With pacing help from masters miler Tony Young, distance star Pete Magill of South Pasadena, California, took 20 seconds off the venerable M45 American record for 10,000 meters on the track Aug. 2, clocking 31:27.30 at a Club Northwest all-comers meet in Seattle. The old mark was set in 1977. Pete writes: “I felt great the first 5000, coming through in 15:29. But then started to feel my lack of fitness (with all the racing I’ve been doing, I haven’t done a run over 10 miles — and only 3 or 4 of those — in the last seven weeks)!”

Pete adds:
“Well, it wasn’t as fast as I wanted to run — and certainly not as fast as I could have run a month ago — but I’ll take it. Still beats the old M45 record of 31:48 by Ray Hatton.
“The last two miles were a real bitch, but luckily there were some other masters runners (Tony Young, Kelly Kruell, Sean Evans, etc.) on the infield to cheer me on — not to mention my old high school coach, Pat Logan, up in the stands with 4 of his young runners in tow! I ran 74s through 4 miles, then made an executive decision and slowed to 79s until it was time to kick it home.
“Today, it feels like someone went after my calves with a fork. They’re absolutely shredded (yes, I ran the 10K in spikes).
“Anyway, I’m glad to put this summer season to bed. Time to run x-country.
“Plus, it’s been fun hanging out at Tony Young’s. Tony and I have traded a couple emails with John Hinton. We figure next spring will be a great M45 competition to see who gets to be the first American M45 under 4 minutes — and who ends up with the WR at the end of the season!
“Since I’m oldest, I figure I’ll get the record first … but once Tony and John turn 45 (April and May, respectively) look out! Those two could bring the mark down near 3:50!”
In an earlier note, Kelly Kruell wrote me:
“Tony Young paced him for a little bit and Danny Gonzales tried to stay with him for a while (but dropped out), but most of the race was Pete running solo. He ran 31:27.3 (I think that’s the official time — I think the 3 watches on it were 31:27.1, 31:27.3 and 31:27.4.) . . . .
“Anyway, now he’s got 4 records (3K, 5K and 10K track and 5K road), but just
missed out in his favorite event, the 1500 where he ran 4:00.93.”
Me again:
At Charlotte masters nationals, the M45 10K was contested at 9:45 a.m. Saturday, when temps were in the mid-80s or low-90s with high humidity. Here are results from Pete’s age group:
1 6 Adkins, Jeffrey M45 Granite Bay, CA 34:25.59
2 785 McCormack, Sean M45 Orange Park, FL 34:44.09
3 1261 Valenzano, Bill M46 Cincinnati, OH 36:16.10
4 809 McLaughlin, Terenc M45 Spotsylvania, VA 37:54.66
5 94 Bird, Daniel M47 Cincinnati, OH 38:07.46
6 630 Kaplan, Pete M49 Charlotte, NC 38:16.52
7 231 Cleary, Mark M47 Rancho Santa Margar 38:30.63
8 657 Kissane, John M46 Athens, GA 39:53.01
9 1187 Stewart, Stanly M49 Catawba, NC 40:56.67
10 95 Bitsko, Jim M45 Doraville, GA 42:24.39
Pete’s 31:27 — a 5:05 mile pace — is equivalent to an open (ages 20-30) effort of 28:37.25 on the WMA Age-Graded Tables.
Sleep in a few weeks, Pete. You’ve earned it.