What Margaret Webb’s “Older, Faster, Stronger” Can Teach All Runners

Examiner—January 30, 2015

Running literature is chock-full of training manuals for master’s endurance athletes. In Older, Faster, Stronger: What Women Runners Can Teach Us All About Living Younger, Longer, author Margaret Webb takes the reader on a year-long odyssey, at age 50, to test her body’s physical limits. What emerges is not only a fascinating personal tale, but also an inspiring look into the possibilities of running well into one’s glory years.

From the surface, Webb’s story is a familiar saga for adults seeking to kick the “midlife malaise.” Throughout the journey, Webb is introspective and upfront on the motivations that pushed her to improve her aerobic fitness capacity. Recounting her years as an overweight smoker, her bouts with depression and stress brought on by career demands, we see that like many new runners to the sport, Webb was seeking a healthy outlet to counter some of the harmful habits that are compounded in our informational society.
“One of the things I have loved most about running is that it has always been my pure place, full of positive joy and free of stress, anxieties, and judgment,” says Webb.

Published in October 2014 by Rodale Books, Older, Faster, Stronger is a highly recommended read for both serious and recreational endurance athletes. Writing in Women’s Voices for Change, Varsha Parasram, a practicing physical therapist at Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, says of the book: “Webb’s story is a worthwhile guidebook for (a) anyone interested in taking up running, (b) runners who want more out of their run, and (c), perhaps more important—women runners who want more out of themselves.”

Read the full story at examiner.com.