AofA's Hot To Trot Talking Points

Every Friday

Every week, I survey the discussions that AofA members have been having in our FB group - Advantages of Age - BabyBoomers and Beyond - and come up a potent brew. I love the wonderful threads that happen.

1. First up is Stephen Moon who travelled from London to NYC for his first marathon at the age of 68. Not only that but he’d also had two serious cycling accidents and injuries in the past two years. He raised over £6,000 for Chris Hoy’s Cancer charity. This is what he had to say: ‘Did it. Aimed for 5 hours 45 minutes and did it in 5 hours 38 minutes. Interesting tortoise and hare—I set out with a bunch of younger runners and they streaked away. By the end I had caught every single one of them, because my time per mile was consisted all the way. Every part of my body hurts now. Again, turns out that it’s not an age thing, there’re a younger runner in the room opposite in the same condition.

   This proved to me that age shouldn’t limit us. Sure, I adapted my training to suit, and also my running style. But I got it done. Of 65-69 year old men in the world, only 0.01% do a marathon.’

2. Delighted to say that the interview

   Suzanne Noble
   and I did for therapist and journalist
   Lucy Cavendish
   ’s podcast How To Have Extraordinary Relationships is coming out on Wednesday. We’re talking about age, our Awards and why we’re doing them, being old punks and much more. It was fun except for the Bucket List bit. I am going to write a piece on Bucket Lists. Thanks Lucy. Still a few tickets left for the Advantages of Age Awards 2025 on Nov 20th 7pm at the glorious old music hall, Hoxton Hall and they can be bought on advantagesofageawards.com

3. As well as a Style Queen Award, of course, we have a Style King Award. And here is one of the contenders. Poet Alan Wolfson always cuts a distinctive figure which is what we love. I’ll be sharing the other contenders in Notes over the week ahead.

Is being attractive important to you as you get older? Whether it be physically or personally attractive? Does one naturally progress into the other as we age? I’ve aged physically and visibly over the past few years. Got distinctly greyer, put on weight, lost muscle form and tone. My skin certainly isn’t the blemish free smooth that it was. Yet, I have a partner who certainly expresses her desire for me. It helps that I fancy the pants off her! And the other day, I became conscious that I was being conscious about whether I looked good in my new pair of trousers. Is this a needy vanity. Or are we failing our relationships if we stop caring about how attractive we are?

4. This was a question put into Advantages of Age by one of our male members and I really appreciated that he did do that. There were many varied responses but the general gist was that we like to play with style as we get older, get creative with it, we don’t need to subscribe to the societal norm and that it’s time to play and not care what others think.

5. Viv Truran at 81 and born in Cardiff is one of the Silver Influencers out there on social media. She exclaims that over 5 million people have viewed her in some of her outfits. Silver influencers are making it on Tik Tok. We’re not sure about the style to be honest but it’s brilliant that older people are getting out there and being visible. You can read about them here - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clykwk9vwryo?fbclid=IwY2xjawN3GLJleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHuIKX46_0u9vHtbEfxA-sA2xcs4yyvgkrifKQzg0lHUDj20-2OXfJU8tb-YY_aem_P71fAKKVhOfWaScL_cCcIg

6. Love this story. I remember seeing Alfred Wallis’ wonderful paintings - so direct and evocative - at Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge. I didn’t realise that he was 70 when he started painting. From the Cornish Archive and Services Centre.
   
   ‘Our Weekly Reads for November will highlight new books in the library and we begin with the in-depth biography of Alfred Wallis (1855-1942) by Matilda Webb, ‘Alfred Wallis: child pauper to artistic luminary.’
   
   Alfred taught himself to paint when he was 70, and his paintings greatly influenced British Modern Art. He depicted the ships he once sailed on and his other memories of a vanished past.
   
   This extensively researched biography of over 500 pages provides a comprehensive account of his Cornish ancestry, impoverished childhood, family and his work - both at sea and on shore, with his time as an artist explored in detail.’