Jane Hodgson at the Boston Marathon.
Jane Hodgson, a Yorkshire-born, petite and tattooed yoga instructor, ran her first marathon in 1986. Her motivation: To spite her mother-in-law, who said she couldn't do it. Hodgson finished that marathon, in Toronto, with her husband biking beside her and her kids waiting at the Varsity Stadium finish line with their ever-doubting grandmother. "That was great motivation," she quips.
Soon after, she was bitten by the marathon bug, partly because it was cheap ("All you need is a good pair of shoes and, for women, a good bra") and gave the young mom time alone with her thoughts. In the intervening 31 years, she's run 99 more, in Boston, Prague and Oman, to mention just a few. She'll sign up for a marathon if she can combine it with a vacation, if a friend needs a running buddy or just because she wants to see a new course. Her personal-best time was three hours and 40 minutes (hungover, on her 47th birthday), and her current average is about four-and-a-half hours.
This month, at age 68, Hodgson will wear bib number 100 in the GoodLife Fitness Toronto Marathon as she celebrates her 100th 42.2-kilometre race in her home town of Toronto. And she's not slowing down, either: She's got plans for another six or seven marathons this year alone.
It's not the races, so much as the training with younger runners, that keeps Hodgson feeling spry. She shared some of her insights into running and aging with The Globe.
Has your approach to marathon training changed over the years?
I actually run fewer days a week, and I run fewer miles a week now, but they're miles with a purpose. I do either speed work or hills or pacing, so I'm not just going out and running for long distances and a long time every day. I also do a lot more cross-training for strength, and I do yoga, which I find a nice, gentle, counteraction. It makes you strong and gives you mental focus, which is important because there's a lot of mental self-bullying that goes on in the last five miles of a marathon.
Have you had to alter your training to accommodate injuries or general wear and tear?
I've never had any injuries from running, but I let myself rest more now than I used to. I don't know if it's runners only, or runners especially, but they're very loath to rest. They feel they're missing out on the training if they rest. But you have to rest and recuperate, because otherwise you'll be training on an injured body, and you won't be training efficiently. For 20-plus years I ran every day, but not anymore.
Why does running appeal to you as your sport of choice?
It works for me: for my physical and mental health. It's cheaper than a divorce lawyer, and it keeps me from cleaning the bathroom or the oven. And it keeps me honest, in terms of what I eat. But now I really appreciate the community, the social side of it: the people that you meet through running, the friendships that you make, the bonding. I am always the oldest person in the group, and I think it's important, as you age, to not just mix with people of your own age. I like to keep connected with younger people and the future as they see it.
When were you at your peak as a runner?
My best running years were immediately post-menopause. I felt like I was getting my body back, and what I did was effective again, and what I ate was working for me again. My worst years were when I was going through menopause. When you go through menopause, it's like going through a pregnancy: You just have to surrender your body to those things that are happening to it and know that you'll come out of it at the end and, hopefully, get back to normal.
What kind of changes to your routine do you think you'll have to make in the coming years?
I'll just wait and see how it pans out, but I imagine that my speed will become slower, and that's okay, that's the normal curve for most people as they get older. The beauty of starting running later in life, as I did, is that you're never chasing that time you had in your teenage years or your early 20s, because you never had it.
Do you think you'll ever have to retire from running?
Not unless I'm physically incapable of doing it. You only get one body, and you can't abuse it. If it's not the right thing to do, I'll do something else.