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Reader question: When they say “Father Time is undefeated”, what does it mean? My comments: They mean to say you're getting old and should perhaps stop doing the same things you do in your youth. Without getting into specifics, I'm sure that's what most people mean when they say “Father Time is undefeated” or “You can't compete with Father Time” or something similar. Father Time, you see, is the personification of Time. Father being father, it means we acknowledge that Father Time is older – and perhaps – wiser than us. Perhaps, no, Father Time is wiser. He has been around all the time and so He should know. We, too, should know if we know what's good for us. Anyways, whenever people talk about Father Time being unbeaten, they mean to say we're getting old and should perhaps cease doing things we do as a youth. In fact, it's a cliché (something repeated again and again) in sports circles. Whenever they want someone to retire, they say you can't beat Father Time. That's a roundabout way of saying you're old and no good. You can't compete with all the up-and-coming young legs any more and so you'd better quit now – before you embarrass yourself. It's not all doom and gloom, though. In my time, I've seen my fair share older people outperform younger ones. In the main, it's more a lifestyle change than diminishing physical abilities. One's physical capabilities diminish with the passage of time, for sure but they don't happen overnight. They don't. They happen slowly, often without you noticing (which is perhaps the scarier part). But anyways, my theory is: As athletes get older, their overall lifestyle changes. For example, as they advance into their late 20s and 30s, sportsmen and women begin to get married and have children and in consequence, they just can't spend all their time in the playground – as they were able to do as a teenager. | 
