4 years after the fact, Christian Cushing-Murray nets his M45 AR
Ray Knerr (left) and Pete Magill (right) visit with Cush after his AR 1500. Diana Hernandez photo.
On the Ides of March 2013, Christian Cushing-Murray was seven months away from turning 46. He stepped to the line of the first 1500 heat at the Oxy Invitational in Los Angeles and proceeded to chase kids half his age. He finished 13th in a fantastic 3:55.09, which I celebrated as an M45 American record. It beat the listed AR of 3:56.39 by John Hinton in 2007. (The listed WR is now 3:48.72 by Britain’s Anthony Whiteman.) But years passed, and crickets. No record listing. But this week, Cush learned that his AR application had been approved, and masters records czar Jeff Brower should be posting it soon. On Facebook, Cush said the mark went “unratified because of paperwork issues. … The performance meant a lot to me when I did it — it was the culmination of setting a goal, a year of preparation, and executing a solid race — but the record didn’t really mean much; it was enough to know I did it. Now, in my elder years, I cannot tell a lie: The official record does mean something to me, because I know how difficult — and fleeting — these things are.” Again, thanks to Jeff for righting a Sandy Pashkin wrong. And belated happy M50 to Cush, whose birthday was a month ago.
Ken has followed track as an athlete, writer and web-master since the late 1960s, and saw most sessions of track and field at the 1984 Los Angeles and 1996 Atlanta Olympics. He also attended the 1988, 1992, 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012 Trials, the last three as a blogger and Patch correspondent. [More...]
2 Responses
Great to see it’s finally official…Congrats!
Finally-Congrats!. Converts to 4:13 mile
M50 AR 4:01.77 about a 4:20 mile.
Go for it!
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