Rethinking when women peak. Perimenopause, race week, and a personal best
After a decade of running and a year of disciplined nutrition, I ran my strongest race despite everything that wasn’t in my control. I was on the metro, on my way to the race start, when I met this young boy of 22. We got talking. It was his first race. There was excitement in his voice, a kind of nervous anticipation that felt familiar. He spoke about the distance, the crowd, the uncertainty of how it would go. I remembered that version of myself. Then, almost in passing, I mentioned my age. There was a brief pause. Two people on their way to the same start line but standing at very different points in time. That moment I didn’t feel like I was at the end of something. My period arrived just days before my race. At a stage in life when even predicting it feels uncertain. And yet, I ran my personal best. It has taken me ten years to get here. Ten years of showing up through phases where nothing seemed to change. Of training when results didn’t reflect effort. Of trusting a proces...