How hard is it go sub 2:05 for 800m in your 40s?

Who is the top guy and most likely to win?

OP, it could be possible! No way to find out except to try.

I'm bullish on your chances here. I had an athletic background age 10-18 but never ran track. Started jogging in my 20s, then racing roads. Never did a track race until I was 33, and that year I ran 2:06 (as well as my much-worse road PBs 16:xx, 35:xx).

I know that's unremarkable and 33 is not SO old in mid-distance running, but the part that may be relevant here is I was still doing 2:09 at 42.

So, do I think a former 1:49 guy can run faster in his 40s than a never-was like me? Yes, yes I do.

There are M40 guys chasing and even breaking 2:00 -- maybe you can be one of them.

I don't think you can judge difficulty by the finishers at masters championships. A lot of these have very few entrants; it's more a test of who has the money and time to burn. As a result you'll also see huge gaps sometimes between the different places.

But it's also hard to find people to push you, events to run, etc. I'm trying to run an 800 on and I'm going to ask for volunteers from my run club to help me time trial. If you were a legit track athlete in high school or college, it will feel like a very different pursuit.

It depends on where you fit in the 40 to 49 year old age group. At age 40 it’s not that difficult with a good effort, but after 45 it’s much more challenging. As someone has already pointed out the fastest American in the world last year ran 2:05. He was 46. But that man was only the 42nd fastest person in the world. There’s a real dearth of 800 m talent in this age group in the USA right now, apparently. Even so, it’s a bit of a stretch to say that you will turn into the fastest American in your first year back training.

Speaking of 40, how about some love for 65 year old Rick Lee of NJ who became the first American 65 or older to run a sub-5:00 mile on Saturday. Lee ran 4:57 to break the 65-69 US record by 7 seconds and come within a hair of the world mark. Also, 85 yr old Michael Cook ran 8:09, 4 seconds under the 85-89 US record.

As someone in that group who can also still run 2:00. Get a HR monitor and use a lot of controlled threshold (160HR) and easy runs like (120-130HR). You will have a lot fewer hard workouts and even those should be more controlled than in your youth. 200's at 1500 pace type of stuff for intervals. Only when all the signals are green, body is healthy and stride bouncy should you test out your speed and do that sparingly. Most weeks you will be lucky to have one good session, and the rest are just ok.

You can race indoor meets off training on an outdoor track. Ya, it won't go as well as if you could practice the tight turns, but its something.

Check directathletics again unless you just can't travel more than there and back to race - there may be more meets than you think.

Skipping indoor is more so because it's difficult to get race prep in, 200s when it's 10 degrees outside is asking for a strain or worse.

But yeah I'm never going to do this by making excuses. i also don't want to spend 6-8 hours on a weekend just to run a 2:08. 5k-marathon, if the training isnt going perfect, it's easy to just find a different race in a couple months. the windows are a little more narrow with track.

2:05 at 40 is equivalent to 2:00 at your peak.