The Long Ride: 50+ Dominated Sport

When we think of tough grueling sports that take a toll on the body, it’s normally for the young.  After all, their  bodies haven’t gone through years of wear and tear.  A contradiction to that notion, is a favorite among the senior set, says The Long Ride author Lucian Spataro.  At 55, Spataro is one of those active participants in what is called  Endurance Riding. He  says the majority of the athletes in his sport, are over 50.

It has lead him to several conclusions.  “I think the human body could do these kinds of sport and other sports until our 70’s and 80’s. And I know a lot of folks who are running  in their 70’s and 80’s.  They are still running 10K’s. I know a guy who just ran a marathon and he  is 75 years old.”

“I think our body can do this. I think is just a matter of constantly moving and ratcheting up over time, you can’t go out and run a marathon tomorrow , but you can walk a mile or two at some pace and then maybe a couple of weeks from now you might be able to jog a little bit of that, and then maybe a little bit later  you can jog a portion of that 10K’s, but you are still moving.”

Endurance riding is an internationally recognized sports based on long-distance horse races.  Switzerland based International Federation of Equestrian Sports is the governing body that oversees endurance riding.

“I think that this sport, these endurance rides, they might be a little extreme, but we have people in this endurance sport who are in their late 50’s and 60’s and predominantly most of the riders in this endurance ride sport, are in their late 40’s, 50’s and 60’s.”

Spataro is a huge advocate of activity for seniors.  “I think that you can find a sport that you can participate into your 60’s and 70’s.  Now it may not be riding, it could be swimming, or it could be bike riding, or it could be jogging, or it could be just walking. But I think that there are sports that you can do and stretching is a big part of this as well, but I think that people are reluctant to pursue, because there is a little ache and pain. But if you push through it a little bit you’ll get to the next plate and you’ll be fine. Our bodies are meant to move. If you eat properly, and you exercise properly , and you stretch you can do this for a long time.”

“If you do a little bit of walking, a little bit of running and you add a little bit of diet nutrition in there, when you see the results from just that little change, a very small step forward. It’s very positive and people really take that ball and run with it once they’ve seen that. So, the first step is to do a little bit of something. Change your diet or something. Break it down to 2000 or 2200 calories a day, cover percentages of carbohydrates and protein. And then drink 6 – 8 glasses of water every day and walk a couple of miles and they’ll see those changes they’ll we be actually very motivating. And so that’s what I talk about with folks.  It’s about  making incremental small changes.  Once people start seeing the results they take the ball and run it from there.”

Spataro wrote The Long Ride, in part to help motivate others but also about the people who helped along the way. And it’s really a “Thank you” from me to those folks who really helped me accomplish that objective and that bucket list sort of item, that I always wanted to do when I was growing up as a kid in Ohio. So, this book is really a “Thank you to them”.

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