Gebrselassie lowers marathon world record at age 35

Don’t trust anyone under 35. If you really want to be a serious runner, wait till you’re 35. Although I hesitate to discuss roadies on a masters track blog, I can’ resist crowing about the latest masters superstar: Haile Gebrselassie, who broke the 2:04 barrier today in the Berlin Marathon. Check out the IAAF report on the race. In the women’s race, 36-year-old Irina Mikitenko became the fourth-fastest ever at the distance with her winning time of 2:19:19. Nice runs, guys! I think Geb is now the oldest WR setter on the current books.


The listed masters WR for the marathon is 2:07:12 by Portugal’s Carlos Lopes at the 1985 Rotterdam Marathon.) Irina also bettered the listed women’s WR in W35 — 2:21:29 by Russia’s Lyudmila Petrova in 2006.
Pat Crandall, a masters jumper and hurdler in Florida, noted this on the T&F News Message Board:

2:03:59 is
26 x 1 mile in 4:44 each – zero seconds rest in between
52 x 800 in 2:22 each – zero seconds rest in between
104 x 400 in 71 seconds each – zero seconds rest in between
208 x 200 in 36 seconds each – zero seconds rest in between
How many of you can run ONE 400 in 71 seconds? Not I.

Hey, I could have rabbited Geb for the first 400! Woohoo!

Related posts:

  1. Merlene Ottey lowers own W50 world record in 100 to 11.84
  2. What’s Geb gotta do to get WMA marathon world record?
  3. Japanese gent crushes M60 world record in the marathon
  4. Helen “Speedy” Klein breaks own marathon world record
  5. Ed Whitlock crushes own M75 world marathon record

September 28, 2008

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