not sure why the mods deleted my post before. it is serious! why are the 30s, 40s, 50s age groups so much more competitive. runner believe that the 20s are out partying and don't care to show for a race.
not sure why the mods deleted my post before. it is serious! why are the 30s, 40s, 50s age groups so much more competitive. runner believe that the 20s are out partying and don't care to show for a race.
25-29 took top 4 @ my local 5k a few weeks ago. I was 7th for 25-29 with a low 19.
yeah sometimes. but the 20-24 is always weak in all races I go to.
You're at dinky races that mean nothing. Fast guys go to ones with prize money, or they're still in college.
yeah i guess it is that "ego". no prize money...im not racing. you are right though. slow guys like me avoid the prize money races.
It's true. to be honest, I don't know many people who didn't run after highschool who ran through college. And anyone who runs in college likely won't waste their time with local races (with a few exception obviously). I honestly think most folks in that age group are sleeping off hangovers, etc. Once you have worked full time for a few years and noticed that belly coming in that hasn't always been there, you start running more, at least that is what happened to me. That was my experience after I ran in college and then shut it down for almost a decade lol.
I frequently win awards in the 20-24 and now 25-29 age brackets despite not being fast. The reason is many races separate out the top 10 or whatever. Several times I've gotten an award for "winning" my age group when in reality I was 6th, but my faster cohorts had already received a prize.
not a med student! wrote:
yeah sometimes. but the 20-24 is always weak in all races I go to.
It's because most of the fast people aged 20-24 are running in college and don't care about road races.
Lack of disposable income, sleeping off hangovers
20-29 usually take the top spots in my area, as we have a sub-elite racing team that has like 20 guys on it who all run 15:XX.
We have a couple 40-49 year old guys that ran in college and have gotten back into the sport and started giving people some serious beat downs as well.
My age group, 30-35, is the weakest age group locally. 30-year olds are over-worked, fat, depressed, married and whipped by their wives, divorced, and looking after kids. Running is not a priority.
All the 20-24 runners are racing college races or out partying, but in my experience its usually the 25-29 groups that win the race.
I was going to say, as already mentioned, that the weakest age group is actually 30-35. If you're running seriously at that age then you must A) be a loser or B) love running and have a very supportive wife
lol - well i fit under A. still 33, not married, and single...making only 40k a year. lol
20-24 often still in college.
25-29 (and often the majority of the 30's) - Dealing with real life finally and getting out of it for a while.
40's - Kids older, life stabilized, missing the thrill of competition and decide to get back into it.
50's - Smarter training keeps those strong 40's runners going.
so basically you are saying that the 25-29 and 30-34 age group people can't run anymore because they got little babies. that to me is an excuse!!!! in reality they lose their competitive edge because college burns them out. so they become little woosie fathers. lol
but not all runners 20-24 are college runners. there are plenty of kids that could go run sub 19 5ks that just run everyday and are not college runners. same thing with female. lots of time a local 5k occurs and then a few hours later i see a hard core 20-24 runner hitting the roads.
I see this too. I can typically place in F20-24 despite being crazy slow, because there are hardly ever more than 5-10 people in my age group, unless it's a race held at a university.
Pretty simple... there aren't too many people in this age range who are "hobby joggers" like me. College-aged runners typically don't run enough to be fast (but can usually run an okay time off low mileage), and actual collegiate runners don't care about fun run 5Ks.
The younger runners run local track meets. Road races are much more expensive, and most of their courses are overrated POS.
mgm wrote:
I was going to say, as already mentioned, that the weakest age group is actually 30-35. If you're running seriously at that age then you must A) be a loser
Wow. Really? I don't find it that difficult to run 60+ mpw, keep a full time job, be married, and raise a child. In regards to my wife, she didn't give a crap about my running as long as it didn't interfere with our plans.
It's quite simple, just get up at 5am and get the miles/workouts in if you are serious. The problem is, a lot of guys my age just didn't have the desire to keep at it.
I like how there is this assumption that most of the 20-30 population is off running in college....
The truth is that people dramatically slip in physical fitness after high school and the older age groups find a way to get back to a higher level of fitness.
The real questions is why in the world would the age range of 20-29 ever be split into two groups?
I always thought it was strange to see this.