OLDER, FASTER, STRONGER

Both passionate narrative quest to find running greatness after 50 and journalistic investigation into what the pioneers of the women's running boom can teach runners and non-runners alike about becoming fitter, stronger and faster, even as we age
and achieving running greatness after 50

Older, Faster, Stronger: One runner's quest to find out what the new (older) generation of super women runners can teach us about living younger older and achieving running greatness after 50 Millions of women have taken up running in the past two decades — often well into their 30s and 40s — becoming the first generation of women to train intensely in massive numbers. And they are sticking with it, transforming themselves into healthy, confident, driven and often ageless fountains of energy. In turn, they are transforming the sport into something that women do and do pretty darn well. Women are qualifying for the Olympic marathon in their 50s, running 100-mile ultra marathons in their 60s, completing Ironmans in their 70s and 80s, competing fiercely for world masters records in their 90s. These women are easily the least studied athletes on the planet, yet the legacy they are creating invites a number of questions. What are the secrets of these seemingly ageless wonders? Why are they sticking with running when more men drop out? How do they manage to get stronger and faster long after their so-called athletic prime? Is there an evolutionary reason why women can maintain endurance into advanced years? What can this new older generation of women runners teach us about remaining younger, longer? Call it a midlife crisis or a radical experiment in stalling the clock on aging, but author Margaret Webb will immerse herself in all of these questions as she trains to see just how fast she can get after 50. A former, overweight smoker turned marathoner, she will work out with elite older women runners to share their story (and find out their training secrets), follow a high-performance training plan devised by a team of experts (in order to train smarter, rather than harder) and investigate research that shows endurance training can dramatically stall aging (while pressing the researchers for training tips). She will then test herself against the world's best older runners at the World Masters Games in Torino, Italy in August 2013. Older, Faster, Stronger is both passionate narrative quest to find running greatness after 50 and journalistic investigation into what the pioneers of the women's running boom can teach runners and non runners alike about becoming fitter, stronger and faster, even as we age. Margaret Webb is an avid long-distance runner, a volunteer running coach for underprivileged kids and award-winning author and screenwriter. Her first nonfiction book, Apples to Oysters: A Food Lover's Tour of Canadian Farms, was published by Penguin Canada (2008) to critical acclaim, winning a national culinary award. She won a Disney Studios screenwriting fellowship and her most recent screenplay, Margarita, earned audience favorite awards in Paris and Toronto film festivals. Her articles have been published in leading magazines and newspapers in Canada and, prior to embarking on a freelance career, she held senior editorial posts at several national and city magazines. She lives in Toronto and teaches magazine writing part time at Ryerson University.