I ran my last race at age 59. I thought I would be able to run races just as a participant. I couldn't. I would always end up training to run my fastest, and during the run I would always end up running my hardest.
I am 64 now. I still include running as part of my exercise, I just don't race anymore. Surprisingly, I don't miss racing.
The last race I have scheduled is this summer, a day before I turn 60. Maybe I'll retire at 59 like you. It's definitely becoming more frustrating. At 57, I ran all year without injury. At 58, I was sidelined for four months. At 59, I've been sidelined six months with injuries.
Night observer wrote:
I ran my last race at age 59. I thought I would be able to run races just as a participant. I couldn't. I would always end up training to run my fastest, and during the run I would always end up running my hardest.
I am 64 now. I still include running as part of my exercise, I just don't race anymore. Surprisingly, I don't miss racing.
I competed from age 15 to 53. I was still running well but decided I had reached the point where I wasn't that interested in seeing my race times get marginally slower each year. And I wasn't sure I wanted to give 100% race effort any longer, which is the only way I can race.
Did not run or train for almost eight years but kept generally active. My running retirement coincided with a long distance move to a locale where nobody knew me as a runner.
About nine months ago, I got the bug. I've had to rely on stationary biking at the gym for a lot of my training. I've learned enough about the competitive scene in my medium size city to know that I could be the top local sixty year old, if I were to toe a starting line.
But I have to convince myself I can meet my own standard of respectability. I'm not there and may never be. If I do race again, I think it will be very infrequent. And if I never do, that's fine as well. If I can do without it for eight years, I know I can be content permanently.
Allen1959 wrote:
The last race I have scheduled is this summer, a day before I turn 60. Maybe I'll retire at 59 like you. It's definitely becoming more frustrating. At 57, I ran all year without injury. At 58, I was sidelined for four months. At 59, I've been sidelined six months with injuries.
For me it was the injuries, the slowing times and the length of time to recover from races and hard training. During my last seven years of racing I managed to avoid major injuries but there werecountless, small nagging injuries that kept reaccuring.
I still am in to fitness but I exercise at a more relaxed intensity. When I see runners out there racing, I have no thoughts that I wish I was there racing with them. Actually I have the opposite feeling.
The race I ran at 59 was my only (and last) race that year. I ran it as a participant, not for time or placement. It felt weird to run a race like that so I never ran a race again.
5000m at age 25.
After that I retired from competitive track and road racing. Still run some but just don't compete anymore.
I was 46 when I ran my last race, after 2 years of fighting to reverse a sudden decline. It was a 400, and turned out to be a PB (I had only ever raced one before). At nearly 54 now, decent race times are way behind me. I still love to run, and wake up every day hoping to have a nice run (and typically manage to run 4-5 days a week), but have no intention to ever lace em up and line up again. :-(
Ran my last race (5k) about 3 yrs ago at age 56. Was doing real well in my 30s & 40s; 40 mpw, twice-weekly speed sessions, racing 2-3 times a month year round. Then in my early 50s the roof caved in with some major acute injuries (partial tears of the Achilles, patellar tendon, hamstring, a complete rupture of my PTT) and development of chronic injuries and OA.
Now at 59 I'm basically fitness running down to ~12 mpw (70% reduction from my 40 mpw) and maybe a weekly TT of just a mile or so for the hell of it. Doubt I could race a 5k without aggravating something. Miss the hell out of racing but tired of getting injured or running so slow just to finish the race and being laughed at by the other age-groupers
Grandmaster running has become so performance based vs participation based these days. There are so many fast guys now that it just blows my mind. Some guys train & race like they were in their 20s or something. And just looking at Grandmaster's thread here and seeing some of the performances and training schedules some of those guys are on is incredible. I guess you've got have all the right stuff as a middle-aged runner; exceptional biomechanics, very low-body weight, great genetics to train and race consistently without debilitating injuries.
I last ran a proper race at 39 1/2. After that, my tones declined and I wouldnt say I was racing any more. I struggled on racing for a few more years, getting slower and beat by people who shouldn’t be anywhere near me before calling it a day. I still run occasional turkey trot type events but it’s just for training.
I still train. Like the poster above, I don’t miss racing too much, it’s no fun when you’re struggling to do pretty poor times. But I still wish I was fast and racing and I often dream that I am. Recently, i dreamed that I placed third in a high class half marathon. I also dreamed I ran a good 10k, and also a good marathon.
I am not 100% certain, but I think I was 38.
I did pace a friend of mine to his first marathon finish after that, but I don't consider that a race.
Age 20. I was permanently injured, have never been able to run since: 40+ years and counting.
Also, when I *could* run I totally sucked. This is amusing to me, because a couple years ago I got my first-ever award in a running race--for walking through a marathon and placing third in my age group.