Run Run Away

Question:

 I’m sure this depends on your age and location.  In my area, an age-adjusted race was dominated by the 40’s, followed by 30’s.  20-29’s were well back, as a group.  Even without age adjustment, most of the top finishers in my town’s 15k last year were in the 30’s and 40’s (some upper 20’s).

i’d have to agree with this.  in my area, races are usually dominated by 30’s+ runners.  but even when the race is dominated by the 20’s set, this can also work to your advantage.  in one recent 10K, the top 3 spots were taken by guys in my age group (24-29), which automatically removed them from the AG awards, leaving me 3rd in my AG!  my first award ever!  so keep at it.  who knows, one day the forces of nature might just swing in your favor. -thien nguyen www.beigebag.com/personal/thien/

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- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – This statement got me thinking.  I’m also in the 20-29 age group and I, like Brian, know what it’s like to come last or nearly last in my age group.  I was thinking maybe I’m just slow.  However, the quoted statement above implies that there is a greater percentage of talent (taking age into account) in this age group.  Is this right?  Is the fact that I’m usually towards the back of the pack for my age group just because the ones ahead are running because they are good.  Will I move up the field when I get to the next age group?]  I’m sure this depends on your age and location.  In my area, an age-adjusted race was dominated by the 40’s, followed by 30’s.  20-29’s were well back, as a group.  Even without age adjustment, most of the top finishers in my town’s 15k last year were in the 30’s and 40’s (some upper 20’s).

Another factor is the distance.  I generally think of the 5K as a young person’s race, while a 15K generally implies that the 30s and 40s will do better (a weaker version of the fact that older runners generally do relatively better at the marathon).  My take on the 20-29 age group, at least locally, is that these are often people who have been running since high school track.  On the other hand, the 30-39 and 40-49 groups contain a larger fraction of people who are feeling a little older and have decided to get into shape again. I think of myself as being a little unusual in that I ran my first 5K at age 28 (as opposed to 18 or 38). In the very small local 5K’s I’ve been running with 40-60 runners, when I finish last in my age group it’s often by several minutes, and the top three 20-29 runners will finish in the top 5 overall. I’m just genuinely slow!  In terms of following age progression, a friend who’s been running for ca. 30 years has been quite frustrated.  He figured that since he was in top 10% or close in his early 40’s, that as the years went by he’d move up.  Nope.  He’s drifted the other direction.  It turns out the ones who continue to run races are mostly the guys ahead of him.  (Several age groups later now.)

This certainly seems to be the case here for the 50-59 group. In one of our 5K’s this year with about 40 runners, all three of the male 50-59’s finished in the top 10 overall. <snipped Brian University of Wyoming, Laramie  |  http://w3.uwyo.edu/~rachford/

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I also finished last in the male 20-29 age group (out of 7), which happens to me a lot (if you want to do well in your age group, don’t take up running in your 20’s!).

This statement got me thinking.  I’m also in the 20-29 age group and I, like Brian, know what it’s like to come last or nearly last in my age group.  I was thinking maybe I’m just slow.  However, the quoted statement above implies that there is a greater percentage of talent (taking age into account) in this age group.  Is this right?  Is the fact that I’m usually towards the back of the pack for my age group just because the ones ahead are running because they are good.  Will I move up the field when I get to the next age group?]             l -’  http://members.aol.com/mj1932/running.htm               weekly.

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This statement got me thinking.  I’m also in the 20-29 age group and I, like Brian, know what it’s like to come last or nearly last in my age group.  I was thinking maybe I’m just slow.  However, the quoted statement above implies that there is a greater percentage of talent (taking age into account) in this age group.  Is this right?  Is the fact that I’m usually towards the back of the pack for my age group just because the ones ahead are running because they are good.  Will I move up the field when I get to the next age group?]

  I’m sure this depends on your age and location.  In my area, an age-adjusted race was dominated by the 40’s, followed by 30’s.  20-29’s were well back, as a group.  Even without age adjustment, most of the top finishers in my town’s 15k last year were in the 30’s and 40’s (some upper 20’s).   In terms of following age progression, a friend who’s been running for ca. 30 years has been quite frustrated.  He figured that since he was in top 10% or close in his early 40’s, that as the years went by he’d move up.  Nope.  He’s drifted the other direction.  It turns out the ones who continue to run races are mostly the guys ahead of him.  (Several age groups later now.)   Doesn’t say much about your area though.  Just some cautionaries. For my own part, I’m still early enough in the return to running that I can plan on beating my own records (since return) for a few more years yet.  (What was it, 5-7 years to peak?)  Good thing, since there aren’t many races I could hope to compete in (rather than run in). — Sagredo (Galileo Galilei) "You present these recondite matters with too much evidence and ease; this great facility makes them less appreciated than they would be had they been presented in a more abstruse manner." Two New Sciences

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Race: 5th annual Tyrannosaurus Tear 5K/1K Location: Laramie, Wyoming Course: City streets and sidewalks, with a short dirt section I was hoping to set a new PR here.  I’ve been doing track workouts the last three Tuesdays, but two of them haven’t been quite as fast as I had hoped.  My PR was 22:41, three months ago, and I thought I might be a better runner now. However, for a while I was focusing more on distance than speed, and I’ve been doing a lot of mountain running, which while fun and challenging, hasn’t done a lot for my speed. The registration area was conveniently located at the U.W. Geological Building, just a stone’s throw (pun intended) from my office building.  I picked up my packet under the watchful eye of the life-sized metal T. rex sculpture.  The sky was mostly sunny, with almost no wind and a temperature around 60, and an elevation of 7200 feet above sea level (which I always like to mention to make my slow times seem faster . I made my knees sore last weekend doing a high-altitude trail run, and my left knee hasn’t really recovered.  I decided that I could run on it and hoped that it wouldn’t flare up during the race.  Although mentally I wasn’t quite into the race this week, my knee provided enough of a distraction to keep my mind off of other things. The kids’ 1K fun run started at 8am; as suggested in the race announcement, a few kids dressed up as their favorite dinosaur.  The funniest part was that an adult was dressed up in a dinosaur costume for the pre- and post-race festivities (I guess it was supposed to be one of the minor characters from "Barney") and they "ran" the 1K race with the kids! The 5K began at about 8:15 with 65 runners and walkers. Even before I hit the one mile mark at 7:19, I knew I wasn’t running quite fast enough.  Both miles and kilometers were marked, although I missed the 1K marker.  By mile 2, I had fallen well off of my PR pace.  The course was slightly uphill out and slightly downhill in, but not very noticable. I went past the 4K marker at 18:53, so I knew that I couldn’t get sub-23, but as long as I didn’t collapse I would get my second best 5K time.  In addition, I found myself running alone for the last 3K so I wasn’t fighting for position. I actually finished fairly strong in 23:28.  Not quite what I had in mind, but not horrible either.  My kilometer splits were rather interesting: a 4:38 average for the first 2, then 4:52, 4:45, and 4:35.  The first 2K should have been the hardest part of the course, although the third K had the short dirt section.  I’m wondering if my slow 3rd K was just psychological.  I felt as well as one might expect for a "sprint" race, and never really had the strong desire to start walking that I’ve had in previous 5K’s.  Yet, I still think I gave a substantial effort and didn’t leave much out on the course. I seem to have a remarkable knack for finishing 19th; this is the 3rd out of four 5K’s where I’ve done this (out of only 40-45 runners in the other two cases).  I also finished last in the male 20-29 age group (out of 7), which happens to me a lot (if you want to do well in your age group, don’t take up running in your 20’s!). The 20-year old small-college cross-country running brother of a friend won the race in under 18 minutes, despite being a lowlander just visiting Wyoming for a couple weeks. His time was probably at least 2 minutes slower than his expected low elevation time. The freebie drawings took forever, because they ended up having an item or two for everyone.  I got a Runner’s World water bottle and pair of sunglasses (which are absolutely worthless to me unless hell freezes over and I get contact lenses).  They had special things for the kids from the 1K race, like dinosaur toys, etc.  A friend ended up with passes for miniature golf, roller skating, and bowling ("Ah, the white trash triathlon!", I quipped). The race t-shirt was particularly well-done this time; when my running web page is complete I’ll include photos of my race shirts (and I’ll announce the page here). I guess it’s back to the drawing board for 5K training so I can get my PR four weeks from now in the next race. However, this week I plan to climb a few mountains! Brian University of Wyoming, Laramie  |  http://w3.uwyo.edu/~rachford/

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