RESEARCH--Impressive New Study Offers Best Evidence Yet For High-Fitness Lifestyle

As fitness increases, mortality risk decreases.
The benefit does not appear to "bottom out"
at any point. More fitness is better.

An impressive new study from the Cleveland Clinic provides the best evidence yet for a high-fitness lifestyle. It is considered more authoritative than other similar studies linking exercise and reduced mortality because it is based on actual treadmill-testing data and not questionnaires that ask, "How much do you exercise?

The study is also unique for its focus on older subjects, including those at the extreme high end of cardiovascular fitness (termed “elites”). Researchers concluded that there is no upper limit to the benefits of fitness, and that high-level fitness is particularly beneficial to those 70 and older.

The study is open-access, meaning you can read it free here:

Below, LifetimeRunning.net briefly summarizes several of the key points.

*** The study looked at 122,000 patients who had a treadmill stress test at the Cleveland Clinic. They were divided into five fitness groups based on their treadmill results: low, average, above average, high, and elite (above the 97.6th percentile). Subjects were followed for the next 8.4 years, with 13,637 deaths during that time.

*** Subjects in the highest (“elite”) fitness quintile had an 80 percent lower risk of mortality than those in the lowest fitness quintile.

*** Elite subjects had a 23 percent lower mortality risk than even those in the high-fit group.

*** “Importantly, there was no upper limit of benefit of increased aerobic fitness.”

*** “There was no evidence to suggest relative harm associated with extreme levels of fitness.”

*** “Achieving and maintaining very high levels of aerobic fitness may be particularly important in patients older than 70 and those with hypertension.”

PROFILE--Bruce Fordyce has won the Comrades Marathon an incredible 9 times

Bruce Fordyce, 62, is the most well-known runner in South Africa, having won that country's internationally famous Comrades Marathon (54 miles) eight years in a row and nine times overall. During that period, Fordyce could not compete internationally, due to South Africa's apartheid policies--which he actively campaigned against. Eventually, running and track and field were among the first sports to welcome participation by black South Africans.  

Career/profession? I have had a number of careers including being a full time runner for about a decade. But I was first an archaeologist specializing in early man and Bushman ( San ) rock art. I lectured and was a research officer at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, for a few years. I was then a writer for a few publications, a motivational speaker, and for 7 years I was CEO of a sports development program for disadvantaged sports people. Most recently I am CEO

PROFILE--Frank Handelman has been running for 57 years

Frank Handelman, a criminal defense attorney with a competitive edge, is a lifelong runner. He uses the same winning techniques competing on the road and track and in the courtroom, and has had great success at both. Handelman was also a member of the legendary New York Pioneer Club and trained with Ed Levy and Joe Yancey, its founders.

Started running/years running? I have been running for 57 years. I began in the fall of 1961, my junior year in high school in Cleveland, Ohio.

Why did you start running? I knew I was fast running on Little League teams. Believe me, it was my only baseball skill. In my junior year I went out for the cross country team. After a few weeks of training, I began to move up from the back of the pack and by the end of the season was second on the team.  I found I loved

PROFILE--Woody Harrell has been running for 50+ years

Blessing of the Athletes,
pre-Boston 2014

(10-18) Woody Harrell fell in love with running during summers on the beaches of North Carolina’s Outer Banks. However, a general lack of natural speed meant no coach, high school or college, would ever look at him as any sort of track prospect.  They should have. In 1975, he ran a 2:36:27 at Boston at age 28. Harrell identifies himself as a runner before anything else. He lives in Corinth, MS.

Started running: June 1, 1964. I’m 71 (DOB 7-47) 

Why did you start running?  My running career started the day I read an article in the June 1, 1964, issue of Sports Illustrated about American expatriate Buddy Edelen, who had run the first- and third-fastest marathons of all time, and had just returned from England to win the US Olympic marathon trial at Yonkers, New York, by over 20 minutes.

I was fascinated! I was amazed. I was inspired! So much so, I put on my tennis shoes and headed out the door to run five miles for the first time in my life. In fact, to run further than a mile for the first time ever…

When I made the half-way turn-around at the extreme edge of my hometown, both the excitement and the adrenaline were long gone; and by the time I got back home, I was dehydrated, physically spent, and had two feet resembling raw meat, with blisters on top of blisters. I collapsed into bed and didn’t try to crawl out again until it was time to go back to school on Monday. But in spite of the experience, the running bug had bitten…

In grad school (sandwiched around a stint in the army), I encountered a group of ex-collegian runners looking to extend their running careers in pursuit of the ’72 Olympic marathon trials. Encouraged by their support, and more importantly

PROFILE--Dave McGillivray has been running for 52 years

 

It's hard to imagine anyone Boston stronger
or more resilient than McGillivray.

(10-18) Friday morning, Boston Marathon race-director and uber-endurance and charity runner Dave McGillivray will undergo open-heart surgery. Please join us in wishing him well. We fully expect to see him back to his usual tricks in Hopkinton and Boston next April.

McGillivray is widely known for his stamina, compassion, and organizational skills, but we believe his most admirable trait is his candor. Dave doesn't duck questions; he answers fully and truthfully. This has become particularly clear in recent years as he has discussed his personal health challenges.

Career/profession? I am the founder and owner of DMSE Sports, Inc. (38 years - event management company and have directed or consulted on over 1,100 events), and I am the Race Director of the BAA Boston Marathon (have been with the BAA for over 31 years).

When did you start running and WHY? Like most active young boys, I always “ran around” but started to “run” seriously and competitively at age 12. Why? Because I was

RESEARCH--A New Look At Age Graded Performances

Ed Whitlock ran a 2:54 marathon at age 73,
and a 3:56 at 85.

Many Lifetime Runners are accustomed to evaluating their race times with the widely-used and excellent World Masters Association age-graded system. There are many versions of this calculator around the web, and they are sometimes included in computerized road-race results.

There is another less-well-known system, created by Ray Fair, a retired Yale University economist who has run 39 of 41 New Haven 20K road races, missing the event only when ill or injured.  Fair, 75, recently updated his system--an update covered by the New York Times.  An abstract of his new paper, published by The Review of Economics and Statistics,  is available here.

The Fair system differs little from the WMA calculator--it’s just a matter of how deep

PROFILE--Debbie Zockoll has finished 42 St. George Marathons in a row

(10-18) Debbie Zockoll, 62, holds the unofficial world record for consecutive finishes in the same annual marathon. She has completed the St. George (Utah) Marathon 42 times in a row, the most recent three days ago when she finished in 4:17:24. "Oh, what a day! It was filled with so much happiness and emotion," she emailed LifetimeRunning. "I have so much to be thankful for, and I am already looking forward to next year."

A wife, mother, grandmother, former teacher, current hiking guide, and 278-time marathon finisher, Zockoll had her third cancer surgery just six weeks before this year's St. George Marathon. [The following interview was conducted prior to her most-recent St. George finish.]

Career-profession? I taught first grade for 30 years. I currently work as a hike guide for a fitness spa 5 days a week. I usually get up at 3:30 a.m. for a