Begin again, at any age.

At 51, Establishing a New Body of Work - New York Times:

"Eva Birath of Sweden began bodybuilding at 47 after being laid off from her marketing job. Despite a late start, she competes at the national level. She also paints.

...Blunt questions and curious looks are the price Birath pays for making such a striking career change. Four and a half years ago, at 47, she was a harried marketing executive who had been through two divorces. She made 45,000 krona (about $6,700) a month, often flew to Stockholm on business trips, chatted constantly on her cellphone and lived with her two children in a large house in Goteborg. It was, she says, a very normal high-pressure corporate existence.

And then, in December 2002, she was laid off.

Birath sold her house and moved into an apartment. She sold her car. She had no idea what to do next. She began going to a nearby gym, where one of the regulars told her she had a good physique for bodybuilding...

“It was very unusual for someone to begin bodybuilding at my age, but I thought my age was one bit of the challenge,” said Birath, who is now 51. “I think all people have preconceptions, like that bodybuilders are all stupid. I think I probably thought bodybuilders were a bit stupid, too.”

At that first tournament, Birath faced one other competitor in the heavyweight division and finished first. It was, she says now, a bit of a fluke, but it was enough to persuade her to commit to her training as an amateur bodybuilder.

She finished fourth last year at the Swedish national championships, and despite the fact that she is 10 or more years older than most of her competitors, she is one of the favorites to win this year’s event, Oct. 13-14 in Vasteras...

...Birath says she has no plans to turn professional, in part because of the expense of training, and in part because of her late start.

At some level, she says she is not concerned about how she may be judged at competitions; she is doing this for her well-being.

“My life now is so much better,” she said. “I’ve stopped searching for a job because I realize I don’t want it. I do what I love now: I paint and I train.”"