entrenched smack dab in the middle of no-man's land. At 48, I am
considerably slower than I was when I first entered the 45-49 age
group, probably more due to lack of training that advancing age, and
I'm still two years away from the relief known as 50-54. I'm
thinking at this point that they must call it "Hard"ware because for
the next couple of years, age group placement is going to be very
hard for me to come by. As someone who tends to think of age in 5-
year increments, I'm wishing at this point that I was already two
years older, so I can once again be the new kid on the block.
Runners are funny in that way.
But there is hope for me, and people like me, who tend to get older
with each advancing year. This hope comes in the names of Andres
Espinosa, Ed Whitlock, and Fauja Singh. Perhaps none of these are
household names in most homes, but for aging runners, they probably
should be. Allow me to explain.
You've probably already guessed that these three gentlemen must be
old, and in varying degrees, you would be correct. In reality, they
are old, older, and oldest, and all three have recently accomplished
amazing feats in the realm of marathon running. Keep in mind that I
use the word old in relative terms, for what they have accomplished
on the roads is truly remarkable and the envy of many a marathon
runner of any age.
Let's start with Andres Espinosa, who is the baby of the three. At
age 40, he is barely teething, but that didn't stop him from taking
on the world's best at The Berlin Marathon, held on September 29th,
2003. The winner of the race, Paul Tergat, became the first human
ever to break the 2:05 mark in a marathon, and one second later,
Sammy Korir became the second. But keep in mind that they only beat
the old standard by a little over 40 seconds.
All that Andres Espinosa did was completely obliterate John
Campbell's long-standing master's record of 2:11:04 by over 2 full
minutes. His 2:08:46 marathon was good for 4th place overall in a
race that saw the two fastest times ever run for the distance. That
works out to an average per mile pace of 4:55! How many of us can
run a quarter mile on the track at that pace? To put it all in
perspective, nobody of any age had ever run a marathon that quickly
until Derek Clayton did it in May of 1969.
Now, let's move to the other side of the pond, and talk about someone
who was born in 1931. His name is Ed Whitlock, and he is 72 years
old. He is 5'7", and weighs in at about 125 pounds. If you saw him
walking across a busy intersection, you'd be inclined to assist him
before he got caught with the lights changing. But looks can be
deceiving.
Five days before intending to run The Toronto Waterfront Marathon, he
tripped and fell on his way to the store, using only his face to
break his fall. His race was in jeopardy, but he showed up anyway,
his face still bloodied and scabbed from the fall. And less than
three hours after the start, he became the first septuagenarian to
ever run a marathon in under three hours, clocking an unbelievable
2:59:10.
But Ed Whitlock did not grab all the headlines at The Toronto
Waterfront Marathon. It seems there was another runner there who was
old enough to be his father. His name is Fauja Singh, a retired
farmer who was born in Jalandhar, India a long, long time ago.
Before World War I in fact. He is 92 years old, and has a hard time
standing still. But forward momentum is another thing, and he can
certainly maintain that for long distances.
Amazingly enough, he has several marathons under his belt already
since turning 90, and has progressively improved on his own work
records just about each time out. In 2001, he became the first
nonagenarian to break 7 hours for the marathon, running London in
6:54:55, breaking the old world record by close to an hour. But he
was not finished yet. The following year, he ran London again, this
time shaving another 40 minutes off his own world record, completing
it in 6:11:09. In the process, he beat over 10,000 other runners.
This brings us to The Toronto Waterfront Marathon, held on September
28th, 2003. He prepared by putting in about 15 Kilometers a day,
eating a healthy diet, taking warm baths, and practicing daily
meditation. It must have worked. He became the first 90 year old to
ever break 6 hours for a marathon, and he did it by plenty. His
finishing time was 5:40:01, another giant leap of over 30 minutes in
breaking his own world record.
On October 2nd, I turned 48 years old. You know, that doesn't seem
all that old any more.
I'm glad we had this little chat.