Over the weekend, we saw some dramatic Masters action on the track and roads, including what was touted as an M45 American record for the 5,000-meter road run and a potential American record for the W40 1500 meters. Both records require a grain of salt, however.
At Sunday's Carlsbad 5000, 45-year-old Dennis Simonaitis of Draper, Utah, outkicked 46-year-old Pete Magill to win the masters (over-40) race.
Simonaitis' winning time of 14 minutes, 45 seconds beat Magill's listed American age-group record of 14:55. (Magill also ducked under what the Union-Tribune story said was his old M45 best, running 14:48). Simonaitis earned $1,000 and Magill $500, helping him pay for gas on the trip home to South Pasadena.
Even more amazing: Simonaitis and Magill's marks were faster than the winners of the M30, M35 and M40 age groups.
But back to the records mess.
According to usatf.org, the M45 road record for 5000 meters (3.1 miles) is 15:07 by Doug Bell in 1997. A pending record of 15:04 by Magill also is listed on the site, which says "last updated: 12/24/2007." But no mention of the 14:45.
According to runningusa.org, Stephen Lester was 45 when he ran the 5K on the roads of Magna, Utah, in 14:34 in 1988. (But that race apparently was more downhill than level, so it's considered a "best" and not a record.)
But that's nothing compared with the confusion over the women's 1,500-meter track record in the 40-44 age group.
On Friday at the Stanford Invitational in Northern California, 40-year-old Aeron Arlin-Genet of San Luis Obispo, California, took sixth in her elite section in 4:27.68. That betters the listed AR of 4:32.73 by Joan Nesbit in 2002. Of course, it falls short of Alisa Harvey's unrecognized 4:26.49 at the 2006 Penn Relays -- an automatically timed split on the way to a mile record.
But forgotten in the fog of early Internet time is Ruth Wysocki's incredible efforts of 1997.
Wysocki -- a 1984 Olympian whose father Willis Kleinsasser was a national champion of the early masters nationals in the late 1960s -- was 40 when she ran 4:08.69 in winning the metric mile at the Reebok VO2 Classic at Los Angeles on May 18, 1997. Both Wysocki and a track statistician wrote me to confirm this mark.
If for some reason that time wasn't legit enough, Wysocki ran the 1500 (about 100 meters short of a mile) later that summer in 4:11.58. And what meet witnessed that feat? Just the USA national open track championships.
The biggest reason for Masters records falling through the cracks in the 35-40 age range is the likelihood that the marks are made in open/elite competition, and athletes are used to meet directors or governing bodies taking care of records paperwork.
Masters are expected to bird-dog their own records applications. The major exceptions are marks set in national or world championships. But I guess some records don't get grandfathered.
On the other hand, it's a good thing that not all "records" get automatic ratification.
At the beforementioned Carlsbad 5000, the results show the winner of the W85 age group as Nancy Fries, 88, of Newport Beach, whose time of 22:56 defies belief.
As it should.
I looked up Nancy's other marks on the Net. Turns out she was 41 in July 2005.
Some of us age faster than others, I guess.
