New Age-Group Records

Results from the 1500m at the Duke Twilight Meet on May 6th, 2007:

Event 24  Men 1500 Meter Run
===============================================================
    NCAA REG: R 3:47.80                                        
    Name                    Year School                  Finals
===============================================================
  1 Matt Kerr                    Unattached             3:49.93
  2 Tamas Kovacs                 High Point             3:50.11
  3 Jamie McCarthy               Coastal Carolina       3:50.94
  4 Doug Currie                  Coastal Carolina       3:52.52
  5 Travis Wray                  Lynchburg              3:53.30
  6 Douglas Noreen               Davidson               3:55.01
  7 John Hinton                  Carrboro AC            3:56.39
...

Five of the first six finishers are college students, and the other, Matt Kerr (a former NCAA steeplechase champion), is 31. The seventh finisher, John Hinton, is 45 years old, and that time of 3:56.39, the equivalent of a 4:16 mile, is a new world record for the M45-49 age group.

At the same meet, Joan Nesbit Mabe ran 4:43.21 in the women's 1500 to set a new American W45-49 record for the distance. (Joan writes about the race on her runningland blog).

Hinton's new world record is vulnerable! This weekend, the University of Oregon will be hosting the "Fountain of Youth" masters mile event at the Oregon Relays. In the field are two M45's who could challenge Hinton's WR: Tony Young (who ran 4:06 at age 40, and has a recent 4:20 mile to his credit), and Pete McGill, who has a seed time of 4:18 (converted from a recent 1500m time).

The race will be Saturday, May 12th. Check out race info here.

(My best time as an M45? 4:33.32, thank you for asking!)