Four Minutes

I watched Four Minutes the movie tonight on ESPN. Despite knowing full well that young Roger Bannister would break the 4-minute mark for the mile and knowing that this was just a dramatization of the event, I was still excited to watch the climactic race at the end, sitting up in my seat and muttering "Go Roger Go!" at the tv screen. I was surprised to learn that he was an athlete on the side, focusing primarily on his medical studies and largely training alone. He does eventually accept training with a coach but I'm shocked he was able to do as well as he did by squeezing in practice runs during his lunch breaks. He retired soon after his record-setting run and had a long career as a neurologist.

Some quotes from the movie:

"3 years! That's an awfully long time to be running around in circles."

"There's nothing a man can't do if the spirit is there."

Age-graded Results in Running

Even though I will probably never win a race, I still love running for always giving me room to improve upon my previous runs. Tonight I just read up on age-graded results. Male and female runners of all ages compete in races. The general trend I've seen suggests that the speediest runners will be young and male. (and I've been soundly beaten by several 11- and 12-year olds of both genders.) But as you get older, while your times might get slower, they might still be improving relative to what a person of your age and gender is capable of. Enter the age-graded scoring tables. Go to this Age Graded Calculator and enter in your age, gender, and race results. The calculator will then adjust your time for your appropriate division and rank you in an Achievement Percentile. The ranges are approximately:
* 100% --> World Record Level
* 90-99% --> World Class
* 80-89% --> National Class
* 70-79% --> Regional Class
* 60-69% --> Local Class

So in my first year of racing in 2002, my percentiles ranged from 43.1% to 51.9%.
And so far this year, with many more miles under my belt, my percentiles range from 51.9% to 54.4%

Even more encouraging, I don't have the nagging knee pain I had throughout 2002 and 2003. On the other hand, I am getting tired of all these training miles so I don't know how much more improvement I'll be seeing. Then again, if I can just keep producing these race times in 20 years, I should be winning age-group medals in a few decades.

Curious? Read about it in more detail.
or Try this More detailed age-graded calculator that includes calculations for shorter distances and different track events too.