May 12 Run

Happy Mother's day to all of our group's Mothers!  Enjoy your special day!

 

Today's Run

We had a slightly smaller turnout of 12-13 people, including a friend of Liz (Kim) who plans to join us based on her "test drive" with Atif today.  There was a hint of summer in the air with a 70 degree temperature climbing fast.

 

We bid adieu to Claudia who is departing for her home in Wisconsin for the summer.  We will miss you, Claudia, and hope you and your husband have a great summer!)  Kim, I hope we will continue to see you over the summer.

 

Chris is New York City for the college graduation of daughter Emily. One down, Chris and one to go!  .

 

On the Bench

Luis overdid it and is temporarily out of the game.  Also, Ed broke a toe and is similarly grounded until it heals.  We hope you both heal fast.

 

Track Shack fund raiser

This past Wednesday, I attended a fund-raiser breakfast program hosted by the Track Shack Foundation.  The featured speaker was Dick Beardsley, a fine marathoner and a man with a gripping personal story. More on that in a moment. 

 

The Foundation, as many of you know, is the charitable work of Jon & Betsy Hughes.  It is funded from the proceeds of designated local races and contributions from the public. The Foundation has been doing wonderful work within the community for almost 20 years now and has contributed over $2 million dollars to community programs.  I urge you to read more about its work at Trackshack.com  under the "Foundation" tab.

 

Beardsley finished just behind Alberto Salazar in the 1992 Boston Marathon in an extremely close and exciting race which set a course record.  Beardsley later fell on hard times due to some horrific accidents and became addicted to pain killing drugs. His is an emotional and inspirational story, candidly told and with a happy ending. 

 

Quiet Courage

At the TSF meeting, I got to chat with Loren Carmody.  She is fighting brain cancer and not only is she still running in the Marathonfest Program, she also ran the ill-fated Boston Marathon a few weeks ago.  She was running under the auspices of  Mass. General Hospital where she goes for treatment.  She got pulled off the course in the latter stages of the race.  She had great difficulty connecting with husband Chris who was a spectator, but it all worked out and she will have the opportunity to return to Boston to run again next year.

 

She is one courageous runner!!  Please remember her in your prayers.

 

Age Adjusted 10K Performance Data

I don't believe I've ever mentioned in this e-mail the existence of excellent data on the effect of age on race performance. FYI, the World Association of Veteran Athletics (WAVA) publishes age correction factors which can be used to compare performances at different ages to determine the "real" quality of finishing times at any age.

 

I don't think you'll be surprised to learn that I am constantly looking for excuses on why I continue to slow more each year. Once runners hit age 40, there is an inexorable and accelerating loss of speed.  Something like 7% in the 40's, 8% in the 50's, 9% in the 60's, 11% in the 70"s, and whopping 16% in the 80's!  These stats give credence to why I have a "Slack with Jack at the back of the pack" club.

 

Seriously, it's good to know what to expect as time passes.  Otherwise we might give in to discouragement and, heaven forbid, lose our enthusiasm for running.  So I am pasting below an excerpt of the chart I found on line which provides data by gender by five year age group.  One of these days, I would love to convince Jon Hughes to organize a 10K race which uses the data to have the first local race which would be "marked on an age-adjusted curve!"

 

You can see why I would love such a competition.  At my age I would get about a one-third discount off my time, obviating the need for shortcuts!!!

 

Whatcha think???

 

MEN		WOMEN
Age	Factor	Age	Factor
10	0.859	10	0.843
15	0.957	15	0.959
20	1.000	20	1.000
25	1.000	25	1.000
30	1.000	30	1.000
35	1.000	35	0.997
40	0.968	40	0.959
45	0.933	45	0.919
50	0.898	50	0.879
55	0.862	55	0.838
60	0.824	60	0.795
65	0.783	65	0.751
70	0.740	70	0.703
75	0.694	75	0.651
80	0.642	80	0.595
85	0.584	85	0.532
90	0.514	90	0.457
95	0.419	95	0.358
100	0.264	100	0.198

 

Have a great week!

 

Jack