Don't Be Hanging Your Life On A Wall

Or so sings the Texas troubador, Guy Clark. And Ed Whitlock embodies this song.

For those of you who, like me, need a little inspiration to get back into shape, and whose athletic peak seems like and abstraction rather than a goal, I offer you Mr. Whitlock.

Ed Whitlock is 72 years old and in 2004 he ran a 2:54 marathon. Click here for the story. For the record, that is four minutes faster than my best marathon. Running Times just did a small piece on Whitlock. If you age-graded his marathon time to that of a 30 year-old's, his time is 2:03. Unbelievable.

For those of you who are illiterate when it comes to interpreting running times, consider these numbers: the world record in the marathon is just under 2:05. And, a 2:54 equals an average of faster than 6:40 miles.

His other 2004 times are equally impressive. His 5k (3.1 miles) was 18:22 and 10k (6.2) was 37:33. Unless you ran for a certain rural Iowa college, I seriously doubt the remaining three readers of this blog can come within 5 minutes of these times. Did I mention he's 72 years-old?

Don't be hanging your life on a wall.