What is Fit After 50?

Helping you to find inspiration

A personal note from me, and what Fit After 50 is about.. Updated January 2018

The idea for the site developed over the last 3-4 years and in November 2016 we were able to launch the website, with a few articles and other content I had written over the summer.

I’m one of a group of people I know who continue to devote hours each week to activities and challenges despite the advancing years, continually balancing family, work, friends and enjoying life. We have all picked a goal of some sort for each year and that has kept us focussed and we then travelled on our own personal journey towards it.

The reasons for we do this are varied, and are different and very personal for each one of us. 

• Just taking part may be enough, the journey to get there is actually the goal itself
• Picking an event and finishing.. time irrelevant, but again the journey and the goal is to be able to say "I've done a 5k run, an open water swim, played 18 holes of golf"
• Competing again - the adrenaline rush, pushing yourself to the limit, battling to be as close to the front as you can be 

When I meet up with one of the group, sometimes as regular training partners, sometimes months apart, there is always a healthy conversation about kit, food, books, professional sports, friends, family, trends, technology. With the variety of things we do and the places we go, we invariably have tried different things and we can always provide our own reviews, offer advice, thoughts, successes, failures and opinions.

Over the course of 2017, I have been lucky that friends have written their journeys for us, and I have also been able to get a couple of new people to write for us as well. I have found that as I talk and socialise with more people and my network has slowly expanded, I discover people and inspiration in more and more places and it takes more and more forms. Often the greatest challenges are getting started, managing through illness or difficult life situations, and I hope I can persuade more people to share their remarkable stories with us.

For the website itself, I am aiming to being the group experience and community together, supporting, informing, learning and living.

For events or challenges, we'll always be saying “What next?"
And when one of us has picked out the grand challenge, the follow up question from the group is nearly always.. “Whats that then?"
Once you get past the big name races and adventures, there are a multitude of organisers and events that could easily pass you by, as the search options and amount of information is so vast. We are also aiming to bring together information and stories about some of these events.

And finally, I would love it if you would like to help us, contribute and be part of this.
If you'd like to write for us, share a review or help in any way, please contact us: info@fitafter50.co.uk

As for me.. I'll keep going..

The hours of dedication, training runs, core sessions, rides, swims, weights, continue to provide a mix of emotions, feelings, frustrations, highs and lows, aches, pains, personal bests, spectacular blow ups and failures.

But they are never boring... Always reminding me I'm alive, I CAN do this and the challenge I have set will be met head on. 

I know I'm unlikely to win, but I'll be at the start, and I'll almost certainly finish and I’m sure there will be new challenges, new ways to keep fit, new races to train for, new experiences to cherish and memories to bank.