PR's and aging

Chart above shows the slowing down of world records at various ages

Personal Records – PR’s
As you probably already know, I’m into stats and as a (rapidly) aging athlete I’m interested in age groups. I’m just about to enter a new age category and this will be the first time I’ve ever been interested in 5 year-age-groups. I’ll turn 45 in March of 2009, so I’m already more than half-way through the “masters” age group. Wow, the years seem to accelerate by as my times seem to decelerate.

Obviously there are many factors in how an athlete ages and how PR’s reflect that. For the most part distance runner’s peak in their 30’s then steadily decline. Some interesting reading is available on this link: http://www.howardgrubb.co.uk/athletics/agegroups.html and there is a cool calculator that shows your percentages at any distance and age. http://www.howardgrubb.co.uk/athletics/runcalc.html


Looking over my past performances my best result is a 20 km race (60:53) at the age of 28 = 92%. I had some decent performances into my mid-30s and even some fast times after 35, but they became few and far between. After injury and illness I before turning 40 it took a few years just to get some decent performances. Most of my best times in the 40-44 have taken place over the last year to 18 months. If I can stay healthy (and that is always a big if) I may top some of my 40-44 times when I enter the new 5-year age group.


Pr’s over 5-year age group
Age………00-18….19-24….25-29….30-34….35-39…..40-44
1 Mile……..4:18… ..4:10…..4:14……..4:12…….-……….….4:45
2 Mile……..8:55…...8:52…..8:56…….9:12…….9:20……10:06
5 K………..14:27….14:08...14:17……14:34…..15:02……16:27
8 K…………..-……..23:46….23:59….24:07…..24:43…….27:50
5 Mile…...24:08….23:27….23:33….23:58…..24:39…….27:52
10 K……...32:04…29:17….29:26…..30:01…..30:31……35:04
10 Mile……-……...50:03….49:36.....50:23…..51:34…...59:29
13.1 m……..-….….69:11…..65:02…..66:48…..69:58……78:22
26.2m……..-……….. -…….2:19:28…2:19:50…2:21:55…2:49:25