62 year old Mariko Yugeta runs 2:52:13 at Osaka Women's Marathon, breaking her own 60+ record by 4:41

The 60+ WR holder in the 10K at 33:39, YoshÌtsugu (this name is not profanity, mods) Iwanaga, uses an identical stretch board. His ROM is remarkable, I see top US guys 20 years his junior with worse ROM.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioPzZZ0HF8E&feature=emb_titlehttp://japanrunningnews.blogspot.com/2020/11/iwanaga-breaks-60-masters-10000-m-world.html These two are remarkably well-preserved specimens, it's not a huge surprise knowing how much the lifestyle (everyday movement, exposure to environmental toxins) of a significant portion of the Japanese population slows aging compared with their counterparts in the USA. I wouldn't be at all surprised if Yugeta has spent far less time sitting in chairs and riding in cars than someone like JBS has.

Ghost1 wrote:

A few points:

1. She has good form and quite muscular legs.

2. She does a lot of stretching.

3. She does speed work, including 1000 m in around 330.

4. She coaches high school runners who idolize her.

5. She has an innovative stretching device for her legs kind of wooden plank which slants down words and which is transportable, look at minute five in the video. 5.00-5.30.

6. She trains with younger people including high school kids because no one in her age group can run with her.

https://youtu.be/oj4TaCRgaJg

juddy96 wrote:

Yugeta was 48th/61 finishers and broke her own record from Saitama Marathon in December 2019.

This year's Osaka Women's Marathon was run on a 2.8km loop course finishing inside the stadium.

Splits:

20:07

40:11 (20:04)

1:00:20 (20:09)

1:20:42 (20:22)

Half 1:25:01

1:40:51 (20:09)

2:01:10 (20:19)

2:21:52 (20:42)

2:42:56 (21:04)

2:52:13 (09:17)

VERY impressive! She faded just a bit on her last couple loops. If she could have held her pace, which was solid those first 6 loops, she would have finished a solid minute faster.

luthor wrote:

juddy96 wrote:

Yugeta was 48th/61 finishers and broke her own record from Saitama Marathon in December 2019.

This year's Osaka Women's Marathon was run on a 2.8km loop course finishing inside the stadium.

Splits:

20:07

40:11 (20:04)

1:00:20 (20:09)

1:20:42 (20:22)

Half 1:25:01

1:40:51 (20:09)

2:01:10 (20:19)

2:21:52 (20:42)

2:42:56 (21:04)

2:52:13 (09:17)

VERY impressive! She faded just a bit on her last couple loops. If she could have held her pace, which was solid those first 6 loops, she would have finished a solid minute faster.

She'll be racing again next month so could very well nail it there.

Amazing. Sub 3 is a brutal effort.

I can hardly imagine anyone I know who is 50 and male that could do it.

Mariko Yugeta (13 May, 1958)

Progression:

2021 2:52:13 Osaka (JPN) 31 JAN 2021

2020 2:59:23 Osaka (JPN) 26 JAN 2020

2019 2:56:54 Saitama (JPN) 08 DEC 2019

2018 3:06:59 Nagoya (JPN) 11 MAR 2018

2017 2:58:15 Tokyo (JPN) 26 FEB 2017

2016 3:04:03 Osaka (JPN) 31 JAN 2016

2013 3:04:32 Nagoya (JPN) 10 MAR 2013

8 years ago, at age 55, she ran 3:04:32, then four years later improved to 2:58:15, improving again in 2019 to 2:56:54, and in 2021 just now the huge improvement by four minutes to 2:52:13. This is an almost incredible improvement because usually with age and over 60, times fall off and sometimes even quite dramatically but she is proving very different from most people especially in that age group.

On the YouTube video you can see her talking in Japanese about her improvement which she credits to speed work and stretching. She said in Japanese (see video in this thread), that stretching the legs preserves stride length and improved running economy, as well as preventing injury or improving niggles/issues that are already in the body.

No bike riding here, or in-race stretching on the side of the road???

juddy96 wrote:

Yugeta was 48th/61 finishers and broke her own record from Saitama Marathon in December 2019.

This year's Osaka Women's Marathon was run on a 2.8km loop course finishing inside the stadium.

Splits:

20:07

40:11 (20:04)

1:00:20 (20:09)

1:20:42 (20:22)

Half 1:25:01

1:40:51 (20:09)

2:01:10 (20:19)

2:21:52 (20:42)

2:42:56 (21:04)

2:52:13 (09:17)

Full results

https://d.osaka-marathon.jp/record/search.php?raceTitle=%E7%AC%AC40%E5%9B%9E%282021%29&name=

I'd say probably one of the all time great performances if age is taken into consideration. Her fastest 5k in the marathon is age graded 98.74% and equal to 14:59 for an open age woman.

Must be a case of extremely high % slow twitch, very high mechanical and metabolic efficiency. One of those rare perfect storms. if she didn't start until her 50s she probably doesn't have the wear and tear of someone whose been running at a high level for 40 years.

Ghost1 wrote:

Grassrunner wrote:

Age group doper... Classic.

Come on bro, age group doper in Japan - very unlikely.

Honorable people in the main.

All dopers are "honorable people", in the main. That's why they can be found anywhere - and everywhere. They want to win and will do whatever it takes - which is why doping is a sports issue more than it is a cultural issue.

Coyote Montane wrote:

kmaclam wrote:

Absolutely mind boggling!

Age grades to 103%, 2:09:56.

2.09 age-equivalent for a woman? I can smell the fumes from here.

Mesa-san wrote:

No bike riding here, or in-race stretching on the side of the road???

On such a short loop? I doubt it. She also has consistent splits.

Cavorty wrote:

Must be a case of extremely high % slow twitch, very high mechanical and metabolic efficiency. One of those rare perfect storms. if she didn't start until her 50s she probably doesn't have the wear and tear of someone whose been running at a high level for 40 years.

She was a mid-d runner in high school and college. (6th in 1500 at the National Championship). So I don't think she is "extremely high % slow twitch." He debut marathon was 3:09 at age 24.

She restarted at age 40 after raising four kids. I don' t know how seriously she was training in her 40s. But she was a high school PE teacher. So at least she was always active.

He is a Mizuno runner racing in Nike's. 'Nuff said. Cheater shoes WORK. Couldn't you use pavement curb just as easy as that contraption for calf stretching?

Just Another Hobby Jogger wrote:

Cavorty wrote:

Must be a case of extremely high % slow twitch, very high mechanical and metabolic efficiency. One of those rare perfect storms. if she didn't start until her 50s she probably doesn't have the wear and tear of someone whose been running at a high level for 40 years.

She was a mid-d runner in high school and college. (6th in 1500 at the National Championship). So I don't think she is "extremely high % slow twitch." He debut marathon was 3:09 at age 24.

She restarted at age 40 after raising four kids. I don' t know how seriously she was training in her 40s. But she was a high school PE teacher. So at least she was always active.

You can be fairly high percentage slow twitch and still good at 1500m in terms of time. Possibly no kick to do better than 6th.

Not having a lot of mileage on the legs is an advantage at older ages (Ed Whitlock). Must have an efficient stride if she can tolerate 125 miles/week for a month.

Going to try to make one of those stretching boards if there isn't a cheap pre-made one somewhere (hers looks manufactured?)

Seems simple enough and might help.

The vaporflys do help though, if you lose a max heartbeat every year and vaporflys let you do the same pace at a few lower heartbeats, that makes all the difference at 60+ also they solve the less-springy tendons problem.

Still always think of Ed Whitlock, he used those ancient brooks shoes, absolutely legendary.

Another giver of +1 wrote:

Just Another Hobby Jogger wrote:

She was a mid-d runner in high school and college. (6th in 1500 at the National Championship). So I don't think she is "extremely high % slow twitch." He debut marathon was 3:09 at age 24.

She restarted at age 40 after raising four kids. I don' t know how seriously she was training in her 40s. But she was a high school PE teacher. So at least she was always active.

You can be fairly high percentage slow twitch and still good at 1500m in terms of time. Possibly no kick to do better than 6th.

Not having a lot of mileage on the legs is an advantage at older ages (Ed Whitlock). Must have an efficient stride if she can tolerate 125 miles/week for a month.

At 125 miles per week she's training harder than Snell when he was 25. So easy when you're 62.

I love it when runners are faster in their 60's than their 40's - or even 20's. Peaking at 80, no doubt. 99.99% of the population decline with age. But not masters athletes.

Armstronglivs wrote:

Another giver of +1 wrote:

You can be fairly high percentage slow twitch and still good at 1500m in terms of time. Possibly no kick to do better than 6th.

Not having a lot of mileage on the legs is an advantage at older ages (Ed Whitlock). Must have an efficient stride if she can tolerate 125 miles/week for a month.

At 125 miles per week she's training harder than Snell when he was 25. So easy when you're 62.

I love it when runners are faster in their 60's than their 40's - or even 20's. Peaking at 80, no doubt. 99.99% of the population decline with age. But not masters athletes.

I can't fathom running 125 miles a week. I'm 63 and haven't been a hopeless master (placed in US championships four times, and inside to 25 on world rankings a couple of times at 50+), and I'm finding running 40 miles a week hard. A 20 minute 5k is a pretty solid piece of work know and she's running a string of them. She's a bona fide phenomenon.

A couple other points-

Although she competed in the 1500m in college, I suspect she was the same kind of 1500m runner as a Joyce Smith of Grete Waitz, could run respectable times through aerobic ability, but would have been better going longer.

From personal experience, I think 4% type shoes may have a bigger upside for masters than open age runners. I'm way, way quicker in a beat up pair of 4% than a light trainer, like a Kinvara. It could be as much a 90 seconds over 6 miles.

That's right. Smith and Waitz were one gear 1500/3000 runners. The super shoes could be worth more than 4% for some older Masters, stride length is what declines with age rather than cadence. The high mileage is similar to that of Yoshihisa Hosaka who ran 30 km per day for the 60+ WR of 2:36 back in 2009, before the super shoes. Maybe that's worth 2:33 now.

It seems to be too great a leap of imagination to go from saying it might be the shoes to it might be chemicals - as well.

Pissed? Not even close, this woman is a great runner. I wish I could understand what she's saying in that video. Impressed? Inspired? YES! I ran 2:54 when I was 50 but now at 59 1/2 I'd be doing very well to break 3:15. As I'm retiring now, this great runner makes me wonder if I have one last sub-3 in me if I trained seriously for a year or so. Hey, will Vaporfly's get me 15 minutes?! I got all the time in the world now and I'm not injured in any way. Currently at 50mpw, hmmm ... CIM here I come!