
April 18, 2024
I have been running competitively for a long time. The great thing about the sport is that runners get divided into age group categories, so we are competing against people our own age. As I get older, my goal is to decelerate less rapidly than my peer group.
And I need all the help I can get.
Last Saturday, I raced (with 10,000 other runners) in the Boston 5k. Having just turned 65 two weeks earlier, I was one of the youngest runners in the 65-69 age bracket and, based on last year’s times and the time of the 5k I had run in March (in which I won the 60-69 age group), I thought it possible that I would win the race. And I still do, even though I finished third (out of 169 men in my division). I had the misfortune of setting up well back in the pack, and spent the first half of the race zig-zagging and dodging “runners” who were busy taking selfies of themselves, and who were treating the race like a fun run. You think the traffic home from the eclipse was bad?
When I reviewed the finishing times, I noticed that both of the runners who beat me were set up far closer to the start line, and I suspect that did not have to negotiate anywhere near the traffic I had to deal with. And my final mile time was faster than either of them. And the winner’s time was exactly the time I had run in March.
Yes, I am still bitter. No, I am not over it yet.
But the point of this blog is not to continue to fume about the race but, rather, to talk about what I do to give myself whatever advantage I can take. And I do two things.
One, I drink coffee shortly before the race. Coffee is a proven performance-enhancing substance (and used to be illegal to consume before a race). If it’s going to make you run faster, why not drink it?
Two, I run in the Nike Air Fly Zoom running shoe. If you’ve ever watched a major marathon, you’ve seen them, since most world-class marathoners wear them. And there’s a reason they wear them: they make you run faster. They are built with a carbon plate in the sole of the shoe which stores and releases energy with each stride and acts as a kind of slingshot to propel the wearer forward. You feel it the moment you start running in them; you do feel as if you are being launched forward.
Studies show that the shoe improves running performance — whether by an Olympic-quality athlete or a casual runner — by up to four percent. But, unlike certain golf balls that fly straighter that were banned by golfing authorities, or the high-tech swimsuits that world-class swimmers wore that measurably lowered times (and were ultimately banned), the governing bodies of running have kept the shoes legal. And as long as they’re legal, I’ll keep wearing them.
After all, if everyone is wearing them, I’m at a disadvantage if I don’t.
Did I mention they cost $250 and up for a pair?