On June 21, 2003, Leonard Hill of Klamath Falls, Oregon, ran the 3,000-meter steeplechase in 10:10.41 at the Hayward Masters Classic in Eugene, Oregon. A remarkable time. Leonard had turned 50 the previous August, and his Hayward mark was an American record for his age group. Cool! But wait! This is odd: The USATF Web site lists the M50 American record for the 3K steeplechase as “9:45.38 Leonard Hill (OR) 06/21/03.” Say what? That was the reaction of a masters gent who emailed me this week on the discrepancy. So I took a closer look.

Apparently, the record application carried the winning time of not the M50 steeple but the M35 ‘chase. Chris Yorges, then 37, ran 9:45.38 that day, as meet results indicate.
To confirm these results, I checked back issues of National Masters News. And yup, there it is on page 41 of the August 2003 issue of NMN. Under the heading “Hayward Classic Masters Records, Eugene, OR; June 21-22” was this citation: “M50 3000m Steeplechase — Leonard Hill; OR 10:10.41.” Further, Dave Clingan’s 2003 masters rankings also list Leonard’s mark as 10:10.41.
Later that year, Leonard won the M50 championships at the USATF masters nationals at Eugene. Time was 10:40.27.
Oh my! What ever to do? What ever to do?
I phoned Leonard.
A modest soul, Mr. Hill came on the line tonight and said that he, too, was mystified how a 10:10 became a 9:45. He recalls submitting the record paperwork with the correct time, but: “It’s been like that ever since (it was first listed),” he told me. “I don’t know how to fix something like this, but somebody should.” (The 9:45 also is listed erroneously as the North American M50 record on mastersathletics.net.
Further confusing the situation was a poorly edited article in Leonard’s hometown newspaper. In a story dated April 11, 2004, the Mail Tribune of southern Oregon reported:

When Hill turned 50 on Aug. 11 of last year, he took advantage of his new age category. He won three national masters titles — cross country, the 10,000 meters and the steeplechase, setting a national record of 10 minutes, 10 seconds in the latter event.
Hill credits his old distance coach at Oregon State — Neil Webber — for helping him set the steeplechase record.
“I did the same workouts I had done with Neil back in college,” said Hill, who won a Pac-10 Conference steeplechase title and set the OSU school record of 8:43 during the 1973 track season. “I followed the same regimen for six weeks. I did a lot of speed work, which I don’t normally do, but I held together and got faster.”.

Only one problem. Hill turned 50 on August 11, 2002 — not 2003, as suggested in the story.
It was the combination of the time discrepancy and the misleading DOB that led a correspondent to write me: “OK now something is really strange. Hill did not turn 50 until 8/11/03, so how could he have set an Age 50 AR for the steeple on June 21 2003!”
Good eye. But bad writing can leave anyone cross-eyed.
Leonard turns 55 this summer but doesn’t expect to shoot for any records until the 2008 season, he told me tonight. At 5-11 and 140 pounds, and a recent fifth-placer in the M50 USATF National Masters Club Cross Country Race in San Francisco (where at age 54 he was less than 10 seconds behind the winner), Leonard is still in shape for an attempt at the listed M55 American steeple and 5000 records (10:59.2 and 16:27.1, respectively.)
The listed M55 world records are 9:55.05 (steeple) and 15:37.0 (5000), probably out of Leonard’s range. But what of it? A national record is a national record.
Leonard is not some late-bloomer, by the way. He’s been a stud since youth. In 1972, he was the first national Junior (under-20) champion, running the 3K steeple in 9:20 while a freshman at Oregon State University. In 1973, Track & Field News ranked him eighth in the United States in the steeple.
The newspaper article took up the rest of his career: “Hill concentrated on the marathon after graduating from OSU and competed in the 1980, ‘84 and ’88 Olympic Trials.”
And when Leonard was 40 in 1992, he ran 26-plus miles in 2:23.
But back to the M50 steeple record:
Pete Mundle was USATF masters records chairman at the time of this submission, so the flub came on his watch. But now the ball is in Sandy Pashkin’s court.
No American has come close to 10:10 in M50 since Leonard ran it (with the best since then being Jim Robinson’s 10:48.12 in 2005). So this should be a slam dunk.
Hey, Sandy!
Just go and fix it.