Why does marathon participation and performance plunge from age 59 to 60?

There is a middle ground, you know.

Just because you can't set any lifetime PRs in the 5K doesn't mean you can't aim for a high age-grade percentage or the fastest possible 5K that you can run with your current limitations.

Sure, you could aim to win your local age-group division but that is always dependent on who shows up. Compare your 60 year old times to your 60 year old self and try to run as fast as possible (getting as many miles as you can)

Be the best YOU can be.

And you still miss the point. Past a certain age, just staying in the game is being the best you can be. And you stay in the game by managing risk.

Every year, I see another one or two of my running friends be taken out of the game by injury. I'm still in the game because I'm learning how to manage risk. Could I knock 15 seconds off my 5k time by upping my mileage? Maybe. Is it worth the increased injury risk? Heck no.

I'm a lot slower than I was 10 and 20 years ago, but compared to my friends my age who can't or don't run, I may as well be Super Man.

ddsdsdvvdv wrote:

There is a middle ground, you know.

Just because you can't set any lifetime PRs in the 5K doesn't mean you can't aim for a high age-grade percentage or the fastest possible 5K that you can run with your current limitations.

Sure, you could aim to win your local age-group division but that is always dependent on who shows up. Compare your 60 year old times to your 60 year old self and try to run as fast as possible (getting as many miles as you can)

Be the best YOU can be.

Been there, done that, got way too many t-shirts.

I ran in high school, college, and put in almost 20 years of serious hobby jogger racing after school - including 10 marathons. Now as a master, I'm running for enjoyment. If a relaxed 5 miler is more enjoyable than a hard 10 miler, I'm doing the relaxed 5 miler. I'm entering whatever race looks the most fun, not the one with the best chance of a PR.

My masters running is dedicated to fun and enjoyment, not training my brains out for a time no one cares about. And I'm still fitter than 99% of the people my age.

About to turn 60 wrote:

Looking at race results from my favorite marathons, I notice that the number of participants in the 60-64 age group plunges dramatically from the age 55-59 group. And, the 55-59 group has times well under 3 hours(winners after 60 can be suddenly 20 to 39 minutes slower).

Yeah, sub-3 is seldom achieved after 60. I have been watching results this year, and there have been fewer than a dozen in the U.S. so far, although three at Grandma's.

I took 13 years off from marathoning, then tried one at age 57. Minimal mileage, but got the long runs in, and supplemented with cycling. I surprised myself with a 3:25, and got bit by the marathon bug again.

I trained more seriously the next year, but dealt with injuries. No surprise there. Still, I improved to 3:07 at age 58, which got me thinking about sub-3 at 60.

No marathon planned this year at 59, just trying to build a base and race at shorter distances. And, you know, it's really a relief to not need those 20-milers. Like someone else said, they take a long time to run, then most of the day to recover afterwards!

I am really rethinking my tentative marathon plans for next year at 60. I am still dealing with a couple nagging injuries, and am thinking it's not worth the huge commitment it would require.

In which case, I become another case in point. Decent at 58, gone at 60!

Allen1959 wrote:

And, you know, it's really a relief to not need those 20-milers.

That sums it up for me. I've run lots of marathons. At this stage in my life, I don't want to slog through the long runs anymore. I can "race" 5ks against other 50+ guys without that.

Like others have said, been there, done that.

not 60 yet... wrote:

Allen1959 wrote:

And, you know, it's really a relief to not need those 20-milers.

That sums it up for me. I've run lots of marathons. At this stage in my life, I don't want to slog through the long runs anymore. I can "race" 5ks against other 50+ guys without that.

Like others have said, been there, done that.

It's funny - I've told myself "just one more marathon" twice before, and now I'm still thinking "maybe one more". Reading this thread, I think I need to put my foot down and say NO MAS. I thought of no more long runs is REALLY appealing. Just running a 5k every weekend sounds like a blast.

Nope, I respectfully disagree. I have way more free time to train at 60 than I did 5 years ago when I was still working 40 hour weeks. And most men would at 60 - 65 have way more time to not only train but also the time to recover (retirement!). This drop off in performance (exaggerated by your small sample size, but real nevertheless) is almost wholly physiological. At this age, decline in performance is not linear but exponential. Period.

I've found, throughout my fifties, that reducing the risk of injury, has led to relinquishing the very workouts that would make a switch to short races worthwhile: track repeats, sprints, strides, drills.

I'm 59. I noticed the first major difference in training and racing at 54.

I'm doing a lot of more strength work- so let's see. But I'm not running marathons, I hate them.

old man shuffle wrote:

Go back and read his first paragraph - the one you didn't quote. He's not a 25 year old setting PRs - he's a masters runner that's been there, done that.

I generally think it's a bad idea to keep racing marathons into your 50s and 60s. You can get away with it when you're in your 20s through 40s, but past age 50, things change. The orthopedic and cardiac risks go up so much. If you can still race 5 and 10ks into your 60s, you should be thrilled with that. THRILLED. I have so many running friends who can no longer run at all because of various physical ailments (mainly arthritis), and almost to a man, they tell me to stay away from marathons at my age.

Explain Whitlock? He had 0 cardiac issues, died of cancer, lived pretty long. Why would the cardiac risks go up? To me, blasting a mile at age 60 is more dangerous than marathon pace. Marathons aren't all that dangerous, probably safer than a hard fought 5k too.

I'm fascinated by this thread. I can't speak about marathons, but I can say that the past year, during which I transitioned from 59 to 60 and from a healthy adult male runner to something distinctly other than that, has been a revelation. My knees are going. The phrase "Not a bug but a feature" is never far from my lips. I've had an extremely hard time getting my Sunday long run past 10 miles, which is....new.

That's all I've got to say. But there's something there.

The great winnowing.

Let me reword that. I’m not sure your VO2 declines faster after a certain age but it does seem there’s an acceleration of decline after 55.

I should add something, just in case some young whippersnapper is inclined to get snarky. At 5 foot 11, I'm still a trim 167. My health, apart from all the running-generated stuff, is terrific. I never get colds. I sleep well. I eat healthy and well. My spirit is undimmed. I look younger than my age.

It's not for lack of will, or because of technical errors in my stride, that I'm breaking down. I take my vitamins. I don't overstride.

The truth is, even when you do things right, stuff starts to break down. Connective tissue doesn't age well. Muscle mass slowly declines.

It's very simple: You just can't do the stuff you used to do. Slowing down is the least of my worries! I'd be happy if a slow decline in my times was the only problem! Younger runners--50-somethings--please pay attention. I was an arrogant SOB in my early 50s. My times were still getting faster. (I'd returned to racing at 45.)

Yet as late as a year ago (April 2017), two days before my 59th birthday, I still managed to run 7:03 pace for a local 5K and I actually led the damned race for a mile and a half, until a 52 year old passed me in the last half mile. So there's fun and life left in your late 50s. But it feels to me these days as though that was indeed a last gasp of sorts. I haven't run a race since late April that year. More than a year.

Managing risk! I'm good at that. And I haven't raced in more than a year, because various things have gotten in the way and I'm wise enough to pay attention.

Still running 35-40 mpw. But slowing. The march of time is a b---h.

I am now 68. I was a 51 second 440 guy in college. I didn't run much for 4 years immediately following college during my Vietnam era military service. Since then I have run more or less continuously in the 35-60 mpw range. I have only run one marathon at age 35. Through 20 miles in a hair over 2 hours and then an hour and 15 minutes for the last 6.2 miles. Not my idea of a good time. I like to race and probably have averaged close to one race a month since age 26. From 25 to 47 I was usually right around 18:00 for 5k, 37:00-38:00 for 10K and 1:22 to 1:27 for a half marathon. At 47 I ran 17:46 for 5k but I really first noticed that it was taking longer to recover from hard efforts and my race times started drifting upwards even with more mileage in training. I ran a very consistent 60 mpw the year before I turned 60, and as a 60 year old rand 18:48 for 5K, 38:57 for 10K and 1:27:30 for a half marathon. Since then I have noticed a definite acceleration of loss of strength, even longer recovery times, and much more susceptibility to injuries. This year, after a couple of years of having training compromised by various injuries, I have run 20:10 for 5K.

I think that among those people at 60 who still like to compete, most of us don't want to go through the extend cycle of recovery that a marathon requires, and marathon training and racing holds a much higher risk of injury if you want to seriously race one, as opposed to just run one. Racing shorter distances a half dozen to a dozen times a year is much more entertaining to me than doing just one or maybe two marathons a year.

KudzuRunner wrote:

I'm fascinated by this thread. I can't speak about marathons, but I can say that the past year, during which I transitioned from 59 to 60 and from a healthy adult male runner to something distinctly other than that, has been a revelation. My knees are going. The phrase "Not a bug but a feature" is never far from my lips. I've had an extremely hard time getting my Sunday long run past 10 miles, which is....new.

That's all I've got to say. But there's something there.

The great winnowing.

I'm female and I turned 60 two months ago. I ran my last marathon at age 46, in 3:21. Since then, every few years I'd get the bug to run another one but would always get injured before making it to the starting line.

In the meantime I continued to run regularly and race, mainly at the half-marathon distance. I was consistently running around 1:37 in my early 50s. By age 59, I could barely get under 1:50. In my first race as a 60-year-old I could only manage 8:20/mile pace for 5 miles. I don't know how much of this is psychological, but the falloff is real and getting precipitous now.

I look on the bright side. I still really enjoy running, even if I don't much like what the clock says anymore. I enjoy the social aspects of running and racing. And the F60+ age group is really weak at most local races.

"Racing shorter distances a half dozen to a dozen times a year is much more entertaining to me than doing just one or maybe two marathons a year."

Sure, lots feel the same way, but what has that got to do with age? You didn't feel your above sentiment until your 60th bday?

And aren't most all of you old timers in agreement that our 'speed' goes first? Training for a 5K at 60 has much more risk involved than doing marathon training, at least for me. Not sure I could even break 20:00 right now, but for sure I could 'run' a 3:40 marathon. Are all of you still working full time? I would think at our age the one thing we have going for us is the time to put in some mileage and the time to recover.

My goal is to quit running if I make it to 60 and focus on maintaining strength, muscle mass and range of motion. I'll do cardio of all durations, but go low impact for high intensity stuff, and walk and jog and bike for long duration low intensity. This seems like the smartest course of action , easier realizing I am never a high level runner anyway.

I have never be fast enough to wreck myself sprinting, and 5k has been then end of my range for all my adult life. Everything beyond that is something like "just finish" territory. Maybe that's a lucky thing? I have always enjoyed jogging and walking too. I do any thing from mile to ultra, but with a realistic outlook. At 56 I run around :30 for 200 meters(not race worthy IMO), Sub-6 for mile(not race worthy IMO, and 21ish for 5k , working it down still , trying for sub 20. Not willing to strain for the marathon, which would be very slow, but did two "just finish" 50k trail events this spring. I want to do a "just finish" 50 miler in a beautiful location, but my feet are going to have to somehow feel better than they did on the build-up for the 50k's or I probably won't do it.

About to turn 60 wrote:

Looking at race results from my favorite marathons, I notice that the number of participants in the 60-64 age group plunges dramatically from the age 55-59 group. And, the 55-59 group has times well under 3 hours(winners after 60 can be suddenly 20 to 39 minutes slower).

Anyone want to comment on their individual experiences as to what happens in such a short time?

No clue but I felt my generation was bad...dang I’m depressed now.