This Is What 70 Looks Like: “Setting Goals At Any Age”

Ideacity is a 3-day bonanza of new ideas held every June in Toronto. Host Moses Znaimer brings in some of the world’s best and brightest (and quirkiest) minds to create a sort of playschool for grownups.

One session about extreme athletes grabbed me – not because I am one, but because I’m of an age when you not only want to get all the help you can about staying fit, you have to! I figure if it works for these all-stars, maybe some of their gold dust can fall onto us.

I was drawn to hear two of them, Rasmus Ankersen, a long-distance runner and author of the Gold Mine Effect, and Jean-Guy Sauriol, the novice rower who marked his 60th birthday by rowing solo across the Atlantic Ocean from England to Bermuda.

Rasmus Ankersen makes his living as a speaker and a high performance trainer of both athletes and executives. He became intrigued by the sheer numbers of high performance long distance runners from the village of Eldoret in the Rift Valley of Kenya. It seems this tiny area generates an inordinate number of very fast runners, both men and women. One of his statistics was a ringer for this.

“America,” he said, “in the past ten years has produced 17 sub two-hour, 20-minute marathon finishers. Kenya has produced 32 in the last year alone. ”

When Ankerson travelled to the village to see for himself what produced the magic he was impressed with two things. Not only could he see that everyone ran everywhere, he could hear their footsteps and their passion. Running became a part of them, not something they had to sign up for.

Secondly, Ankersen observed in talking with the legendary coach Colm O’Connor, that an outsider could often provide extraordinary insights into what worked and what didn’t. The same was true when he travelled to Jamaica, to see how a virtual non-runner, Stephen Francis trained their elite speed runners including Usain Bolt. His most valuable asset – a seedy, barely maintained grassy track.

“Too much convenience – no real improvement “was his comment when asked why the facilities didn’t match the stellar reputation of the club’s progenies. Both these coaches, looking from outside-in saw in those youngsters some elemental fire, some extraordinary desire waiting to be tapped.

The essential ingredient for excellence even if you have oodles of talent is that you have to believe with your whole being that you can accomplish your goal.

By Jean Marmoreo. To read more, please click here.