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Photo: DPA
Berlin in April 2022. What a great race.
It's cold but the sun is shining.
I feel good.
The starting gun is fired at 9:00 a.m. sharp.
I enjoy the hustle and bustle at the start on the Straße des 17. Juni and quickly find my rhythm.
I'm one of over 22,000 half marathon runners in Germany's largest half marathon, the Generali Berlin Half Marathon.
I feel extremely prepared.
Or not?
The right shoe is loose.
And is getting looser.
Heck, the laces are untied.
I run to the edge of the track, raise my arm to warn the athletes running behind me, slowly squat down, making sure that no one walks around me and tie my shoes again.
This time with a double loop.
What a stupid beginner's mistake after only 500 meters.
And this happens to me, one of the most experienced running trainers in Germany, at home on distances of between 5 and 100 kilometers.
But I suspect that after the short break, I'll be the one overtaking.
And this can be really fun.
I pick up my pace and begin my hunt again.
I run evenly without stress, put my effort into the asphalt kilometer after kilometer and when I see the Brandenburg Gate, just before the half-marathon finish after 21.097 kilometers, I still manage to put in a strong final sprint.
I stop my watch and, after a quick glance, recognize immediately: New personal best over the half marathon distance.
And this despite the fact that I am now 56 years old and have been taking part in competitions for almost 30 years.
My result: 957th place in 1:26:10 hours.
That is really good.
Even better, I finished 18th out of 1,213 men in my M55 age group.
Much better but is another calculation.
Considered age graded, my performance compared to my age, the measured time is even worth 1:12:52 hours.
And so, mathematically speaking, I achieved a new personal best, even though I ran my fastest time at 38 years and 1:22:31 hours.
"Age graded" - A new look at your own performance
I use the American Athletics Association's Masters Long Distance Running Council (MLDR) age group calculator.
He not only knows all the absolute world records, but also the best times for each age group and puts them in relation to each other.
This means that as a senior athlete I can objectively evaluate my performance and answer some interesting questions.
What do you think I would have achieved if I were 30 years old today?
In my above example 1:12:52 hours.
Or how do I, as a 56-year-old, compare to my younger friends.
The biggest motivating factor for me is that I can continue to do my best even though I'm slowing down with age.
I don't have to despair that I'm slower today than twenty years ago.
I can use it to motivate myself to be more productive today than I was before.
From this I draw the desire to continue thinking about how I can optimize my training, how I set exactly the training stimuli that I currently need and what I should change in order to regenerate even faster and thus be ready for my life again next training, for my next race.
And now it's your turn
Clicking on the link below opens the Age Graded Calculator on a new page, which Howard Grupp maintains on behalf of the MLDR.
This is also the basis for other calculators that can be found on German-language websites.
Select your running distance under "Event" or enter the distance run.
Enter the time you have reached in the "Your time" field.
Then click on the "Age-graded" button.
The "Age standard" is the current best time of the year.
The "Open standard" is the world best time in the main class.
You can find your values with the result under "Age graded".
This is your arithmetic performance at a young age.
The percentage "Age-perf%" determines your level of performance in relation to the world's best.
The "factor" puts the two world best times in the main class in relation to the age group.
A toy, but a useful toy.
I meet quite a few people who struggle with not being as fit as they were when they were twenty.
A thought that doesn't get us any further.
Much better is trying to be the fittest athlete you can be right now.
Optimizing your diet, improving your training, making fewer training mistakes.
And that is exactly where I would like to support you, for example with my next post, in which I will write about age-appropriate running training, so that you too can soon start speaking again.
"Oldies but Goldies. Already got better. Works for me".