Mile in 6:48 at age 80: John Keston's record finally accepted

Posted by simon on 12/10/2006 on simon's blog

On May 14, 2005, John Keston, an 80-year-old from Oregon, ran a mile in a historic time of 6:48.3. That's about one minute faster than the existing American and world records", writes Dave Clingan.

Pictures show John mid-record at the Canby HS track in Oregon, and in the 2005 USA Cross Country Championships.

There was uproar among masters athletes worldwide when the record was not accepted by USAT&F. Now, at last, the wrong has been righted.

The story behind thw story makes staggering reading, as the mile record signalled a massive comeback after John had a four-year spell starting in 1997 that included breaking his hip when he fell of his bike, breaking a leg after falling in snow, ripping tendons in his foot when he hit a rock while running, and then going through prostate surgery.

Yes, this is the kind of guy who is either an inspiration or makes you want to give up, depending on your mindset :) A former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, he is a US citizen but was born in Britain. Where all the best milers come from. Ahem.

New Scientist magazine asked him:
"Are there limits to what older people can do?"
John replied:

There don't have to be. But a fellow named Joe Mellon, who was five years older than me, once told me, "John, when you get to be 73, that's when it starts to go down." I was 68 or 69 and said, "Don't tell me that." But he was right in some respects. It has been clinically proven that you decline physically.

But I believe you can be pretty dynamic so long as you don't let yourself become a couch potato, or do things like overeat or overdrink. And barring accidents, of course. I want to be running as long as I possibly can. I don't mean tearing it up - I just mean getting out and using my legs. I see so many older people who cannot move because they've let themselves go.

I do know that I've lost lung capacity - quite a bit in the past three years. At 77 I was the oldest runner to break 3 hours 20 minutes in the marathon. At 78 it was 3 hours 36 minutes, and at 79 it was 3 hours 43 minutes. They're all records, but that's a significant slowdown. I haven't been training as hard, though. When I run I still win my age group, and the training doesn't involve as much stress.

* Read the full story on the record at Ken Stone's www.masterstrack.com blog.

Read the 2005 New Scientist interview with John Keston here.

Read Running Times' 2002 profile of John here.