
“I didn’t want that responsibility of people asking me, ‘What do I do?’ and I’m just telling them something that’s not proven or I don’t know the science behind and I just picked up somewhere,” she says. They would often turn to Dorset for advice. Many of her friends, also over 40, began running too. “That feeling of accomplishment, that feeling of knowing that there was room for growth, and that you could apply yourself to something and get better, and that you could start something and do as well you could at it,” that’s what kept her running, she says. When she completed it, Dorset discovered she loved the feel of the finish line.

Begrudgingly, she trained for the Dogfish Dash. Natalie Dorset, 53, started distance running about eight years ago when her boyfriend signed her up for a 5K when she wasn’t paying attention. Get access to everything we publish when you
