Last weekend I ran the National Marathon in Washington, DC. What is sort of

unique about the National Marathon is the qualification time requirement.

To enter a runner must have, since the year 2000, run a marathon in under

4:30, or a half marathon in under 2:10, or 10 miles in under 1:40, or 10-k

in under 57 minutes. I have never run a marathon in under 4:30, and since

the year 2000 I did run a downhill half marathon in under 2:10. My only 10

mile run in the last six years was the Army 10 Miler in 2003, which I ran

with my brothers and we all finished in 1:41. However, for runners over 50

years old the qualifying times are either a marathon in under 5:00 or a half

in under 2:25, with corresponding times for the shorter distances. I have

never run a marathon in under 5:00. However, I have never run a half

marathon in over 2:25, even when I was 15 minutes late to the start. To

prove that running a half marathon in under 2:25 was a piece of cake for me,

I ran the Southern California Half Marathon in Irvine last December in a

time of 2:19, and used that as my qualification to enter the National

Marathon. The same qualifying times apply to both men and women. Some will

consider this discriminatory. I don't know too many women runners in their

late 40's that can run a marathon in under 4:30, and know only a few women

runners over the age of 50 that can run a marathon in under 5 hours.

My running plan for the National Marathon was one that I had used

successfully in the past. I use the Galloway method with 4 minutes of

running followed by 1 minute of fast walking. I would take an additional

walk break if I got to a mile marker faster than 12 minutes a mile. (Twelve

minutes a mile leads to a 5:14:37 finish). I would walk until it was 12

minutes times the number of miles. Also, I planned to walk up any hills.

With this method at mile 4 I was four minutes ahead of schedule (namely I

covered the first 4 miles at 11 minutes per mile). To this point there had

been no hills. However, I was in very serious need of a pit stop. I had

been looking and in downtown Washington DC on a Saturday morning there are

not a lot of available restrooms. Mile 4 was on the out portion of an out

and back loop. There was a water station there and two port-a-johns. Since

my urge was great, I got in line. Overall it was an 8 minute break; 6 for

waiting and two for me. When I finished I was no longer 4 minutes ahead of

schedule, but four minutes behind schedule. By Mile 7 I had caught up to my

original schedule. I eventually got up 5 minutes ahead. However in the

last half of the marathon there were more than a few hills. By Mile 17 I

was running a little over 3 minutes ahead of schedule. There were more

hills in the last miles and I finished in 5:12:42 nearly 2 minutes ahead of

schedule.

When I first checked the results on-line, at 69, I was the second oldest

finisher. The oldest finisher was 73-year old Ashis Roy from New Delhi,

India. Ashis Roy finished in a net time of 3:50 (3:52 gun time). He was

listed as the first in his age group. There was an asterisk by his time

saying it was under USATF age group guidelines. I was impressed and

considered him to be a real FOG (Fast Old guy). I know his time is along

way from the over 70 record, but still a very good time and qualifies him

for Boston. But I was proud of my second oldest finish out 731 finishers

(later adjusted downward to 729).

Later I saw a news release from New Delhi saying that Roy's age group win at

the National Marathon made him the first runner over 70 years old to

complete 70 marathons. I know this to not be the case. Later I checked

www.marathonguide.com results for the last several years. Ashis Roy has run

2 or 3 marathons a year listed on www.marathonguide.com. As I recall in

2002 he ran a 4:27, and in 2004 ran a 4:47 marathon. But other than those

two, all of his other marathons were over 5 hours. I assume he ran most of

his other marathons in other parts of the world. Today when I checked the

National Marathon website and searched the list of finishers I did not see

Ashis Roy's name anywhere. Marathonguide list Ashis finish as 285th

overall, 549th male finisher, and first in the 70-99 age group.

(Marathonguide list a total of 549 male finishers.)

Interesting - at least I think so.

Charles

PS One week later I used this same technique when I ran the Yakima River
Canyon Marathon. Like at the National Marathon I was 4 minutes ahead at
mile 4. But this time there was no 8 minute stop. When I got to mile 20 I
was about 2 minutes ahead of my National Marathon time. Yakima had more
hills in the first 20 miles than did National, and for Yakima the biggest
hill was yet to come. It was 260 feet of gain in 1.4 miles beginning during
Mile 21 to Mile 23. While I walked up at just under a 16 minute per mile
pace by the time I had descended most of that distance I was over 2 minutes
behind by my National time at Mile 25 and finished Yakima in 5:16:36 or 3:36
slower than the National Marathon.