Running is the closest thing to a "fountain of youth" than anything else I've witnessed.

I think it's because runners tend to be leaner and because the activity helps keep the pipes — our circulation system — clean and strong.

The older runners I've met over nearly a quarter-century of running and road racing not only look younger, barring perhaps weathering from the sun, wind and other elements, but act and seem younger than their peers. They generally have a playful outlook on life. And they have provided me a road map on how I want to live my life: active to the end.