Super impressive: 62-year old Tommy Hughes - 2:30:05 marathon today in Manchester

My hips are doing well, thanks. But I'm sure I'd do even better if I doped like some masters athletes.

How do you explain that he has slowed only 17 minutes in 30 years, while he is currently 22 minutes faster than Ed Whitlock when Ed was only 7 years older? Ed's legs were pretty "fresh", too, since he had taken a long break from the sport. Was Ed only mediocre?

If you doped, you would still be miserable and lonely with nothing better to do than troll here.

This guy should be a role model for all of us.

If Tommy was relying in you to defend him over doping speculation he would be seriously disappointed. It escapes you that I am not the subject here.

I'm sure he is for some of you. Take that as you will.

If you read the article and watch the video you'll know that he would probably not recommend folks to live the life he's lived. Years and years of heavy drinking, binges drinking pure vodka for days at a time. What THAT history shows is he is even more of a remarkable runner than the 2:30 belies. 4 decades of sub 2:30's despite all the drinking is amazing and shows that had he been sober in his prime, who knows what he could have done? It may explain his slowed decline as by drinking less his running benefitted. He's been sober since 2018 so good for him!

Did anyone catch that he ran 3:01:28 in Belfast in his first marathon running only 4 miles three times a week? That's raw talent!

The man works very, very hard and deserves all the credit in the world.

irishnews.com

Keep on running: How marathon man Tommy Hughes battled back from the brink

@irishnewssport

WITH one final glance at his watch Tommy Hughes’s familiar hunched gait slows to a stop.

Open link

Yeah, it'd be nice if he applied himself to something that benefited society at all but at least he's no longer a sot.

Mostly spot on but I would like to clarify that 45 miles a week at my age (62) is harder than 45 miles a week was at age 22 because I am 20 percent slower. A 45 minute run is the same today as when I was 22. Recovery is actually a little better because I don't push to the limit quite as hard as I used to. A lot of the speed that I did in my youth was wasted because it was on tired leg.

Do people seriously think he dopes? I won't rule it out, but it seems highly unlikely. What would be the incentive? It's not like a 60 year-old masters runner from Ireland is going to be a sponsorship magnet or that there's any sort of decent prize money so there's no financial gain. There's no real fame either, beyond a few notices in the running community.

To me, he's just a very good athlete who, for some reason, has stayed demotivated into later life in a way that other Olympic athletes have not. I'm almost certain someone like Steve Jones could have run quite a lot faster than 2:30 in his 60s if he had the motivation. Tommy is just one of the very few Olympic level athletes that wanted to keep running hard into their pensionable years

So why do you try to make yourself the subject?

He looks like an Orc.
Whitlock, an elf.

You are a miserable old man. So bitter, so jealous that others can do what you can't.

Yeah I agree, I think his history of alcoholism and being alcohol free since 2018 makes me believe his story even more. Who knows how fast he could have been without alcohol from his 20's through late 50's? He might just be reaching his full potential now.

Also, as far as comparisons to Whitlock go, it's entirely possible that Tommy is more talented. Ed ran a 2:31 marathon at age 48 which is obviously very good and shows potential, but Tommy ran 2:13 in his early 30's. When you factor in his past alcoholism, I could see why he would surpass Whitlock.

I don't know what kind of science age grading is based on, but it seems to be way off shell.