Musing on Racing

Last night I was surfing the web and looking at all the race results. I still find them interesting to read. I keep thinking how few times I find my name there and when I do how I get this OOMPH when I see my finishing times. I have to go back to 1995 to find a race where I felt I was competitve and still had the drive. To be comptitve these days I would have to be running a high 18 low 19 minute 5K. For me that was at least ten years ago. It is hard to see what sort of "thing" would get me going in that direction again.

I am not heavy but I could lose way more weight and make myself light as a feather. I was not as light as a feather when I ran my best times so it would be different. My best times can at 135-140 lbs. I am about 138-142 these days. Most of the good runners in my age group are leaner. I am built more like Prefontaine. Stocky I guess (for a runner).

I could just go out and run as hard as I could stand it for as long as I could stand it in races. This is the kamakazi approach. You just hang with the guys you want to race wth until you can stay with them and then move up to the next target. This can be very painful. The latter stages of races can be pretty awful looking. You can be with your target and then suddenly lose 20 seconds or more over the last half of race. I ran best when I was in conttrol at 2/3rds of the way through a race and then could run hard in (pain or not). I don't think my body is trained for this. I hate intervals but time trials might get me there or they might exhaust me.

Racing in my 60's is a far cry from 30 years ago. At 32 I was race hardened and could jump into anything from a mile to a marathon and just be ready to go. And all this being said, I doube it will get me down to the low 19's or high 18's.