The following, courtesy of The Age * August 12, 2008 - 7:06AM

Running can slow the aging process, according to a study conducted over two decades by American researchers and published today.

The study by the Stanford University School of Medicine found people over 50 who ran regularly over several years suffered fewer disabilities, had a longer span of active life and reduced their risk of dying early by 50 per cent compared to those who were inactive.

"The study has a very pro-exercise message," said James Fries, MD, an emeritus professor at the medical school and the study's senior author.

"If you had to pick one thing to make people healthier as they age, it would be aerobic exercise."

The study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, tracked 538 people over 50 who had run several times a week since 1984 and compared them to a similar group of non-runners.

As the subjects aged, the health gap between the runners and non-runners widened, continuing even into their 90s. "We did not expect this," said Fries, 69, himself an avid runner. "The health benefits of exercise are greater than we thought."

He attributed this to runners having a leaner body mass and generally healthier habits.

Running's effect on delaying death also was more dramatic than the researchers had expected -- 19 years after the study began, 34 per cent of the non-runners had died, compared to just 15 per cent of the runners.

I'll keep running then.

What can I say about the Gold Coast Marathon 2008. Not much really, a real big non-event for me and my first marathon DNS (did not start). I can't fault my training in any respect, I was keen as mustard picking up my race kit about lunchtime on the Saturday (day before event).

Here's the story. Had lunch about 1 pm and then back to the motel a short distance away. Rested up a little, felt a little queasy a few hours later.

About 6 pm we headed out searching for a pasta place and now wasn't feeling the best. Long story short, vomiting and gastro movements and a trip to the Gold Coast Hospital. I suspected food poisoning but was told that it was purely viral. Nobody else presented with any complaints of food poisoning. The upshot was that the doc advised it was probably better not to run. What a bummer, all this training for naught. The first thing that crossed my mind was the date of 12 October, 2008, Melbourne Marathon.

That's it, my tale of woe.

After the marathon we caught up with Louise D and she ran a 3:11 and reckons she slowed down or didn't run as hard for the second half as her Garmin packed in. She's got a 3:05, if not, a sub 3, looming.

Six months into the year and so I thought I post some pretty looking graphs. All the lines are heading in the right direction.

Weight graph.

Weekly kilometres (with weight).

A week of tapering, though I would have preferred to have done a few more sessions than I did. There's a number of reasons, firstly it was my first week back at work after six months of long service leave. To be honest, I really didn't want to return, I was suppose to win tattslotto, but that didn't eventuate. Secondly, my new braces were giving me heaps of grief and towards the end of the week I wasn't in the right mindset to be running. Thirdly, towards the end of the week I also felt the onset of a cold and flu and luckily it never developed. I put this last point down to pre-marathon blues, everything has gone so well so far, sub-consciously something must go wrong.

Despite my tales of woe there was a milestone in there. On Wednesday, after a 12 k'er, I clocked just over 2000 km for the year and I'm only 700 km short of my best ever yearly mileage. I should easily knock-off that 700 km in the next 2- 3 months but it will be tough going to crack 4000 km for the year. I'm back at work now so don't have the time up my sleeves to run where, when and for how long I want. If I can crack 3660 km I'd be happy with that, then I can say I averaged 10 km per day for the entire year.

On Saturday I headed down the freeway to Harcourt, a hour and a half drive, met up with my club. It was relay race day this time round. I ran the third leg, 8.4 km up and down a hill and finished off with a nice slight decline, about 2 or 3 km long. 36 mins or thereabouts averaging 4:28/km. Would have been quicker but had to take a pit-stop about 20 mins in.

For today, ran my last long run before the Gold Coast Marathon, which is next weekend. A casual 22.6 km in 1:54:20 averaging just over the 5 min rate.

You'll probably notice that my June mileage is at 289 km. With only one day left in the month, I'm definitely running tomorrow after work, at least an 11 k'er, merely to have 300 km for the month. No serious runs this week, probably 3 or 4 sessions before Sunday.

Didn't run yesterday (Saturday), no particular reason, just didn't.

Today I hit the streets about 4.30 pm and ran a 20 k'er taking in my usual Skeleton Creek run but extending it in parts. Strange run in a way, only intended to casually stroll it around the 5 min pace but as the run progressed I felt strong so went with the flow.

I was out on the road for 1:38:32 which averages out at 4:45/km. Heart rate seemed to be in the normal range, maxing at 161 (89%) and averaging 148 bpm (82%).

I can't believe it's been nearly two weeks since I last made an entry. Anyway, hit the streets of Hoppers Crossing today for a good solid 12 k'er which included 4 alternating quick k's, all sub 4 min pace.

Another week over and and another maximum k's per week run. All up 147.55 km.

The week was topped off with meeting Coolrunners at the Tan for a leisurely stroll around the Captial City Trail. I arrived 30 mins earlier, meeting George and we got a 'once around the Tan' out of the way before the main run. I wanted at least 34 k's for the day.

At Dight Falls - I'm the shadow