“I don’t age, I evolve” – competing as a Masters athlete

Masters athletics opens up a world of opportunities for athletes aged 35 and above. This year our U15/U17 Indoor Combined Events Championships played host to some of the top masters athletes in the country over 200m and 800m.

We caught up with two of the women’s 200m athletes on their journey into masters athletics, what they love about it and their advice for anyone interested in getting involved.

Different pathways into masters athletics

With the masters age groups starting at over 35 years old, everyone has a different journey in our sport to that point. Some athletes have been involved in athletics from a young age, whilst others find that passion later on. We recently caught up with a masters athlete, Lyn Jenkins, who only started running in her 60s!

Naana Adusei (W45, Sale Harriers) said, “I competed when I was younger, I had a bit of a gap and then came back at 35 on the masters scene, so I did my first international in 2016 at the European Masters Indoors in Ancona.”

However, fellow 200m runner, Krystle Balogun (W35, Ilford AC) said, “I came into athletics as a senior. I was seen doing road races, just 10ks that anyone can enter. From there one coach got me running 800m and my current coach got me doing 200m and 400m, so I’ve come from distance to sprints. I kind of found athletics or athletics found me.”

Adapting training as a masters athlete

As with any athletes, training needs of each masters athlete are unique. It is important for each athlete to understand and manage their own training load depending on their body, upcoming events and other priorities in life. This means training may need to be adapted.

Naana explained how her training has evolved, “I’ve had to train smarter as I’m getting older. It takes longer to recover and I’ve got a full time job as well, so you’ve got to find the balance. Training has to adapt in terms of how I feel and what else I have done during the day. So, training when I was younger is totally different to what we do right now.”

For Krystle, her training changed once she started training with a coach, as it opened up new opportunities for her outside of road running.

“When a coach did see me and gave me the opportunity to run round a track, I had to adapt my running. I've adapted through the coaches and worked out what are the best events to go for. I was told to utilise the speed, so that's what I've been doing when it comes to running.”

A supportive and inspiring community of athletes

Masters athletics is often praised for the supportive environment as everyone wants to see everyone else do well. Naana and Krystle have become friends through masters athletics and have also made friends with other athletes from across the globe.

Naana described her experience of the environment, “The masters scene is amazing. Everyone is so friendly, so helpful, and we have a really good community. It’s not just with the GB team, but with other nationalities as well. We've made friends with so many people around the world.”

She adds, “we’ve all got a different background and story behind the race. I've gone to races where I've seen a 100-year-old man racing and it's inspiring. You meet so many people from all over the world.”

Being part of the masters athletics community is inspirational as you meet so many different athletes with their own story to tell. It is equally inspirational for masters athletes to pass on their stories to inspire the next generation to get involved in our sport. Krystle was inspired by the volunteer coaches who spotted her potential and now works as a PE teacher.

“It’s important that no matter what age you are, that you can still be doing something. I'm getting my personal bests now, I just got a PB today for indoor 200 metres and I wouldn't have known that potential if it wasn't for coaches seeing what I was doing when I was in my mid 20s.

“They inspired me to go into a career as a PE teacher so that I hopefully see potential in the young ones too. But I'm not talking about what I used to do, I'm still doing it.

“It is also important to promote girls coming through. I see it all the time where girls are put off doing athletics or doing any sport because they think I can't do it or I don't want to. They can and if they see people doing those things, it makes them think actually, it's something that I'm interested in doing.”

Advice to anyone considering masters athletics

From her journey into masters athletics, Krystle has some advice for anyone over 35 years old.

“The advice I would give is definitely give it a go. Don't be put off by thinking I'm this age, I can't do it or getting to that stage where I'm this age now and everything hurts so there's no point. There's always a point. When everyone was saying happy birthday to me, I said I don't age, I evolve.

“Don’t be put off by thinking that you're just going to be competing against people who are younger. You need to run your own race and do it for you. And if it's something that you love doing, give yourself that opportunity to see if you're interested in it, because the community is going to be supporting you no matter what.”

Have you been inspired by Krystle and Naana?

Our Masters programme offers England Athletics affiliated runners, age 35+, an annual rolling programme of qualifying events and representative opportunities at 5k, 10k, Half Marathon and Marathon distances.

British Masters Athletic Federation

The British Masters Athletic Federation, and its operating company BMAF Services Ltd, offer athletes the opportunity to compete in 5-year age bands for the rest of their lives. Track & field and running championships take place at regional level via their eleven area clubs, nationally via BMAF Services Ltd and internationally via the governing bodies for European and World Masters Athletics.