If you think that starting to run after 40 is not possible, think again. Many people start running at 40 and it is normally perfectly safe to do so. 

I started Running at 40 but didn’t become “a runner” until 45. As I have expressed elsewhere on this website, I was put off running for life at school. It was something we were forced to do and I hated it. After I left, apart from one brief and disastrous attempt, I didn’t lace up the trainers until I was 40.

At that point, I decided to “do something about my lack of exercise” and “get fit” as many people do at that age.

I had several false starts with injuries and motivation between 40 and 45. It was only on reaching the mid point of this particular decade of my life that I started to take it seriously. 

Like so many that start running at 40, I wish I had made the change sooner. Running can be life-changing for your mental and physical well-being and age is no reason to miss out on reaping those benefits.

Purely based on my own personal experience, here are the six top things you should know about starting to run after 40.

I love this quote. If you are in your forties you are still relatively young. Here in the U.K., the average life expectancy is 79.5 for men and 83.0 for women.

Therefore if you are 40 you can reasonably expect to see a few more decades yet! Does this mean you can lace up, head out of the door and smash a sub 20 5k? No, of course, it doesn’t, but you can start a running programme to build speed and endurance over time that will keep you running, hopefully, injury-free, way into later life.

If you have never been a runner before and start running at 40, the C25K is the way to go.

You will follow a programme designed to get you from sedentary to running continuously for 35 minutes in about 8 weeks. After this, you can move on to longer distances such as the 10k, half or a marathon.

Even if you are well beyond 40, a 2019 article in The Washington Post reports several studies where starting exercising for 30 minutes a day can reduce mortality by up to 30%, even if you have been sedentary up to that point.

In my personal opinion running just for the sake of “getting a bit of exercise” can get boring. You will most likely have a set route or two that you use and you run because it’s good for you.

If you pick a challenge you will learn to love running. The challenge may be a reasonably short term one like completing 5k for the first time, completing a specific monthly distance, or it may be a much longer-term goal such as completing an ultra marathon.

Starting to run after 40 does not remove any of these challenges from you. Unless there is a physical reason, you can aim for almost any goal and still achieve it.

For you, maybe a 5k is your Everest. The sense of achievement you will feel when you finally reach the summit will surpass anything you have felt before. So much so, I practically guarantee you will be looking for the next challenge to face.

If your goals are more endurance orientated just remember that you are no longer 25 years old and although you can achieve whatever you set your mind to, you will need to ensure you are doing it safely to avoid injuries.

Whatever level you are at, picking a challenge will see you get so much more from running than simply running because you want to lose weight.  Giving the run in itself that purpose will make a big difference to your commitment to the sport.

As already mentioned, you are not 25 years old anymore. That’s fine, in fact for most parts of life it’s a good thing!

Starting to undertake a high impact activity like running does take a toll on your body. It’s just a fact.

Each stride, when you land, exerts a force of 1.5 to 3 times your body weight. This means runners can be prone to injury if they don’t look after themselves. There are a number of things you should be doing to keep you on your feet,  in short they include:

Ensure you have the correct running shoes

Build your mileage at a slow and steady pace

Complete a dynamic warm up before sessions

Stretch after each run 

Following these few basic rules goes a long way to ensure your risk of injury is minimised.

When you undertake any new exercise activity your body will need time to recover between workouts. This is especially true of running, due to the high impact nature of the sport. If you start running at 40 it means your body will not recover as quickly as it did when you were younger.

If you follow the few rules mentioned above they will reduce the injury risk, but if you are not allowing your body to recover then the cumulative stress could eventually lead to an overuse injury.

It is therefore imperative that you have days of complete rest to allow the recovery process to work. 

To help you become a better runner it is advised that you perform other training activities between running workouts. These will include exercises to strengthen your core and glutes and low impact sessions such as yoga or swimming.

However, having days of total rest are an important part of your training regime. If you follow the C25K plan you will probably be running 3 days per week to start off with. You should allow your body to rest on the other days so it can get acclimatised.

As you become more experienced you will add more running days, but as you are a late starter you should always include some complete downtime for the body to rest and recover. 

You are not likely to continue and grow as a runner if you do not enjoy it. It’s just a simple fact of life that we tend to be good at the things we enjoy.

One of the fastest methods of dampening the enjoyment of the sport is to start to compare yourself to others. The truth is that running is much like golf. Your biggest competitor is yourself. 

The runner winning Parkrun every Saturday who is five years older than you are, you do not know anything about their circumstances. It could be that 5k is their speciality and that’s all they train for. They may have been a life long runner and you are starting running after 40.

The point is, if you compare your 5k time to that specialist without understanding the variables involved in making up the difference, you could get demotivated quite quickly.

The point is, worry about you. Set your own goals and as you pass each one, move them forward. This is a much better way of staying motivated and enjoying your running than constantly looking at what others are doing.

“If you run, you are a runner”. Fast or slow, C25K or training for an ultra marathon. Starting running after 40 will mean you have joined a welcoming and supportive community.

You may prefer to run alone or you may like to run with a group of friends. Whichever is your preference, there will be at least the opportunity to meet new people, whether at your local club, when attending events, or just out on the trails with a polite nod of the head.

If you are a social media user there are plenty of communities on Twitter, Facebook and Reddit to discuss your new sporting passion. Don’t forget to post the post-race selfies on Instagram.

Starting running after 40 is not difficult for most people. The challenge it presents and the speed of development will be different for every individual.

If you’re even considering it, and if you have read this far, you likely are, then just give it a try. You will almost certainly enjoy the challenge.