5th overall, nearly 2 minutes in front of Fernando Cabada. Results here:
http://www.mtecresults.com/race/show/5307/2017_Grandma%2527s_Marathon-Garry_Bjorklund_Half_Marathon
Great(!!!) performance for any masters runner, let alone one his age.
5th overall, nearly 2 minutes in front of Fernando Cabada. Results here:
http://www.mtecresults.com/race/show/5307/2017_Grandma%2527s_Marathon-Garry_Bjorklund_Half_Marathon
Great(!!!) performance for any masters runner, let alone one his age.
And a much faster relative performance than his new 45 and up world record in the 5000m last week (14:11). He's ruining it for all of the mere human 45 year old men. It is a real shame that he missed his prime.
Mike Cox wrote:
How did the rear of the 5th place female look?
Is that a joke I don't understand?
The rear of an elite female runner usually looks pretty tight.
In this case it is Kara Goucher.
Interesting effort on her part. I didn't see any footage of the race, but she ran 5:45 pace through 6.9 and maintained 5:49 in the average throough 11.9, then dropped the pace a bit finishing up the last 1.2 at 5:38 pace.
Based on the splits of the other lead women, it seems that she may have just decided to run her own pace and not really race. Anyone have any sense of if that is the case?
His prime was spent in prison.
But kudos for getting his life back together. Good job Kevin.
Smoove wrote:
Interesting effort on her part. I didn't see any footage of the race, but she ran 5:45 pace through 6.9 and maintained 5:49 in the average throough 11.9, then dropped the pace a bit finishing up the last 1.2 at 5:38 pace.
Based on the splits of the other lead women, it seems that she may have just decided to run her own pace and not really race. Anyone have any sense of if that is the case?
Her own pace is likely no longer real race pace.
Is that an all time PR for him? I know he's been in the 1:04's, but has he ever been under?
Age graded 97.5%. How does that rank in all-time age-graded results?
Smoove wrote:
Interesting effort on her part. I didn't see any footage of the race, but she ran 5:45 pace through 6.9 and maintained 5:49 in the average throough 11.9, then dropped the pace a bit finishing up the last 1.2 at 5:38 pace.
Based on the splits of the other lead women, it seems that she may have just decided to run her own pace and not really race. Anyone have any sense of if that is the case?
She said before the race that she wasn't expecting much. Hometown race, she was running I think as a first effort back from her knee surgeries last year. Not surprised she didn't try to stay with the lead pack based on what she was saying going into it.
If she had run consistently or faded at the end, I'd get it for sure. It was the steadiness of the effort up until the strong finish that made me wonder.
He posted on a Facebook that it was a PR. There was an asterisk which might've meant a masters PR, but I was left with the impression it was an all time PR.
Gordon Tremeshko wrote:
Smoove wrote:Interesting effort on her part. I didn't see any footage of the race, but she ran 5:45 pace through 6.9 and maintained 5:49 in the average throough 11.9, then dropped the pace a bit finishing up the last 1.2 at 5:38 pace.
Based on the splits of the other lead women, it seems that she may have just decided to run her own pace and not really race. Anyone have any sense of if that is the case?
She said before the race that she wasn't expecting much. Hometown race, she was running I think as a first effort back from her knee surgeries last year. Not surprised she didn't try to stay with the lead pack based on what she was saying going into it.
She had knee surgery? What was her injury? I hadn't heard about that. That sucks.
Knees to know basis wrote:
Gordon Tremeshko wrote:She said before the race that she wasn't expecting much. Hometown race, she was running I think as a first effort back from her knee surgeries last year. Not surprised she didn't try to stay with the lead pack based on what she was saying going into it.
She had knee surgery? What was her injury? I hadn't heard about that. That sucks.
Torn meniscus, worn out cartilage so that the bones were rubbing together. She says ultimately she will need running ending surgery.
Based on that do you think at 39 she'll magically hold up to reaching top levels when she couldn't quite get there 10 years ago?
Just wow... wrote:
Age graded 97.5%. How does that rank in all-time age-graded results?
You must not understand how age grading works. Here on Long Island Kathy Martin regularly age grades higher. It's a % of the W.R. for that sex/age.
no bones about it wrote:
Knees to know basis wrote:She had knee surgery? What was her injury? I hadn't heard about that. That sucks.
Torn meniscus, worn out cartilage so that the bones were rubbing together. She says ultimately she will need running ending surgery.
Based on that do you think at 39 she'll magically hold up to reaching top levels when she couldn't quite get there 10 years ago?
Oh, that does suck. I am a little older than Kara and had a degenerative meniscus injury when I was 37. After speaking with my sports medicine doc and an orthopedic surgeon and after reviewing the literature, I went with PT instead of surgery. That's what my docs recommended. Since then I have been doing a consistent strengthening regiment that has worked well for me. I have been pain free for 5+ years now. Surgery must have been absolutely necessary for her as the literature clearly shows better outcome for PT / strengthening over surgery for most degenerative type meniscus injuries. Her tear must have been pretty bad. That sucks.
I think she had 2 knee surgeries. Out basically all of last year after the marathon trials. No running at all for a few months. My guess would be that she doesn't get back to the top tier elite level no, but she could hang with the lead pack at Grandma's if it weren't her first race effort back.
Sorry, Garry's...I guess.
How the heck does a guy run a 30+ second PR at that level and age? That's pretty unbelievable. Especially when it's just another race and not something special, like when he was trying to get the trials standard a few years back.
The not so subtly implied question is whether the guy is on the up and up, or is he using PEDs?
I have no idea. I don't know the guy. But I have no evidence that would cause me to besmirch the guy's reputation. I get why people might wonder, but I am choosing to believe the guy is a singular talent. Someone who left his potential unfulfilled early on because of the distractions that led him to prison, but then came out with fresh legs and a new focus and discipline. There's obvious a ton of natural talent there.
That might be naive, and I get the questions, but I'm not going to take the guy's reputation away from him without some evidence beyond him being so damn good that it begs the question.
I didn't want to flat out say it, but yes, you got my implication. Because let's be honest...I'm sure I'm not the only one who wonders. Even though he is a late comer to the game, he still been running for a while now. But here lately he really seems to be on fire and is making it look pretty dang easy. I certainly hope he's clean anyway. I'd be pretty disappointed to find out otherwise.
I'm not sure if his history of dealing drugs makes him more or less suspicious in terms of PEDs. On the one hand he at one point was ethically deficient, but on the other hand he might now be extra motivated to leave that behind him, by doing it all clean.