ageism

As one gets older you begin to realise that the world doesn't see you as a person anymore,  you end up shuttled into categories and labels.

I was really excited this morning after reading an article about a new heritage walk to commemorate the falling of Singapore to the Japanese during World War II, but my excitement quickly turned to one of sheer horror.  I, at 51 years of age was not allowed to go for the walk!   It was open only to people 12 years to 45 years of age due to the difficult terrain.

Now would a 12 year old be more fit than say a 55 year old that ran marathons? But lets not compare a marathon runner to a child.  What about me,  I did walks in NZ that were an hour long on trails and I am quite sure I could do this slow heritage walk.
I am going to email them and register for the walk and will ask them about the utter ridiculous age restrictions imposed.  Lets see what reply I get.

UPDATE:  I eventually got a reply to my "registration" for the walk, after I emailed them again to enquire if I had managed to be one of the lucky ones to get a place.  I was told politely that the walk was over subscribed but thank you for your interest.  So I emailed back asking if the walk was oversubscribed at my first email or second. The age restriction was never mentioned in the reply, they simply took the easy way out, that the walk was over subscribed.  These walks are very informative and the National Heritage Board should be doing them more often, not just at special occasions.  hopefully they do and no more stupid age restrictions.  I do feel cheated though, I wasn't allowed to argue my point that us seniors aren't as soft as they think we are!