Ed Whitlock’s latest stroll: Half-marathon in 1:37 at age 78
When they write Ed Whitlock’s obituary (in about 30 or 40 years), his sub-3-hour marathons in his 70s will be right up there in the headline. But here’s another superhuman mark: 1 hour, 37 minutes, 33.5 seconds for the half-marathon (13.1 miles). He did that yesterday, at age 78, at the Toronto Waterfront Marathon (which included other distances). He was 304th of 3,411 runners overall for the half. (See complete results.) Coming back from his injuries of recent years, Ed took first in the M70-and-over group, averaging 4:30 per kilometer — or about 7:12 per mile! W50 Joan Benoit Samuelson won her age group as well — and was the second woman overall, clocking 1:22:01. (See half-marathon winners.) Sadly, Ed missed the world record for his age group by about 38 seconds. The listed M75 best is 1:36:56 by Italy’s Giovanni Guerini in 2008. But Ed is way older, I’ll bet. Nice run, Ed!
Ed uses road running to tune up for track, such as race at 2007 Orono nationals.
The man from Milton, Ontario, apparently likes the Toronto course.
It was six years ago today that Ed made himself a legend, as detailed here:
On September 28, 2003, in the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon, Whitlock finally did it, clocking 2:59:09.3, breaking his own 70-plus record and extending his record as the oldest man to go under three hours to 72 years, 206 days.
So now that he’s got this little chore out of the way, he can go back to his masters track roots and prepare to demolish some M80 track records.
A race summary also mentioned:
Milton’s Ed Whitlock, 78, returned from a two-year break from racing to finish the half-marathon in an age-group record 1:37:34, while 98-year-old Fauja Singh of England finished the 5K in 35:18.
6 Responses
In the period of my life where I was 30-something, a memory that is now in low saturation and even turning to sepia tone, I ran a half-marathon in 1:27. I was as proud as a handsome peacock over what is a pedestrian time for a 30 year old.
Just thinking about a 78 year old running 1:37 raises the popular, though somewhat off-color expression “WTF” !!!
Can that be real? ‘Nice run’ is considerably understated. What an inspiration for us all.
I’m 45, will be 46 in November when I run my next 1/2 Marathon. I hope to be somewhat close to a 1:37. I ran 1:40 in my last half in February.
If I can keep up with the great Ed Whitlock I’ll be one proud peacock, that’s for sure.
Way to go Mr. Whitlock.
In this article, Singh says she hopes to run the half-marathon in 2010 and the full marathon in 2011 — at age 100!
http://www.universalsports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=23000&ATCLID=204803824
Michal Kapral of Canadian Running has written the all-time greatest story on Ed Whitlock here:
http://runningmagazine.ca/2009/10/sections/feature/comeback-kid-the-return-of-age-group-superhero-ed-whitlock/
ed’s from another planet. i read the article about him in running times recently, showing his weight at 115. i am 76, 5′ 9″, and was 162 pounds at my 1/2m last nov. i won my age group with a time of 2:14:35.
i don’t think i would still be alive if i went much below 140 pounds.
some senior runners might be discouraged by ed’s results, but i am in awe; he is my hero. i look forward to seeing him set a new world record at age 80.
I started training for half-marathon about a year ago at the age of 46. From my experience I concluded that speed doesn’t really matter as long as you keep running the distance. Speed is determined by your physical make-up and genes; training helps a little but not much. I persistently run a year and my speed is getting slower.
When you run at a older age, don’t make the mistake training for a marathon then stop running after you have achieved the milestone. It’s nothing if you just stop running; your fitness will go down after you stop no matter how many marathons you have done.
Also don’t be too serious about speed and trying too hard to beat other people. No matter how fast you run, you will be overrun! So just take it easy and just keep running.
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