Who still enjoys racing even though you are slower?

age graded times are really interesting.

And really, unless you were a 15:30 or faster 5k guy, you might be able to get surprisingly close to your old times.

Lots of great masters stories.

I never really liked racing as much as I like training so I am not a great example.

From Amby Burfoot:

The Why Race? question is interesting. It’s not required after all. I can be a runner without being a racer. My wife is always advising me to be “more moderate in all things.” And she’s smart, this is good advice.

But you know what? A person can get too much of this moderate stuff. Who wants to live a life that’s always safe, controlled, aiming for the middle path?

Every once in a while I still want to feel the burn. To push to the limit. To be near collapse when I cross the finish line. Sure, I already know the result: It will be shown that I’m older and slower than I was yesterday and the day before that. I don’t need a race to tell me these things.

But a race says I’m not ready to surrender. It says I’m going to keep struggling to squeeze all I can out of this life. It says I’m not checking out of here until I’ve given it my all. Yes, I know I’m gonna die some day.

But I have a good feeling about tomorrow’s race.

Rage against the dying of the light.

find different distances or locals so you don't have comparisons. I started as a road racer, so doing an indoor track mile was much different to me last week. Give yourself some extra recovery time between races so you give it good effort during the race, and know that sometimes just the joy of effort is the beauty of life. All the best! ML

I never ran a step until I was 21 and was never very good either with PR's of 18:12 and 37:10 at age 26. As I got older, times slowed and my times were more like 20:40 and 42:00. About 6 months ago I decided to try something I had never done before and try to see how fast I could get at the mile. I had never time trialed a mile so any time would be a PR. I started training like a miler with lots of 400, 800 work but also mile repeats.

A nice side benefit to just shifting the type of training I was doing, and reducing my mileage to about 30 (stopped doing a weekly long run)was that my 5K times improved. When I ran my first race in about 4 years (a 5K), I was 1 minute faster than I was 5 years ago and only 20 seconds slower than I was 11 years ago at age 30 (all three races were run on the same course.

So, not only has my mile Time Trial come down significantly in 6 months but my 5K time is approaching what it was 11 years ago. I don't know if I will ever PR again in the 5K but I think if I keep doing the mile training there is a possibility.

I think the previous advice of doing a distance you have never raced is an excellent one!

4 words...Girls In Tight Spandex.

Alan

I've only been running for two years, starting when I was 34. For me, each race is an opportunity to PR.

I believe as long as I stay healthy (leg wise) that I'll continue to chase times for quite a while. I still think I can run < 16:59 for 5k ...

i've been doing road races for more than 30 years.. as long as it's fun, i'll keep doing it. i still make and chase time goals, even tho they're slower than they used to be

right now, i'm in the midst of a quest for a post-50 sub-3:00 marathon - hoping to get my sub-3:00 for the 4th decade (in two ways, the 80's, 90's, 00', and 10's and in my 20's, 30's, 40's, and 50's)

I'm slower no doubt but I never trained well when I was younger. So now at 42 I still have a legitimate (though fading) shot at even some of my shorter-distance PRs, like 5k and 5 mile.

Mostly though I am still going for PRs in longer distances. I didn't run a marathon or even a half marathon until age 34 so those PRs are still pretty soft.

It will be interesting to see how I handle things when all such PRs are out of reach.

I was never great, 4:02 1500m, 15:11 5000m in college, and I have absolutely no hope of ever regaining that kind of speed again. But I've been suffering the ravages of injuries acquired during those days for so long, that anything I ran now would be considered a new PR. It has been 7 years since I was able to race. Even 10 miles a week makes my feet hurt beyond what I can stand. I would just love to run at all again. Not even seriously. I'd like to be able to just complete a 10k. I don't even care what the time would be. I just want to be able to run again. So, no I don't care that the times would be slower. They certainly would be. But considering the years off I have had, I would consider it all a whole new sport I was taking up, rather than chasing what I did previously.

between mr. obvious' reply as well as runningart's, need we say more? what the hell, why not...

i will never approach my prs in the mile or 5k, and i have no desire to run a marathon after 42 years of happiness, and 25 years in the sport. however, you can choose a couple of different ways to set benchmarks:

one, as mentioned, is age-grading. it's interesting to me that i am at least approaching, and in the 5k surpassing, my age-grade percentages from my glory days. that's something.

two, jack daniel's charts. i don't follow these religiously as a coach or athlete, but they do allow me to set reasonable expectations when trying to extrapolate my workouts to races. i find i'm pretty content when i feel i'm racing to my potential, which is always fluid and relative to age, training, health, etc.

the truth is, for me at least, i'm having as much--and at times, more--fun now than i've ever had with running, training and competing. and this may be because of the final, most important component (at least to me): find a team and/or group to train with and race with. when your misery is shared, your enjoyment is exponentially increased. this verbal paradox is mathematical fact.

I race about 4 times per year and I have to say that I don't enjoy it at all. It is hard for me to just run without being tempted to race though.

Another problem is that I always feel like I’m suffering more than anyone else in the race. My running background allows me to push fairly hard in spite of my weight (175lbs) and mileage (30 mpw). This ends up being a recipe for discomfort.

So this year my 50th BDay goal is to get to a consistent 40 to 50 mpw and drop my weight to somewhere below 170 lbs (will need to cut back a little on the microbrews to achieve this). This should allow me to have more fun racing. If the increase in mileage and weight loss doesn’t help than I think I’ll stick to just going out for runs and cut my racing schedule down to twice a year or so.

GREAT QUESTIONS! And ones I've asked myself and others almost weekly these days...

I'm 51 years old and have been running for 30 years. Amazingly, I ran all my PRs after 18 years of running, when I was 39 years old. Nothing great, but not too bad (5k = 16:04, 10k = 33:51, 10 miles = 56:35, HM = 1:14:17, MAR = 2:43:19).

During that time, I was feeling pretty good about things when a friend said to me, 'just wait until you hit 45, then it all starts going downhill'. I swear he put a curse on me because sure enough, right around that time, my race times started to fall off. Now that I've crossed into my 50s and dealt with some long-lasting injuries, I'm struggling to run track repeats in times I used to average for 5k!!!

Don't get me wrong, I still love to run and do workout but it is tough to get motivated to race when you know you'll never approach times and places you once did. Racing has become much more of a social outlet to me now, as opposed to a quest for the next PR or trophy.

I do agree with finding different distances or events to try, as well as age-grading your race times to see if you can stay in the same ballpark as when you were at your peak. So far, I've managed to age-grade run the equivalent or better of my lifetime PRs, so that's good.

I also find as I get older that I'm imparting my running "wisdom" more often to younger, newer runners. Whether they want it or not. :)

And I always make sure to live by this saying:

THE OLDER I GET, THE BETTER I WAS. :) :) :)

I was only able to consistently run after I resumed racing. For 25 years, since I stopped competing in track, I never could sustain a fitness program. Running for fitness alone could not motivate. I thought had to learn to run without being competitive with myself, or with others.

NO! Once I started racing again, I am having more fun with than ever, and have been running 2000+ miles for the last five years. Too, I never ran anything more than 800 meters as a young man, so I have PRs at 50 years old in the 5K, 10K, half and full marathon. The times are irrelevant, but I am usually 80-90% in the age grade tables (doing better at the shorter distances).

I truly enjoy the training more than I ever did. Even though I need racing to stay motivated, its not just about the racing. Being healthy and fit is fun.

oh my god man. that's hillarious, you are like begging at the end. c'mon please lemme back please, lemme back lemme back I just wanna run again lemme back again please oh jeez! that's a good un.

You get to the point where you're getting whipped by youngsters running what was your easy run pace years back. Then you either give up or focus on competing with guys your own age and looking to age-grading as a means of keeping things in perspective.

The running is fun and the racing is not (well, while it's being done) but I can't imagine doing the former without the latter.

Like you, I still enjoy training. I actually enjoy racing even more! why? because I just focus on trying to beat who's around me. Also I enjoy chasing those who are running infront of me. Have any of you guys ever ask yourself how many guys can you catch? I love the feeling that I get after a hard, all out race. I simply enjoy competing and going back and forth with other runners in the middle of a race, kicking hard at the end, going flat out against another runner etc... It's all fun to me. It's like exchanging punches in the ring... To me it has never been ONLY about times. It was and continues to be more about being a tough competitor and giving it all I have. So why stop racing?

yessirrrrrrrrrrr!!! wrote:

Like you, I still enjoy training. I actually enjoy racing even more! why? because I just focus on trying to beat who's around me. Also I enjoy chasing those who are running infront of me. Have any of you guys ever ask yourself how many guys can you catch? I love the feeling that I get after a hard, all out race. I simply enjoy competing and going back and forth with other runners in the middle of a race, kicking hard at the end, going flat out against another runner etc... It's all fun to me. It's like exchanging punches in the ring... To me it has never been ONLY about times. It was and continues to be more about being a tough competitor and giving it all I have.

So why stop racing?

You said it all,could not agree more.Racing is what you train for.