Just wait until I'm 80!

The annual DCRRC Age handicapped 4 Miler was held on July 4 at Carderock. It's a rather unique race where your starting time is determined by your age. It's based on an index established by UST&F. Women over 80 start first while men 25 and under start last. In theory, if everyone ran exactly to their handicap, everyone would finish at the same time. This race gives you a chance to see where you stack up fitness-wise to your fellow runners after discounting age. I started about 16 minutes after the first runner took off. I think the young women get a bit of a break here as they got to start before me but thats the way it is.

The race was along the C&O Canal towpath. We ran north for about 1/2 mile, turned around, ran past the start for another 1 1/2 miles, and then turned around again so we could finish where we started. Most of the younger men passed me close to the 1/2 mile mark. At the turn around I had only a couple of guys behind me. They passed me soon after the turnaround but I passed a younger woman. We traded leads over the next two miles as she ran consistently while I took my usual walk breaks. We caught up to Ric Francke shortly before the 2nd turnaround. He is a fellow older guy that is pretty big so I share a certain empathy for him. However, he is both older(61) and bigger than me so I like to think I should always be able to beat him.

The woman, who I later learned was Deena Johnson(28), passed me for the final time right before that last turnaround and I told her I thought she had me. She shouted encouragement back and said if she could do it, I could do it since she was just coming back from knee surgery. I told her I was also coming back from recent surgery, though it was "only" shoulder surgery. I also mentioned my still healing broken foot. I didn't mention my ongoing bout with bronchitis...who would believe any one could be so unlucky?!

I struggled over that last 2 miles. I really need to work on both my speed and endurance. I limped in with a time of 51:15...a pace of nearly 13 minutes per mile. But, I felt better afterwards as everyone won a prize. I got a new DC Road Runner shoe bag. Always handy to have.

Notable finishers were:
Alan Pemberton (winner)
Kendra Liebert (female winner)
Karsten Brown (12 overall)
Jim Moreland (14th overall)
Kirk Gordon ( 28th overall)
Christina Caravoulias( 120th)
Sharyn Gordon (121st)

I came in at 127th out of 128, beating Ric by about 3 minutes.