Late Bloomers

The woman wearing #9 in that picture is Kathy Martin, she is running with people less than half her age, but she's the one setting American and world records. They are age group records and she has broken dozens of them.

The linked NY Times article is mostly about Martin, but also mentions other master runners. One of the things linking many of them is that they didn't start running as kids and continue throughout their entire lives. Some of them didn't run at all until they were adults. Some ran as kids, but were derailed by life, or the lack of Title IX.

I remind myself that there are athletes like this repeatedly. It helps when I feel that I started too late, or that I've already missed my prime. That may be true, but that doesn't mean that I can't set some records.