Of all the 26,800-or-so runners who will be competing in the 115th running of the Boston Marathon, Patriots Day, April 18, 2011, one is sure to get some of the most enthusiastic encouragement from the half-million expected spectators. That runner is the oldest competitor, 81-year-old Clarence Hartley of Young Harris, Georgia.
The massive crowds will cheer for him, not only in deference to his age, but also because he is surprisingly competitive. You see, Clarence is likely to be in the middle of the action. That’s because he qualified for Boston with a 4-hour-39-minute marathon and has since run an even more impressive 4:26. His goal is a time of 4 hours 20 minutes. To put these times in a little bit of perspective, the average time for male marathon runners in recent years is right around 4:30 (4:32 in 2005; 4:29 in 2007) and their average age is 40, or about half Clarence’s age. The women average close to 5 hours and 34 years of age. From this we can see that Clarence should be right in the middle of the pack — beating thousands of runners young enough to be his children and even his grandchildren.
Lest you think that this octogenarian is just a natural runner who’s been competing all his life, here are a few interesting facts. Clarence witnessed a local race being run in 1998 when he was 68. Thinking that it looked like fun, he took up running and soon was running in local 5K and 10K races, working up to half-marathons. Having caught the running bug, in the ensuing seven years he ran almost 150 races, winning numerous age-group awards. Read the rest of this entry »