Extreme Athleticism Is the New Midlife Crisis
I have mixed reactions to pieces like this. It&#x27;s very salient to me because I fit the stereotype being discussed. At 43, I did my first triathlon and am, I suppose, training to do more (the season for them is basically over where I live, so I can&#x27;t really do more this year).<p>The problem with the idea of the midlife &quot;crisis&quot; is that it&#x27;s more a period of change and not all crisis. And it&#x27;s somewhat, but not all, about mortality. At that age, in your 40s, you&#x27;ve often had enough time to establish a career, and for many, realize it&#x27;s not what you thought it would be. It has nothing to do with mortality; if you started your career earlier or later, you&#x27;d be reaching that point earlier or later. Also, you&#x27;ve reached a point of wisdom to realize, yes, exercise is good, maintaining your health is good, all these articles you&#x27;ve been reading about it for years are right, and so forth and so on. You might have a new family, which changes things at any age. And finally, speaking of kids, I do think there&#x27;s something about the 40s being the new 20s, the 60s being the new 40s, and so forth. I could go on and on about many things that cause change, but don&#x27;t have anything to do with death or even old age.<p>If you knew me, for example it would be clear that I am in fact in crisis in many ways, and have been in recent years, in the ways that the author suggests. But that&#x27;s not what motivated me to do a triathlon. It has nothing to do with some need to prove myself or anything like that. It was all about being prodded by friends to join them, and it was something I had always been interested in. I&#x27;ve always been a little athletic. It could have happened in my 20s or 30s but didn&#x27;t. Why my 40s? I&#x27;m not sure. I guess I&#x27;ve just reached a point where there are many things like triathlon I&#x27;ve been wanting to do for years, and am now getting around to it. When you reach that age there are things that accumulate like that.<p>I think midlife change is very real, and often comes as a crisis, but I think that focusing on the mortality issues that do arise is really missing many, if not most, of the other factors involved.<p>In the case of athleticism, it stigmatizes exercising and wellness. So you&#x27;re doing a triathlon or a marathon in your 40s? Now this is a bad thing? Can those of us in our 40s get a break? It&#x27;s another form of ageism in many regards.