True to my SELF: Dara Torres and me

Lucy Danziger, True to my SELF, SELF Magazine
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Here we are, old together. Actually I am old. She, somehow, at 41, is young. How? I have read her reports about having more than one coach (in fact a head coach, like a general contractor, a speed coach, a strength coach), plus two masseuses and two stretch people, a nanny, and various family and friends to support her. And you know what? I need to grow my entourage! I have a coach, but unfortunately can't afford all those other people, and only get the most occasional massage, when I am too stiff to move or sleep. But on the whole I have a village around me of supporters who help me stay motivated and happy and healthy and balanced. And my goal isn't to try to make some kind of Olympic team, like Dara, but to stave off the aging process and try to stay young and fit for as long as humanly possible. This photo, of me and Dara, was taken at the Miami South Beach Triathlon last April, where she was doing the swim leg and I was doing the whole thing. I was stunned at how gorgeous and slender and young she looked, since I hadn't seen her in years, since before she became a mom.

She told me that she is getting faster, fitter, and stronger and that at the age of 40 she had broken her own record in the 50-meter freestyle, a record that she had set some seven years earlier, at the age of 33. This so resonated with me. Not the record part or the world-class athlete piece, but the idea that you can get fitter and faster as you get older. Most people give up, as age and birthdays are some kind of external reminder we are supposed to sit around and turn into a puddle, slow down and get creaky and fragile and eventually, in our waning years, just let the grim reaper come and find us. Not me. I read in the Times that many athletes find with more training and more pushing themselves, they can cut times down to much faster than they were even in their 20s. I for one have seen this happen. My running pace has dropped by about 2 minutes a mile, from 9:20 to about 7:25, and my bike pace keeps going up, about 15 to 20 percent in the past three years, from 18 mph on average for a race to about 22. I have been training harder and smarter but mostly it's not about the coaches or the bikes or the entourage. It's all about the motivation.

What people don't know about Dara is she had years when her motivation waned. She once told me she quit swimming for years because she was burnt out and bored. She would only swim a stroke, she said, if she fell into the pool and had to get to the side to get out. Then one day, out of the blue, it hit her that she wanted to get back into it. She called her mom and told her she would start up again and her mother was incredulous. She thought her daughter was done. So in the announcing about Dara and her years and her medals one detail has fallen by the wayside: That in the past seven Olympiads she has only swum in five. She just wasn't into it for the others. It had nothing to do with the baby or the body, it was the brain. She didn't feel it. Now, her motivation is back and so is her body. It always starts upstairs, in the think center. Once you set your mind to do something you can make it happen. I know I will age eventually but for now, the goal is to get faster. Fitter, healthier, too. I'll keep you posted about how it's all going. Meanwhile, I'm rooting for the older athletes. Someday I'll feel like one.

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