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11/3/2018

Gene Dykes is getting faster every year - My Best Runs Exclusive Profile Part Two

My Best Runs Exclusive Profile Part Two.  Gene Dkyes is only the second man in history over the age of 70 to run a marathon under three hours. He has done it twice.  He ran 2:58:28 at the Rotterdam Marathon and then he clocked 2:55:18 in Toronto Oct 21. 

Only Ed Whitlock have run faster.  Gene Dykes was born in 1948 in Canton, Ohio. 

All of his PR's from 200 miles to 1500m (accept for the 5k) have been set in the last year. He has a B.A. in chemistry and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Cornell University in 1978.  

He has been married since 1982 and they both moved to Philadelphia from Ithaca, New York in 1993.  After his Toronto Marathon we asked Gene about his race strategy. 

"I’m a slave to my GPS watch while running a race," says Gene.  "I nearly always run negative splits on any race shorter than a marathon, and I’m rarely more than a minute or two slower in the second half a marathon. 

I consume far fewer calories before and during a race than most runners seem to."  How about your weight?  He thinks the  "Two seconds per pound per mile is a rule that is awfully important.  Keeping weight down for a major race is the hardest part of training. 

It’s especially hard when I use the “See Food” diet.  I’ll eat just about anything, especially when I see it." 

In 2017 he was only one of 13 to complete the Triple Crown of 200's and he was the oldest finisher in each of them.  

In August he ran the 206.5 mile Bigfoot 200, September was the 205.5 mile Tahoe 200 and October was the 238 mile Moab 240.  In 2018 he won ten USATF National Championships from 1500m on the track to 100 mile on the trail.  So what is ahead for Gene?  

 "Having turned 70 this year, I decided that I would spend the year chasing records and national championships and forego many of the big ultra races that I really love. 

I still have one national age group record to topple which I expect to happen at the Philadelphia Half Marathon in November.  Having come up just 34 seconds short of beating Ed Whitlock’s venerable M70 age group record in the marathon, you can be sure that I’m making plans on another attempt within a year. 

I’m keeping those plans secret, though," Gene told My Best Runs.  In the meantime Gene has signed on to the Run The World Challenge 3 team.  

Gene is at the top of the 70 plus world and don't you get the feeling he is going to be setting a lot more records? (Photo taken at the USATF National Outdoor Championships in Spokane)

(10/29/18) Views: 592
Bob Anderson

Gene Dykes is currently the world's top 70 Plus runner - My Best Runs Exclusive Profile Part One

Gene Dykes is the world's best runner in the world currently seventy plus. "One of my 'secret' training methods for marathons is to run a lot of ultras," Gene told My Best Runs in this exclusive profile.

"I’ll begin training for Boston in January, and to kick it off I’ll run a 50-miler in January and both a 100-miler and a 200-miler in February. During March I’ll convert that training base into marathon speed." 

Sounds wild and unconventional but it has been working for 70-year-old Gene Dykes from Philadelphia..."It was thought by many of us that Canada's Ed Whitlock's records were way beyond reach," says lifelong runner and Runner's World and My Best Runs founder Bob Anderson. 

"At age 73 Ed became the first 70 plus runner in the world to run the marathon under three hours."  In 2004 73-year-old Ed Whitlock clocked an amazing 2:54:48 at the Scotiabank Tornonto Waterfront Marathon. 

No one ever had run a marathon that fast 70 plus. The late Ed Whitlock was in a league of his own until now.  At the same marathon this year on October 21, 70-year-old Gene Dykes clocked 2:55:18. 

My Best Runs wanted to find out more about this new super star, a runner who has set PR's at all distances (other than the 5k) over the last year from 1500m to 200 miles. How did Gene discover running? 

"It’s probably more accurate to say that I discovered running twice," said Gene. "The first time, when I was about fourteen, it just kind of popped into my head to run three miles to the house of a girl I was interested in.  After about a mile and a half, I had to walk for a bit.  I was really disgusted with myself, and I swore I would never again resort to walking on a run. 

"I actually kept this promise, until I started doing trail races, of course, where there are lots of good reasons to walk now and then." 

After this he ran track in high school for a couple of years. "In my senior year I thought I was pretty good when I dominated the 2-mile run in my county.  That notion was quickly dispelled when I ran track in college and I was totally blown away by the competition.  For the next four decades, I would stay in jogging shape much of the time, but it never occurred to me to race because it had been firmly impressed upon me that I wasn’t a very good runner," Gene remembers. 

He rediscovered running in 2004 at the age of 56 after a six year layoff because of a torn hamstring... "A golfing acquaintance told me he had a running group and that I should join him sometime.  A classic case of falling in with a bad crowd.  They encouraged me to run some races with them, and discovering that I wasn’t half bad, my running career was born," Gene told us. 

So how important is running to Gene?  "It started out as an activity I looked forward to on weekends, and it slowly took over as my main hobby.  Probably starting around 2011 when I ran my first adventure race and started training for Comrades (56-mile race in South Africa) it became way more than just a hobby.  While it will never quite reach the point of being 'all-consuming.' I suppose you would be forgiven for thinking that, considering that I’ll have done 38 races in 34 weekends this year." 

The obvious next question was, tell us about your training.  "For about nine years I just stumbled my way through training.  I did lots of long, slow runs with occasional track workouts.  I gradually improved, and I was having a lot of fun, but I was worried that my best days were behind me when I fell miserably short of a new marathon PR at the 2013 Toronto Marathon. 

"Swallowing my pride and opening my wallet, I hired a coach.  What a life changing decision that was!  In just five months I went from a half decent runner with modest goals to a runner capable of competing at the highest levels. Training now consists of fewer miles, but harder workouts and fewer rest days," says Gene. 

He has set PR's in the last 12 months from 200 miles down to the 1500m.  He clocked 98 hours, 10 minutes 22 seconds for 200 miles, 23:41:22 for 100 miles, 1:26:34 for the half marathon and 5:17 for 1500m. 

In 2018 he won ten USATF national championships. His 2:57:43 clocked at this year's Rotterdam Marathon was a world single age record until he bettered it in Toronto.  

Gene says, "I’m particularly fond of having won championships at both track 1500 meters and trail 100 mile this year.”  In part two Gene talks about his diet, going after more records, dealing with injuries and a lot more.  Coming tomorrow October 29 on My Best Runs.          

(10/28/18) Views: 503
Bob Anderson

I can’t believe it. I am over the moon says Abraham Kiptum after clocking 58:18 a new world record

Zersenay Tadese's eight-year-old half marathon world record of 58:23 has been broken. 29-year-old Abraham Kiptum from Kenya, who ran 59:09 in Copenhagen last month, clocked 58:18 in Valencia this morning, October 28.  The Medio Maratón de Valencia Trinidad Alfonso is a IAAF Gold Label road race.   On a perfect day (a slight wind and 52F, 11C), the race opened according to the plan with the main pack passing the opening five kilometers in 13:56. By 10K, the pace had dropped slightly as the 15-man lead pack went through that checkpoint in 28:02. But shortly afterwards the long-legged Kiptum broke away from the rest of the pack with incredible ease and began to cover each kilometer in a stunning 2:44. The 15K split of 41:40 was just seven seconds slower than Tadese’s equivalent split from his world record run – suggested that Kiptum was on course to break his PB of 59:09.  Ethiopia’s Jemal Yimer was still just two seconds behind Kiptum.  Boosted by the crowd and fully aware that he was close to world record, Kiptum kept on pushing hard to open a margin over the Ethiopians in second and third. The Kenyan reached 20K in 55:18 to take three seconds off Tadese’s previous world best of 55:21 set on his way to his world half marathon best of 58:23 in Lisbon eight years ago. Having covered the second 10K in 27:16, Kiptum strode home in 58:18 to bring the world record back to Kenya.   “I can’t believe it, I’m over the moon,” said 29-year-old Kiptum. “Obviously I knew I was in good shape because I set a PB last month in Copenhagen but I was eager to run in Valencia because it’s one of the flattest circuits I’ve ever run and I was confident of improving on my best. “In the race I slowed down between the ninth and 10th so I decided to step up the pace and go for everything.” (10/28/18) Views: 416

Mexico's Juan Luis Barrios is training with Bernard Lagat as they get ready for the New York Marathon

Mexico's Juan Luis Barrios and American Bernard Lagat have competed against each other at the highest level, but that doesn't keep them from training together for the New York Marathon. Bernard Lagat is a five-time Olympian, an American record holder and five-time world champion in distances from 1,500 to 5,000 meters. He's also a fine foodie. Come dinner time, that means a lot to Juan Luis Barrios. "Lagat is the chef," Barrios says. "He's really good in the kitchen." Since August, Lagat, Barrios, a two-time Olympian for Mexico, and Abdi Abdirahman, a four-time U.S. Olympian, have been training partners and housemates in Flagstaff, Arizona, as they get ready for Sunday's New York City Marathon. There the trio will find a strong field including Kenyan Geoffrey Kamworor, who is the defending champ. The three have found they have similar easygoing personalities and taste in food. Lagat and Barrios often yield to Abdirahman when they go out to eat, though, because when he finds a restaurant he likes, he sticks with it. Lagat jokes he's "a snob" and playfully suggests his friend won't even go anywhere for coffee but the one little spot he has visited for years. For Lagat, Barrios and Abdirahman, Flagstaff stays also mean time spent talking, eating, going out for coffee and watching TV before and after long days of training. Lagat, who will make his marathon debut at New York at the age of 43, calls Barrios and Abdirahman his brothers. He and Abdirahman, 41, first met when they competed against one another in the Pac-12 in the late 1990s and have been training together in Flagstaff since 2002. All three became friends in 2012 when Barrios made Flagstaff his base before the London Games. "I have the same conditions for training, altitude," says Barrios, 35, of his home in Mexico City. "But I don't have these kind of training partners." (10/30/18) Views: 94

Meet the new Half Marathon World Record Holder Abraham Kiptum, My Best Runs Profile

Abraham Kiptum was born September 15, 1989 and is from Nandi county (Kenya) the same county as marathon world record holder Eliud Kipcoge.  He also comes from the same village as former world marathon champion Martin Lel.  The 29-year-old, Abraham Kiptum ran the fastest half marathon ever on Sunday October 28 clocking 58:18 taking five seconds off Eritrean's Zersenay Tadese world record 58:23 set in 2010 in Lisbon. Abraham trains in Kaptagat and Kapsabet and started training for elite running about five years ago after getting inspired by former elite marathon star Martin Lel. Kiptum ran in primary and high school but wasn’t that serious.  It was just part of the culture.  The world record holder, with long and fast legs, journey to greatness started April 24, 2016 in Madrid when he clocked 61:52 in the half marathon, then he ran 61:26 in Casablanca placing first. His next break through was on September 16, 2018 in Copenhagen when he finished second clocking 59:06 and finally yesterday the world record in the Valencia ahalf marathon.  He had been running incredible well on Kenya soil.  In 2017 he ran two fast 10000m clocking 27:19 and 27:44 at high altitude in Eldoret. On October 15, 2017 he ran 2:05:26 at the Amsterdam Marathon.  Kiptum gain further confidence and knew he would give the world record a try when he ran and won on July 2018 the second edition of the Kabarak University half marathon clocking 62:02 on Kenya soil.  For the Half Marathon in Valencia on Sunday Kiptum was on his toes leading the pack at 5km clocking 13:56 and then 28:02 at 10km.  But after a short distance the tall champion with long and fast strides upped the pace to 2:44km/min and he went on to win and set a new world record.  The cheers and excitement from the crowd helped him bolt fast because he was aware the record was in his reach.  He moved easily to the finish line crossing with unbelievable joy. He said “I cant believe it, I am over the moon.  Obviously I knew I was in a good shape because I set a pb last month in Copenhagen but I was eager to run in Valencia. I was confident of improving on my best."  When asked when he started to move fast, he said, ”I realized the race slowed down between the 9th and 10th km, so I decided to step up the pace and go for everything.”  (10/29/18) Views: 76
Willie Korir reporting from Kenya

America’s Molly Huddle just might be the one to beat at this year’s New York City Marathon

Last year Shalane Flanagan became the first American woman in 40 years to win the New York City Marathon. Desiree Linden followed with a victory in April at the Boston Marathon, the first American woman to win in 33 years. Those achievements motivate Molly Huddle, who finished third at the 2016 NYC Marathon in her debut after a successful middle-distance career. "We have a very talented group of women marathoners," Huddle said. The 34-year-old from upstate New York is among that group. At the 2016 Rio Olympics, Huddle broke Flanagan's 10,000-meter American record from the 2008 Beijing Games. In January, Huddle broke Deena Kastor's 2006 American record at the Houston Half Marathon. Kastor, who won bronze in the marathon at the 2004 Athens Olympics, watched Huddle surpass her record in Texas. "Some of the other American women already have the accolades under their belt," Kastor said. "Molly is coming in a little more hungry. So I think we'll see something special out of her on Sunday." Huddle recently trained for two months in Arizona in the high altitude of Flagstaff and Scottsdale. She lives and trains in Providence, Rhode Island, where her longtime coach Ray Treacy is the track coach at Providence College.  The 5-foot-4 Huddle called it a "confidence boost" to finish on the podium in her first marathon. Defending champion Flanagan and Linden are in the field Sunday, along with Kenyans Mary Keitany and Vivian Cheruiyot. Last year, Flanagan brought it home to a cheering crowd against a fading Keitany. "She really captivated everybody watching, the two million people on the streets, those of us glued to our televisions or here at the finish line to welcome her at Central Park," Kastor said. "It was an extraordinary performance." Kastor thinks Huddle has a good chance on Sunday. Huddle aims to make the U.S. team for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. "Molly has such a great range and she's pushing it into the marathon," said Kastor.  "She could really make the team in whatever event she chooses — 5K, 10K and marathon." Huddle attributes the surge of American women in the marathon to watching the likes of Kastor, Flanagan and others perform at international levels.  She says "once you see it is possible" it helps "shift your subconscious." "It's raised the bar," Huddle said. "It's more encouraging than anything."  (11/01/18) Views: 66

National record holder Yuta Shitara and Yuki Kawauchi are running the Fukuoka Marathon

The best year in Japanese men’s marathon history is drawing to a close, and with it the chances for them to qualify for the new MGC Race 2020 Olympic trials are running out. The Dec. 2nd Fukuoka International Marathon features one of the best Japanese fields ever assembled, with ten Japanese men under 2:10 since 2016. Half marathon national record holder Yuta Shitara, 2018 Boston Marathon winner Yuki Kawauchi, 2017 Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon winner Kentaro Nakamoto, Hayato Sonoda and Yoshiki Takenouchi, make up the list of those already qualified for the MGC Race, Shitara running a marathon for the first time since his now-former national record 2:06:11 in Tokyo in February and Kawauchi hoping to turn things back around after a string of bad races since Boston. Those with a realistic chance of qualifying off the two-race average include 2017 Gold Coast Marathon winner Takuya Noguchi, who missed it by seconds at this year’s Gold Coast, recent sub-2:10 men Kohei Ogino, Yuma Hattori and Jo Fukuda, and a trio who finished together just over the 2:10 mark in Tokyo this year, Asuka Tanaka, Hiroki Yamagishi and Daichi Kamino. There’s a good number of others on the list who ran well in 2015 and 2016 and will be hoping to get back on board in Fukuoka, including sub-2:10 teammates Takuya Fukatsu, Fumihiro Maruyama and Satoru Sasaki , and given the depth of Japanese men’s marathoning and the tendency for dark horses to post seemingly out-of-nowhere breakthroughs like Taku Fujimoto, earlier this month in Chicago there’s almost no limit to who else could have their day. Twins Hiroshi and Takashi Ichida would make a lot of people happy if they finally broke through in Fukuoka. Both 100 km world record holder Nao Kazami, and 100 km silver medalist Takehiko Gyoba, are also in the race. It being a nominally international marathon, Fukuoka also has its usual small contingent of overseas runners perfectly positioned to pace the Japanese men to times in the 2:07 to 2:08 range and to lend a little shine to the race with their medals. 2011 world championships silver medalist Vincent Kipruto tops the list with a 2:06:14 in Berlin last year, with 2015 world champion Ghirmay Ghebreslassie and past Fukuoka champ Yemane Tsegay. (10/30/18) Views: 63

Kenya's Lydia Cheromei is ready to return and win the women's title at the Shanghai Marathon

Kenya's veteran road racer Lydia Cheromei is hopeful her return to the Shanghai International Marathon on November 18 might see her strike gold. The 41-year-old had to settle for silver last year, but started 2018 on a high note, winning in Rabat in a time of 2:28:48. Two weeks ago, she was seventh in the Lisbon half marathon. Now she has returned home to Eldoret to continue her training before heading to China. "I loved the fans and the challenge I received in Shanghai last year," said Cheromei. "On returning to China I want to win like I did at the 2017 Lanzhou Marathon. I know the caliber of opposition in Shanghai will be tough, but that is what inspires me." Cheromei will be up against former Commonwealth Games marathon champion Flomena Cheyech, who has shaken off a foot injury and is back in contention. "I have been out of competition for a long time because of the injury I picked up in Japan. But it has since healed and I am back in competition. Shanghai is the next stop for me in November, and hopefully I will be able to run well and win gold," said Cheyech. (10/31/18) Views: 48

The Run Internacional - The U.S. - México 10K, canceled due to the caravan's expected arrival

The Run Internacional - The U.S. - México 10K, has been canceled due to the caravan's expected arrival. The popular race begins in El Paso and ends in Ciudad Juárez and is showcased as a symbol of binational unity. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) always has been very supportive of this binational event and is a critical stakeholder in making this happen. You may have heard that a caravan of Central American people is on its way to the U.S.-Mexico border. Based on the need of resources, CBP has requested we postpone this year’s race to a later date in the next few weeks. A new date will be announced soon.  (10/30/18) Views: 45

Can Shalane Flanagan do it again two years in a row at the New York Marathon

Last year at the New York Marathon, Shalane Flanagan became the first American woman to win in 40 years, clocking 2:26:53. On Sunday, the 37 year-old will once again face three-time champion Mary Keitany who she dethroned from the top podium spot, along with London Marathon champion Vivian Cheruiyot and Boston Marathon champion Des Linden.  Flanagan has a personal best of 2:21:14, while Kenya’s Keitany clocked a women’s only world record of 2:17:01 to win the 2017 edition of the London Marathon.  A couple of days ago Shalane posted this on FB. "Who is your biggest fan? I say, be your own biggest fan.  Self belief is powerful."  (11/01/18) Views: 44