59 yo - Second American at London. How about some love for Jenny Hitchings who ran 2:45:27?

Could be Jenna Hutchins in disguise.

I care, and I don't. I will say that time improvement in and of itself is not an indication of doping. Say somebody is 50 hasn't run in 15 years, trains for a local 5k, runs a 25 minute time. They could keep training and in a year be in the low 21s or even high 20s just by eating better and getting in shape. If competing for a stupid $3 medal that says 1st place on it is something that gets that person off the couch, great. If somebody is dumb enough to pay thousands of dollars for steroids to win $3 medals at the town 5k, and dopes under the supervision of a physician, part of me really doesn't care.

But that brings me to my main problem with doping amongst Master's runners: it undermines the achievements of people who improve through hard work. It makes everybody's times not believable. And that takes away from others' enjoyment.

But testing appropriately to ensure doping wasn't happening amongst Master's runners doesn't make sense for national and international federations--the cost of a proper doping regime would well exceed to entire value of the prizes at Master's races.

Not necessarily.

Now I'm a comparative two-bit nobody/has been that never was, but didn't slow much at the range of 8K to half marathon from my late 40s to early 60s (my mile and 3K did slow by a lot). Have run and raced most years since my late teen, peaking ca. age 30. Age 50 best 10K was 35:45, and at 59 I ran 2 seconds faster on the same course. Ran fastest half in 20 years at age 61 [these before super shoes].

Hitchings does compete at USATF masters races (ran the 10 mile just 3 weeks ago) and those do have some drug testing. I do wish there was more, as well as some out of competition testing.

Some people do age better than the norm, and if you account for training, super-shoes, etc. you do get masters runners doing amazing things, and doing it cleanly.

At 59 it's good to have some meat on the bones so as not to look like a Skeletor.

At age 58 her legs look more cut than most pros.

I have no idea if Hitchings is natural or not - that's for you running experts/coaches to speculate on. The older women I see at my gym who are on TRT/HRT & lift regularly have pretty significant muscle mass, very low BF & have some masculine characteristics (low voice, facial hair, aggressiveness, etc).

What I can tell you is TRT is rampant at my gym - and not just with old dudes but younger guys as well. I'm middle-age & just about every other middle-aged guy I meet is on TRT. Some look fabulous with impressive muscle mass & low BF while others not so good (high BF, no significant muscle mass). And some of the TRT guys do run regularly & tell me they participate in some local charity 5 & 10k races.

I also have a couple of younger friends at the gym who are on TRT - a 36 yr old & a 32 yr old (they're cousins). Neither competes in bodybuilding nor powerlifting but just wanted to "get jacked." Lol. They go to a local Low-T center & self-administer the testosterone injections at home (Btw, Derek from the YouTube channel "More Plates More Dates" is on TRT & he's only in his late 20s!).

I live in a large metropolitan area & there are so many Low T centers cropping everywhere. And they heavily advertise on local sports talk shows paying retired professional athletes to promo their business.

And the costs are not "thousands of dollars" but more like just hundreds of dollars. This older athlete says he pays a mere $55 dollars a month for his therapy which includes the testosterone, syringes, blood work & doctor visits:

Get use to it guys - TRT is everywhere & is the new norm: Master athletes, non-competitive athletes, fitness enthusiasts, weekend warriors, gym bros, etc.

This is an eye-opening report - and it's 10 yrs ago!

Interesting. Did you work to improve all of those years or were you in and out of serious training?

Testing at races is pretty useless if it is announced it will happen. Dopers are smart enough to stop in time to not be detected and the big effect is being able to recover in training. So stopping a couple of weeks before a race won’t hurt performance.

It is not the real TX Runner Girl (however that is really spelled out) and if you look above, even these two posts are spelling it differently (and non-registered).

2:45 at 60? You must be kidding. No way is this legit.

She should wear more sunscreen, it’s a great invention

What are you talking about? Who here is following/caring how fast the 55+ age group is running. If she’s going to some doctor to get testosterone or whatever for a better quality of life, who gives a crap. Oh no! She then enters a road race!! Who cares what anyone is taking that runs 2:45. Most old people that are “doing” are doing it for quality of life. If they are doing it for age group awards, that’s weird but I still could care less. Has zero impact on the sport

I guess my main question is how these Masters runners keep this up. After competing in HS, college, and post-college for about a decade, I still run daily but I just cannot train super hard anymore. Nobody I ran with in college is able to train hard. I was the most durable runner on my team and still feel pretty durable, but at a certain point I just don't see how some of the older folks do it. I am in my 40s. I guess TRT would be goo for me...? Not going to do it...

She's only 59. But fast enough to make you all jealous.

I say that's a wonderful thing.

are they paying you to advertise, because that sounds great

Fair point. But there should be no thing as an age group record. Because because records are kept there should some method of validating that these are the case. A race where a record is set has to ensure the course is the distance stated. So why bother with this validation if there is no way to prove that the athlete setting the record hasn't cheated?

how on earth did 8 losers downvote this

I’m 62 and started using TRT crème (100 mg/day) about 2 years ago. Did it for sleep related issued. My T was below, and/or at the very bottom of, normal for my age and is now in the upper range of normal. Sleep quality is much improved (finally) and my Hb is 16.5-17.0 g/dL (Hct 50%). I run just so that I can keep from getting fat and old; however, quality sleep and a high Hb make life a lot more enjoyable. Costs $59 month and I monitor my T about every 6 months. Under direction of a physician.

I helped run a national usatf masters event. There was a known doper competing.. I asked will they test... Nope!