working to achieve that indoors-outdoors balance, Ginny Yurich, founder of 1000 Hours Outside, and her family decided to make a conscious effort to spend more time outdoors … like 1,000 hours each year. Yurich ended up starting a movement (www.1000HoursOutside.com), promoting the benefits of spending large quantities of time outdoors. Whether you’re a city dweller or country through and through, whether you spend 1,000 hours outdoors or something less, time spent outdoors is good for the soul. Because being outside really does change everything.

Gina Prosch is a writer, home educator, life coach, and parent located in mid-Missouri. She is the author of “This Day’s Joy” and “Finding This Day’s Joy,” both of which are available at Amazon. Find her online at GinaProsch.com or TheHomeschoolWay.com. She also co-hosts The OnlySchoolers Podcast (OnlySchoolers.com).