Thankful that I’m fit and healthy enough to still run at age 60.

Thankful that my husband has taken up golf, so I no longer feel guilty about going on long runs by myself.

Congratulation on your new PR and very nice splits! The 48 min 10K is a great sign for a sub-4 in the future. I think if you can avoid a bathroom break and maybe build your endurance with more miles (peak of 40mpw seems low - but I agree you don’t need 20milers, just run more overall) you should be able to improve a lot!

To this good advice for older women athletes I’d like to add: get a DEXA scan and the bloodwork for identifying osteopenia! Our bones start to weaken as we age, especially post-menopause. A pelvic stress fracture led to my diagnosis, and the doctor told me that it was good I was a runner, for if I hadn’t been doing weight-bearing exercise for years my bones would have been in even worse shape.

I actually set my (all time) PRs at age 50, in perimenopause. This is mostly because I didn’t start running until my early 40s, but I spent several years as a kick-ass regional old lady runner, usually making podium finishes, and my half marathon PR of 1:36 at age 50 actually got me the Masters (over 40) win!

The bad news is that things went downhill after that. I’m 60 now, fully menopausal, and that fitness has drifted through my fingers like grains of sand. I did start HRT a few years back and I think that may be helping. But I’m running a half next weekend and at this point hoping to get under 2 hours.