Keith Bateman WR M55 5K - 15:29.7 - Jan 5th 2011

Fantastic news! Congratulations Keith. You're a real inspiration. If you're reading this could you kindly post a few secrets to your success when you have the time? Must also say well done to his coach Sean Williams who has to be one of top 3 distance coaches in Australia, for his fine work with Ben St Lawrence, Lara Tamsett as well.

Wow. That is impressive. I'd never heard of him, but now I'm going to some research. It is inspiring what some of these guys are doing through their 40s, 50s, all the way up to the Ed Whitlocks in their 70s. Great stuff.

Dude has a sub 9 3K as a 55 y.o. Phenomenal

Barefoot runner / Minimlaist and world record holder... Interesting!

red flag! clearly a doper.

I hope he's clean because those times for a 55 year old are obscene.

Way to go Keith!

Impressive times.

He is running faster in late 2010 and early 2011 as a 55 year old than he did as a 50 year old in 2005. His 5000m has come down by almost a minute in that time. That kind of thing usually doesn't happen to someone that age.

When did he start running? And/or what has changed since 2005?

Makes Pete Magill look soft.

Great stuff.

Chubb, you can feel very, very confident in "Fossil" being clean. Sign up to Coolrunning Australia and catch up with him and find out how he goes about it.

Cool stuff. Makes me think that a sub 17 at age 37 isn't so crazy to think of.

mopak wrote:

Chubb, you can feel very, very confident in "Fossil" being clean. Sign up to Coolrunning Australia and catch up with him and find out how he goes about it.

Please accept my apologies if my post was taken as though I was questioning it. I was responding to the post before me.

As a former decent runner and now 53 year old slow-a$$, I have nothing for respect for guys like Keith.

Under Ultra wrote:

Makes Pete Magill look soft.

Great stuff.

Not really. Pete just won ALL DIVISIONS Club Nationals Masters (the most competitive Masters race on the planet) and he is 49. Probably still capble of sub-15.

anyone know if bateman was fast as a 20 year old? I'm always curious to hear if bloody fast masters runners are holding on to speed or improving as they go.

Was he somewhere in that video?

agip wrote:

anyone know if bateman was fast as a 20 year old? I'm always curious to hear if bloody fast masters runners are holding on to speed or improving as they go.

According to Bateman's website, his lifetime PR at age 45 was something like 36:30! Soon after that he started improving a lot when he changed coaches.

unknown runners wrote:

Was he somewhere in that video?

He's in the green singlet. Big gray mane. Once you see him it is extremely obvious because he looks like an old guy.

On the website it says "progress since my first track race in 2004". So that would explain why he could be faster at 55 than 50 if he was just a running newbie then.

rocknrollrunner wrote:

According to Bateman's website, his lifetime PR at age 45 was something like 36:30! Soon after that he started improving a lot when he changed coaches.

Whoo hoo! I am 40 and recently hit my lifetime PR of 36:10 at 10k. Can't wait until I hit 55!!!!

All kidding aside, this guy is a major inspiration. Hopefully it is never too late to run fast.

I am 43 and still improving but only running a cautious 45 mpw - I'm seriously thinking about upping my mileage this year to see what I can do.

I have been injury prone in the past but not recently...feels like rolling the dice to run more, but sometimes you have to say what the heck.

guys like bateman make me wonder if I should roll those dice