Posted: September 23, 2004

Athletics: An Interview With Ed Whitlock Following His World Record 10K

Ed’s run at Longboat 10K was indeed a world record. There’s CBC coverage of Ed slated tentatively for this Friday between 6:00 – 7:00 p.m. on the main network.

Lynn: Congratulations Ed on your world record of 37:33 at the Longboat Island 10K. I think you've said that the very warm weather didn't bother you much. The course while flat is not a particularly fast one with it's many turns and changes in terrain, so a great run. I'm wondering what your race strategy was and whether you generally run "your own race" or view yourself as competing with the younger racers around you in an immediate sense.

Ed: I had run 37:46 earlier this year and wanted to improve on that, also to compare my time this year with last to judge my level of fitness. So I set out with the objective of running 37:30 and adhered to that pace with some fluctuation each kilo. Slowest 3:51, the one on the grass, fastest the sixth 3:41. I do use other runners though as incentives.

Lynn: I know you find yourself a favorite marathon and then run that many years in a row. Can you tell me what your rationale for this is and how many years you have run the Columbus marathon and the Ottawa marathon?

Ed: I think there are advantages to knowing the course and basically I don't go in the races as an experience but rather to see how well I can run. The same applies to shorter races; I tend to go to ones I have already run. I ran Ottawa 9 or 10 times, Columbus 5.

Lynn: Your age-graded score one year at the Sporting Life 10K was over 100%. What was it exactly and how many seconds would you estimate one gains on that downhill course over a level course?

Ed: 100.8%, the highest I have ever run. I guess it depends on how much downhill and what the wind direction is. At my level I think the Sporting Life is almost a minute fast depending on the wind.

Lynn: As a masters athlete I rely greatly on the WAVA age-graded tables to keep myself motivated. I used to wonder if sometime in the future we will find out that the calculations have been reworked and that we were all underachieving in the times we ran. As the years go by I find that I am training more than twice as hard as when I was young and running quite a bit slower so I grow more confident that they are a pretty good reflection of performance as we age. What I used to call training while in my thirties I would laugh at now. What are your thoughts on age-grading and do you find that the scores reflect your experience?

Ed: I use them a lot myself, I think they are essentially quite valid, but they have some problems. When originally conceived they took into account the best-recorded performances at all ages and events and then smoothed the results. I think they did a masterful job for an initial product. They have now been revised I believe but have not been published.

There are pros and cons to revisions; any change makes past comparisons more difficult. As to their use, I think they are more valid within a single event than to compare between events. For instance, at any major Masters meets you will generally find quite a number of 90%+ performances in the sprints, very few in long distance. Another thing is that the tables reflect the performances of the total population. Since there are many more runners competing in their 40's the chances of the best athletes setting the standard is high. With aging many of these athletes stop competing so the chances of setting the standard as high as it should be is less. Really as long as one continues to compete one's age graded performance should tend to improve. I hope I have explained that clearly enough.

Lynn: You obviously have the ideal build for a marathoner. I have a feeling you may be getting a lot of feedback on having your height and weight published in the Globe & Mail article of September 14th. Did you ever consider that this information would set off a frenzy of dieting? How does your current racing weight compare to the days when you ran the mile?

Ed: No, I did not consider that. It shouldn't do, I don't diet. I'm not sure, maybe 10 pounds less.

Lynn: What is your 800 meter and mile PBs and when were they run?

Ed: 800, 1:59.9 in 1977 (age 46). 1500m, 4:02.5 (age 44) in 1975

Lynn: To what do you attribute your improved shape this year? Is it mainly due to having more training time since your injury problems a couple of year’s back?

Ed: That's correct, more background so that I can put in more miles.

Lynn: Any comments or insight on the womens' marathon and Paula Radcliffe or the men’s' marathon and da Lima?

Ed: I was sorry for Paula but not entirely surprised. I wouldn't have bet against her, but the race format, course and conditions were not in her favour. I was happy for Deena, she ran a well-judged race and met her realistic goal. da Lima, well things happen I suppose, they shouldn't but they do, crowd control is difficult in a marathon. I was pleased he managed to finish third and get the medal, then he got the additional award. I think that was appropriate it would be a bigger issue if he had been more clearly going to win. In a way a greater injustice was done to the Russian hurdler who was taken out of the race by Perdita.

Lynn: I know better now than to expect too much detail from you as far as training methods go though the driving principle of my own training is your simple advice "Run as much as you can." This does mean that sometimes I do run at a pretty slow pace of 2-2:15 minutes per mile slower than my marathon race pace. I know you have mentioned that you do most of your runs at a modest pace. About how much slower than your marathon race pace would this be?

Ed: Last year I was training at a slower pace, maybe close to 9 minutes per mile, I'm running a bit faster lately maybe a bit over 8 minutes per mile.

Lynn: What sort of tapering will you do for your marathon?

Ed: This year I had my final long run on Tuesday, I will not do much more now before Sunday's race maybe some jogging perhaps a short tempo session depending how my legs feel.