...the rest of us get humble.
Of late I've (apparently) been fooling myself into thinking I'm pretty fast for someone my age, yeah, about that. This last weekend I ran in the RibFest 5-Miler held at the beautiful Budweiser facilities in Merrimack, NH (home to one of the Clydesdale teams), and even though this race was just one of eight for this year's running series put on by Millennium Running, it also happened to be an event on the USATF New England Grand Prix calendar. I knew I was in some trouble when I saw team after team after team, all in like uniforms, lining up for the start.
Over the last couple of months, one of my coworkers and I have run several large (for New Hampshire) races, he *had* a streak going where he'd won the Men's 30-39 something like four races in a row. In my case, I've typically been finishing in the top ten percent of guys in the 50-59 age range, and often in the top two or three percent. So, like I said earlier, "yeah, about that". Out of 161 guys in my age group, and in spite of the fact that I crossed the line in 37:24 (a time I was pleased with), I finished 55th! And my coworker? He got knocked down from his perch atop his age group to 42nd (out of 265)!
Impressive performances which stand out to me:
- The Men's 30-39 winner, at 37 years of age, crossed the line in 25:09.
- The Men's 50-59 winner, at 54 years of age, crossed the line in 28:09.
- The Men's 70+ winner, at 70 years of age, crossed the line in 36:52.
And then there is my personal favorite:
As I was heading up a small hill at about the 2.5 mile mark I gradually caught up to and passed a "little old lady". Her stride was looking good and she was running strong and I told her so as I passed. I happened to see her after the finish and found out her particulars:
- The Women's 70+ winner, at 70 years of age, crossed the line in 38:35.
While my hopes to be competitive within my age group have dimmed a bit (the last time I ran a 5-Mile race, when I was 22, I would just barely have beaten the 54 year old who won my age group), my new humility will hopefully translate into a renewed effort to lose some more weight and get faster.