Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Keeping up with the older crowd

Today's workout: Central Park run (scheduled)

Yesterday was a busy work day but I'll admit to occasionally checking updates on the Boston Marathon during the race. An amazing record breaking run for Robert Cheruiyot and two Americans finishing in the men's top five. Later I looked at the searchable results to get a sense of the paces that people were maintaining over 26.2 miles. It's a given that the elites can run 5 minute miles all day but I was surprised to see how many "regular" people were hitting paces that I can't manage at a fraction of the distance. I looked at my own category and saw that age is no excuse for slowness. Seeing what my contemporaries did was in equal parts inspiring and intimidating. Then again, a couple of weeks ago, a 73 year old man beat my 5K finish time by 37 seconds.

I'm heading out at lunch to run with a friend who has a few years on me but can outrun me any day of the week. We're going to Central Park to run about 4 or 5 miles. Temperatures will be in the low 60's with sun. I'm hoping I can keep up and I'm glad I've made progress on the hills because there will be a number of them. My friend has been plagued with a foot problem and he claims that will force him to hold back a little. I've heard that one before!

2 comments:

  1. Great post. I often think sometimes, will I get faster or am I stuck because of my age or something. Then, I read posts like this and see how older people than me are flying literally. That gives me much hope and inspiration for my future. Thanks for the reminder man.

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  2. Thanks. I think we all slow down as we get older but it's relative to how well conditioned we are. I was greatly challenged to keep up with my friend today. He's older, wiser and much faster!

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