Running tip #20
Runners are the only people I know who look forward to their 40th birthday … and every half decade after that … because they (we) move up to a new racing age-group every 5 years. For today’s running tip on my birthday!, I say get to know your way around an age-grade calculator:
http://www.runbayou.com/Wavacalc.htm
Here’s how it works: you plug in your sex, age, distance, and time to calculate your performance as a %. For instance, I ran a 5:32 mile time trial at age 53 and though this would not win a county high school meet, it does equate to a prime-time 4:38 which puts me in the 89th percentile of 53 year-old women racing the mile … haha, I can beat all two of them.
There is no better testament to the beauty of age-group running than this video of two 90 year-olds duking it out in the 100m. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XN2PPu41DUY