In 2007, my wife and I were on a tour of China with a group of people.
And we were in Hong Kong, and I was standing on the shoreline next to a gentleman who was in his late 70s, his name was Kimball.
And he said a number of years ago he had been in the military and on assignment in Hong Kong, and he had been a swimmer.
And they had a competitive swim across Hong Kong Harbor.
Imagine the pollution doing that today.
In any case, he was very frustrated because he did not win the race and he was good.
I mean, he was a real elite swimmer.
And he said it got him thinking along with several other people that there ought to be age brackets for swimmers.
And so that's how master swimmers got its start.
Similarly, we have today a person speaking to us who is very sensitive and very interested in the idea of having age brackets.
And I imagine it will become more important to her as she gets up into her 70s and 80s and is still running.
Well, I hope she's still running.
Sharon is over 60 at this point, and yet she is doing marathons.
She's doing races like Sunday, as I mentioned.
She's out doing this all the time because it's a passion.
And it makes it more fun to know people in your age group.
It's more fun to race against a competitive group that you can relate to.
Sharon thrives on her ability to compete, and she wins road races, which makes her an example for others to follow.
How fast does she go?
I'm going to let her tell you that.
And it's just a privilege to have her here.
She's an old resident of old Greenwich.
She's local, but she has a national reputation.
And with that introduction, I'm going to turn this over to Sharon Voss.
Hello, everyone. Thank you, Peter, for inviting me here today.
It's a pleasure to speak to you all.
So you see someone running down the street, and you say to yourself, okay, there goes a runner.
Well, I'd like to tell you a little bit about what's behind that runner,
the commitment that a runner has, the passion that, for instance, I have for my running,
and what keeps me motivated.
I've been running for over 30 years now.
A little bit about me.
I've been married for almost 40 years to what was originally my Dutch husband.
He's now American.
We have two daughters, Jennifer, 28, and Sophie, 25.
I'm what's called, and some of you might know this term.
I'm an Air Force brat.
My father was a general in the Air Force.
He had a career of 31 years, so we traveled around a little bit.
I was born at Williams Air Force Base in Phoenix, Arizona.
And I say I was born, but as you can probably see behind me, it wasn't just me.
Much to the surprise of my parents, because they didn't have ultrasounds and things like that back then,
I'm an identical triplet.
And since you've had a chance to look at that, who can guess which one I am?
No takers?
On the right?
Any other guesses?
I'm on the left.
So that's me on the left, my sister, honor in the middle, and my other sister, Shelly, on the right.
Shelly's first born, honor second born, and I was last born.
When my sisters and I were in high school, we actually decided with a group of girls to start a track team.
We were pre-Title IX, so there were not a lot of women's sports available back then.
We did do track this one year of high school.
Part of a track event is a 4x100 relay.
And that means that there are four members of a relay team each running a distance of 100.
Well, you can probably guess of those four members, three of them were my sisters and I.
So what we also had a lot of fun was people saying to us, wait a minute, didn't you just run?
How can you run again? How can you pass the baton to yourself?
So we actually had a lot of fun with that, that made those track meets much more enjoyable.
In 1983, Yost and I moved from Belgium.
We were living overseas at the time, and we moved from Belgium to New York.
And then in 1984, we actually moved to an apartment that was close to Central Park.
And we would run on occasion just for fun.
So you may ask yourself, well, how did I become this hardcore long distance runner?
Well, we were painting our apartment in New York City, and we decided to take a break.
We went into Central Park and there were all these runners.
And my husband and I looked at each other and we had no clue what was going on.
So we asked and somebody said, oh, that's the New York City Marathon.
Well, I didn't know what a marathon was back then, and some of you may not either.
It's a 26.2 mile race.
And in Central Park, that's where the runners were at the last part of the race.
So we were watching them at about 23 miles.
And we stood there for hours.
We were clapping and cheering them on.
At a certain point, we looked at each other and we said, well, if they can do it, we can do it.
That's how my running career got started.
And sure enough, the next year in 1985, we signed up and we both ran our first marathon.
And I ran three hours and 32 minutes.
And that is my first official marathon picture.
And my husband ran three hours and 49 minutes.
And after that race, I said, never again.
Don't ever ask me to do this.
I was so tired.
It was so hard.
I had never done anything like that before.
Then a couple of months later, I'm thinking, well, you know, maybe.
Maybe I might want to do another one.
Sure enough, the following year, I did New York again.
I ran three hours and 37 minutes.
And then I took some time off.
My first daughter was born in 1988.
And so I did not run that year.
And then in 1989, I again trained.
I ran again the New York City Marathon and I ran three hours and two minutes.
So I had taken a half an hour off my time.
I thought, gee, maybe there's something to this.
Maybe I can be competitive.
That's when I first started to train seriously.
I had some good coaches.
My time started to get better.
And I started to do more races and more marathons.
In 1993, I did the Marine Corps Marathon and I ran three hours and one minute.
So I was getting really close to three hours.
In marathoning, there are certain sort of real special time markers to break three hours.
It's very special in the world of marathoning because there are not that many runners that can do it.
So that's a goal.
If you're kind of in that range, that's a goal to break three hours.
I was happy with my 301, but obviously I would have liked to have broken three.
That thing is giving.
Shortly thereafter, we went to Seattle and my parents lived in Seattle.
We went home for Thanksgiving.
And on a whim, my husband and I decided to do a race.
He signed up for the Seattle Half Marathon.
I said, well, gee, I'm used to doing a marathon.
I'm going to sign up for the Seattle Marathon just because I thought it'll be fun and because I had babysitters.
My parents were willing to watch the kids.
So sure enough, we went up to Seattle.
I was totally relaxed.
This was going to be something I was going to do purely for fun.
I didn't care how fast I was going to run.
It was cold and icy.
I was just doing it to do it.
And I ran.
I had a good time.
It was fun.
I was relaxed.
People were shouting.
I wasn't paying that much attention to it.
And then I saw my husband, he was running the other way because he had finished his half marathon and I still had a lot longer to go.
And he yelled to me, come on, Sharon, you can get her.
And I'm looking like, get who?
I had no clue what he was talking about.
The race was spread out.
I didn't see another woman at that point.
I had no clue where I was.
I wasn't paying attention to my time or anything like that.
So at the 26 mile marker, and remember that a race is 26.2.
So I only had two tenths of a mile left, which is about a minute and a half of running.
I passed what was the first place woman.
So I entered the University of Washington football stadium.
I won the race for women and my time was two hours and 58 minutes.
So you can imagine for me, I broke three and I won a race.
That was indeed a highlight of my running career and I'll never forget that.
I've raced all distances.
I've raced a mile.
I've raced three miles, 10 miles, 13 miles, which is half a marathon.
But really my specialty is the marathon.
That's the thing I've been the most competitive in.
I do record all my training.
I record all my races.
That way I can look from year to year and see how I'm doing, see what I want to do in terms of training.
I have run 47 marathons and that's a lot.
My PR, which means personal record or fastest time, is two hours and 57 minutes and 30 seconds.
And for those of you that know about running and know about pacing, that's a six minute and 47 second pace per mile.
And I did that in 1994 in the pouring rain at the Marine Corps Marathon.
But of those 47 marathons, the ones I've done the most are New York.
I've done 14 and just by chance Boston also 14.
I'll do New York in the fall, so then I'll have one more New York than Boston.
The reason I've done those two the most, New York, you know, it's in my backyard.
It's easy to get to, right?
But it's New York, right?
Everything is bigger, better.
You've got to do New York.
I've done it over and over again.
I love the course.
I love the challenge of it.
I love the atmosphere, the fact that you go through the boroughs, that it ends in Central Park.
It all makes it a lot of fun.
Boston is a, it's a special marathon.
It's the only marathon that you have to actually qualify first in order to get into to run.
So you can't just sign up to run the marathon.
For instance, in my age group, female 60 to 64, any woman in that age group would have to run four hours and 25 minutes or faster in order to be able to sign up for Boston.
And my qualifying time last year was three hours and 12 minutes.
So I had plenty of time.
I had no problem qualifying.
And I totally appreciate and understand and am thrilled that I've been able to do it the 14 times because that means I've qualified, you know, that many times to run it.
I've also been able to win.
I've had various placings in my age groups over the years and that makes it truly special for me.
And this is a slide of the Boston Marathon.
That is my sister Shelly.
I'm on the left and Shelly's on the right.
Those are some of my age group trophies up there in the corner.
That is a typical medal that you get when you finish.
All competitors get it.
And that is my daughter Jennifer giving me a congratulatory kiss after one of them when she was around.
So I love Boston.
I'll keep doing it.
I've only missed one Boston in the last seven years.
And by chance I was able to get into the London Marathon, which is a marathon I'd always wanted to do.
And I do love to travel for the races, the big races like that.
Boston and London differ a week.
So it's impossible to do both.
So I opted not to do Boston, but to do London instead.
And that was the year of the Boston bombing.
So although I would have been there, I was not there.
How I found out about it was that I was already in England and I was suddenly getting all these emails and texts with people saying to me, Sharon, are you okay?
How's your family?
Has anybody been injured?
We turned on the news and of course followed it from then.
And that's how I found out about Boston.
It was heartbreaking to find out that there were injuries and deaths.
I do not know anyone personally that was injured, but I know countless runners that were not able to finish.
As you may know, that once the bombs went off, they stopped, they closed down the course and they stopped all the runners.
The runners totally understood.
It really was okay for them.
They would have liked to finish, but they understood why.
I was in London.
I didn't know whether London was going to take place because of what had happened, but the London Marathon did happen.
It ended up being a great race.
At a great time, I ran three hours and eight minutes.
I was 58 at the time and I ended up third in the 55 to 59 age group.
It was a lot of fun.
It started in all places, Greenwich, and ended at Buckingham Palace.
That's also one of the really cool things about international marathoning is that you get to be in these great spots.
But speaking about the Boston bombing, one of the things that's changed forever in the sport of running
is the security aspect.
We really didn't have any security.
It wasn't necessary.
But after Boston, as you can imagine, it was.
We now have to get to races early.
We have to go through security screening just like you would at an airport.
At a major race, like the New York City Half or the New York City Marathon, they actually have these screening devices up that all runners have to go through.
We used to be able to take a backpack and just put our number on it and leave it with volunteers and be able to pick it up later.
You can't do that anymore.
Now you have to take a clear bag that they give you.
You put your dry clothes in that clear bag and then that bag gets inspected before it is given to somebody to take to the finish line area.
For the Boston Marathon, they don't even allow bags at the start anymore.
So that's definitely changed.
There's security along the course.
There are bomb sniffing dogs in the waiting area before the start of a race.
There are sharpshooters on roofs.
There are military personnel.
There are policemen.
All these things that we didn't have before, that's the way the world is now.
We have them.
Having said that, I have to commend the race organizers because what they've done is they've kept the festive atmosphere.
There's loud music.
There are balloons.
There's food.
There's music.
So even though we have all the security now, the atmosphere is still fun and festive.
And they've done a great job of trying to keep that as much in the background as possible.
And as you can probably imagine, if I'm standing on the Verrazano Bridge with 50,000 other runners, I definitely do not want to feel unsafe.
So having that security makes me feel safe.
And just to show you before I move on, here's a slide of London.
That's my biggest fan, my husband Joost.
There is my age group award over to the right for my third place.
And my sister Shelly, who actually didn't run that one but came to travel with me, found me in the middle of the race.
So that is me running on the course.
Speaking of London and some of the other races I've mentioned, there is something that's called the World Majors in Marathoning.
And that is a special group of races, New York, Boston, London, Chicago, Berlin, and Tokyo.
And I have one goal, I've got many goals, but one of my goals is to run Tokyo.
And another goal with that would be to place in my age group in Tokyo.
Because if I can do that, I've then run all the majors and I've been first, second, or third in all of them.
So that's definitely a goal of mine. In 2015, I won my age group in Boston, Berlin, and New York.
And different year, but I was second in my age group in Chicago and third in my age group in London.
So I only have Tokyo left, so I need to work on my husband.
We can do it.
What are some of the challenges that a runner might face?
Well, certainly the weather is a big one. I run in the snow, I run in the rain, I run in howling wind, I run in bad heat.
I remember one Boston, it was almost 90 degrees.
They put up these tunnels of showers that the runners could run through to try to cool off because, of course, you can pass out if it's that hot and you're really running hard.
One in New York City Marathon a couple of years ago, it was so windy, it was 25 miles an hour probably sustained wind.
The wheelchair athletes couldn't start on the bridge. They actually had to take them off the Verrazano Bridge and they started them down below.
So the course was a little bit short for them, but it was the safest thing.
They were actually afraid that the wheelchairs would be blown over.
When we did start on the course, we started on the bridge, and I remember being just literally shoved sideways by the wind blown into other runners.
And I had a bruise on the inside of my right ankle because the wind was pushing my left foot up against my right foot.
That's how strong the wind was, but there's not too much you can do about it.
Two years ago, I actually ran the Boston Marathon and they were saying it was going to be really good weather.
Then they started to say we might have a slight chance of rain.
Sure enough, the morning of the race, it was absolutely pouring and it was cold.
It was 42, but it was really damp and chilly.
Thankfully, I hate the cold, but thankfully, as you can see here on the left, that's me in the middle of Boston.
You can't see it too well in the picture, but you can see how wet the road is. It's absolutely pouring.
But thankfully, I wore more, certainly on my top and I wore gloves, and that kept me warm enough so I was able to finish and actually run well.
I've also had injury. That lovely little picture over there, I'll explain.
During the Paris Marathon, I was getting water at about the three mile mark, and someone inadvertently shoved me.
They decided at the last minute they need water. They hadn't been paying attention.
They cut straight across and ran right into me.
My foot balled me a little bit, but I thought, ah, it'll be okay.
You know, we're a tough bunch. Marathoners were used to discomfort and pain, running all those miles.
So I just kept running. I got to about mile 15 and I said, I really need to look at this foot.
So I stopped and I looked down and now I knew why my shoe was bothering me.
And that was because my foot was like this big and it's swollen up so badly.
But what was I going to do? I had traveled to Paris. I had always wanted to run the Paris Marathon.
My daughter was studying abroad and that was why I had chosen that year to do it.
And who knows if I was ever going to get back to Paris, right?
So quitting was not an option. I thought about it for a moment and figured out that what I'd do, what I would just walk and run.
So I ran some and I walked a lot, made it to the finish line.
I ran three hours and 18 minutes, which actually isn't that bad.
I'd had a great first half, you know, in terms of being able to keep it up.
I was third in the 50 to 54 age division at that point.
And then I found out I had a badly sprained ankle and some torn ligaments.
As you can probably see, what I like to do certainly with my husband is I like to travel to some of the major races.
It's fun. He runs as well. He's run nine marathons. He doesn't do them anymore,
but he does do a lot of the shorter races with me.
And we recently traveled to Berlin. Again, that's one of the world majors.
And I was able to run Berlin. It's a great marathon.
We had been to Berlin in 1977. That was before the Berlin Wall had come down.
And I had never been back. We'd always wanted to go back, but you know how life is, sometimes those things just don't happen.
So what better way than to run through the city in a marathon and then do some sightseeing and visit friends afterwards?
So that's what we did. The race actually ran right through the historic part of the city.
We ran along the Kräfürstendamm. We ended by going through the Brandenburg Gate.
Things that you way back when would never have imagined were possible.
The number pickup where you get your running number was actually at the Tempelhof,
which I'm sure a lot of you know was a major player in the airlift.
So for us it was really exciting to be able to be in these national historic buildings where history has taken place.
That picture is a picture of me after the race at the finish. That's a typical finish area.
Runners with these blankets to keep warm. We've changed our clothes. We're getting something to eat.
We're waiting for our friends or our family. And as you can see, that's the Reichstag building behind me.
So it's exciting to be able to do these races in these type of places.
Down in the corner is my first place medal. I won my age group at that race.
And that year my sister Shelly did come and run as well.
After the race we turned it into a longer vacation. We went down to Munich and enjoyed the Oktoberfest with some friends.
So that's a great way to go on vacation.
Speaking of my sisters, they both still run as well.
We ran the 2011 New York City Marathon together and by together I mean we all ran.
We all ran different times. I actually won my age group that year and my sister Honor was second.
My sister Shelly unfortunately didn't have a great race but we all finished.
Here's a picture. After the race with our medals and up in the corner you can see what a typical New York City Marathon medal looks like.
Every participant, so 50,000 people will get that same medal.
I also go out to California. Both my sisters live in California and in 2010 we did a race out there and we were 1, 2, and 3.
So it's actually a lot of fun still to do these type of races.
For me doing things like competing and winning in age groups continues to be a lot of fun.
So some of the thoughts that I have as to why it is that I'm still able to run.
I know a lot of people that I used to run with don't run anymore. They can't or they don't want to.
I started seriously running what I'll call later in life.
So it wasn't in high school or college that I was running.
I didn't start until my 30s which means that I had basically fresher legs as I got into my 50s and now 60s.
I've been able to stay pretty injury free. I've only had one real major injury.
I think a lot of that's genetics. My sisters run well, you know, still as well.
But I also listen to my body. I get sports massage for my achy muscles.
I do physical therapy if something is really bothering me.
I find doctors that understand my love of running and will get me back out on the road as fast as they can.
And I try not to get too uptight. I mean, I know you think, oh my gosh, you're such a competitive runner.
But it's got to be within the right scheme of things in your life.
And I put it, I think, in the proper place. I put my family first. Am I running after that?
So I think if it's the most important thing in the world to you and it's the only thing in the world to you,
then you might overrace, over-train, over-stress, not be happy.
But by having other things as well in your life, you can keep it in perspective and that keeps you going.
I mean, you do want to do well and I do a lot of training and a lot of racing because I want to continue to do well.
But I'm not as stressed about it if I, for instance, don't win my age group. It's okay.
On to the next race. I also have a great group of running friends.
I've got women that I run with two or three times a week.
I see a lot of my friends at races. That's one of the reasons why I do race a lot.
I train on Tuesdays. I do speed work, which is how we try to get faster with a group called the Waveney Running Club up in New Canaan.
I'll sign up for a race because my friends are doing it, so then it's fun if we're all doing it.
There's definitely a fun communal aspect to racing.
It's not a solitary, I'm going to go out there by myself and just train.
If it's cold, dark, and snowy on a winter day, and yes, I do train outdoors in the winter,
it's a lot easier to get out the door if you say, oh my gosh, in an hour I'm meeting so-and-so for a run.
So we do a lot of our training together for that reason.
I continue to love the challenge of racing. Each race is a new challenge.
Be it a better time, be it an age group run, be it the mileage that I need for the marathon training, whatever it may be.
My goals have basically stayed the same, but I have revised them a little bit.
So I recognize that I can't run the times now that I ran in my 40s.
So in my 40s, I always wanted to run under three hours for a marathon.
In my 50s, I wanted to run under 310 for a marathon.
Now, under three hours and 20 minutes, I'll probably be okay with that.
So who knows, by the time I'm 90, maybe it's four hours, I don't know.
I still try to win my age group.
And just so you all know, in 2015, I won my age group, as I mentioned.
I've won my age group in New York seven times, and I've been second in my age group three times.
So 10 years in a row, those have been my placings.
So I do get a kick out of being competitive. I do work hard at it.
And that is one of the things that keeps me going.
What keeps me going the most, though, and I would say that's my family.
You know, my husband is there for me. There are logistical things about running.
Somebody's got to drive me to the races. Somebody's got to meet me at the finish with my dry clothes.
Somebody has to listen to me if I'm happy or sad about my race.
And he's been there through all of that.
It's something we share together because he also runs and has a love for running.
I hope that I've shown my daughters what it's like to work hard and keep at something.
I haven't always met my time goals, but I've always finished.
I think I've shown them the value of sport or fitness.
And, you know, it doesn't have to be sport.
It can be any type of fitness or anything that you really want to do that you keep at it.
And I hope they've seen from me that it's something that you can do throughout your entire life.
They both run for fitness, and I hope that they continue with it.
I also work with the Greenwich Track Club. It is a, as a coach, it's a club for kids.
It's pre-K through eighth grade. It's not competitive. It's based on fun.
We want to encourage them in their love of running.
We want to help them get fitter and faster if that's what they want.
Maybe it's just to reach a goal of getting around a track one time.
Whatever it is, we want to help them with that. We want to get them outside in maybe a less structured and formal type sport,
just to get moving. And there is no ability requirement for that.
So, in conclusion, you could ask me, you know, what is it to be running, training and racing as a senior?
Well, it's all about loving to run. It's all about having family support.
My two daughters at a younger age up there in the corner.
My husband is in the middle and on the right.
It's all about having friends to enjoy it with.
These are some pictures after races with some of my friends.
They range from 40 to 70s.
It's feeling accomplished. It's meeting goals and keep training because you have those goals.
I've met people I never would have met otherwise.
I've had a blast traveling to races. I think I've stayed healthier because of the running.
And I hope to be running for many more years to come.
That's what keeps me going. So, thank you.
I'm happy to answer any questions.
I understand that running a marathon is an incredible torment on your body.
How do you prepare for this assault and how do you recover afterwards?
For me, personally, you basically have to be out there.
You have to train. I train six days out of seven.
I run some shorter runs, but I definitely am out there doing the distance.
So, I'll go out for a three-hour training run.
The more you can do that type of thing, the more your body is used to it.
You need to build it up slowly so that you don't get injured.
You also need to listen to your body and take the time off
so that you can get to that marathon healthy.
Part of it's luck. Part of it's just not getting sick and having the training
and getting through the race.
I do speed work and other races.
A lot of my short distance races are actually in preparation for the marathon.
So, my body knows what it's doing.
By the time I get to that marathon, it's well-versed in trying to run at a certain pace for that long.
Afterwards, I always take time off.
I always put my feet up and have a beer. That's the first thing I do.
And then I take time off.
You need a week or two for sure of either not running or running and walking.
You're going to be really sore. You're going to have really tight muscles.
You're going to be really tired.
But again, the more trained you are, the easier the recovery.
Have you ever run in a Marine Corps marathon?
Yes. I've run two Marine Corps marathons.
Actually, I'm sorry, I've run three Marine Corps marathons.
And Marine Corps was actually where I've run my fastest time.
Yeah, it's a great one.
I think that's the most visitor-friendly marathon there is.
Because they start at the Marine Corps Memorial, go down around the Pentagon,
and then if you walk close by, you can see them on their way to Georgetown.
Right.
And then if you walk across the bridge, you see them come up as a Lincoln Memorial,
and they go around the Capitol.
And if you stay there, you'll see them as they come back.
And then they do the little loop where the National War Colleges.
And then they go down to the Pentagon again.
And if you walk across the bridge, you can see them come back at the Eugene Memorial.
And I couldn't think of any place where you could go that's that interesting.
It's wonderful. It's one of my favorite marathons for that reason.
And my husband did just that with our daughters.
He would go back and forth to see me.
One of our daughters ended up going to Georgetown.
So that made it that much more fun for me.
And indeed, you run by all the various memorials along the mall.
And that is fantastic.
They altered the course a little bit after the bombings in terms of how close you can get to the Pentagon.
But it is a fantastic race.
And you indeed end straight up hill, I might add, at the Iwo Jima Memorial.
So yeah, it's a great course indeed.
And my fastest, so special for me.
Any other questions?
Would you please tell us what kind of footwear you use?
Sure.
Not because I'm trying to plug them, but I have always worn an A6 running shoe.
That's just one of the brands.
It could be Nike or anything.
What's important, everybody is a different type of runner.
For me personally, I'm very light on my feet.
So I wear a pretty light shoe.
I tend to run more on the front of my foot.
So I'm looking for something that's really cushioning that part of my foot.
I actually do my marathon and all my other races in what's called a racing shoe.
That's a really light shoe.
And I've been very fortunate that I've been able to do that.
Not everybody can.
But what's most important is just finding a good cushioned shoe that really fits your foot.
You know, you need to go to a really good store where somebody can figure out how you run or walk.
And what's going to help support your foot the way you naturally do it.
Sharon.
And the Boston Marathon, if one listens to the news reports, I think it's the 19th mile.
There's a particular place where there's a particularly hard hill.
Now as an elite runner, is that an advantage to get rid of a lot of people?
Or what happens when you, and how hard is that darn place?
So that's called Heartbreak Hill and it's actually a series of hills.
There's one that's very steep and then there's another one as well.
It basically is from say 19 to 21.
So it's a lot longer than people think.
There are actually hills that start at mile 15.
So although the course is known as being a fast downhill course, it's the first half that's fast.
And then after 21, you start to go downhill again.
It can be advantage.
It depends on the runner.
If you're what's called a strength runner and you can really go on power,
then you can probably power up those hills and you might be able to, as they say,
drop some other runners.
I was pretty decent at hills, not great, but pretty decent in my younger days.
That's one of the things that happens as you get more mature.
You lose some of that power I have.
So I'm not as fast on the hills as I used to be.
So for me, it's a little bit of a disadvantage actually.
I tend to slow down, but I'm still a good downhill runner.
So I turn it the other way around.
I don't worry so much about the people passing me going uphill.
I just try to pass them back going downhill.
So it kind of works both ways.
And you'll see with the elite athletes, sometimes they make their move on a hill
because they know that that's what their strength is.
Two questions.
What is your resting heart rate?
I actually don't know.
Let's measure it.
Okay.
The other question is, when one looks at the beginning of, say, the New York Marathon
and you have these hordes of people on the bridge,
how do they sort them in order to measure the time?
Because I know the elite runners are always placed up front,
but how is that organized so that every individual has his or her time measured?
That's a very good question.
And I will add that all races use basically the same system.
And then I'll tell you a little something about New York.
So in any major race, you have something that's called a corral.
And they're typically, certainly in the bigger races,
there may be a thousand people in each corral.
Those corrals are based on time.
So when you sign up for a marathon, if you run another one,
it will always ask on your form, what was your fastest marathon?
Based on that, you will be assigned a corral.
So if you're a faster runner, you're going to be in a corral more to the front.
If you have no time, or you're a slower runner,
then you will be assigned to a corral more in the back.
Your time actually does not start until you cross a mat at the starting line.
So even if you are way at the back and it takes you 20 minutes to get to the starting line,
your actual official time is only once you've stepped on that mat,
the timing mat, at the start of the race.
A little fun fact about New York for me,
because I have been successful in my age group in New York,
I've been able to receive what's called a sub-elite start.
So the elites are the Kenyans, the Olympic champions, those type of runners.
They get paid to come and race, and then of course they're winning prize money at the end.
They're put up in hotels, everything's taken care of for them.
For someone like me, and I appreciate this from the New York Road Runners Club,
they recognize that I've been competing for years and I've been successful,
and they want competition.
I mean, these races want the better runners to come,
because they want the competition to be good.
If someone's going to win an age group, they want it to be someone that is some of the faster runners.
So what they have done, they have offered me and a small group of runners
what's called a sub-elite start.
And what we get is we get a special bus that takes us from Midtown Manhattan
over to Fort Wadsworth.
There's a special area where we can warm up, get something to eat,
relax if it's bad weather, we're inside.
They then take us as a group, and there's maybe 30 of us,
they take us as a group and they walk us up to the start
and we actually get to start in the front.
So the only people in front of us are the true elite runners,
the ones that are going to win the race.
So it is a thrill for me when I'm going to start the New York City Marathon.
I am literally at the start of 50,000 other runners.
So for me, I have a very easy, great start.
But the other runners don't need to worry,
because indeed their time doesn't start until they get to that mat.
So is it possible for a runner way in the back,
I know it's hiding unlikely,
but if his time or her time is less than the time of the front runners,
can they be...
Absolutely.
I mean, they will never be the winner,
because of course the races know who the elites are,
but for instance, a good example, they could very easily be an age group winner.
You could have someone who is 30 years old, let's just say,
who the row runners club may not know about,
it may be someone that hasn't run before or has won one marathon,
maybe not all that fast, but has improved a lot,
and he or she could be in the 6th, 7th corral.
But because your time doesn't start until you get across that timing mat,
if their time is faster, then they won that age group, absolutely.
That's also why they don't immediately declare the age group winners,
until they've been able to check all the statistics and verify the times.
Hi, I'm just curious with regard to the age groups,
how far up to the age groups go in terms of actually people competing,
not just theoretically.
Well, first of all, age groups are every five years.
Some of the smaller races, they do it 10 years,
but certainly in the big races, it's every five years.
In many of the races, they now go up to either 80 plus or 80 to 89 and then 90 plus.
And there is a gentleman in Toronto, his name is Ed Whitlock.
I don't know now how old he is.
He's either in his mid or late 80s, he might actually even be 90,
and he still competes, and he runs very fast.
So there are definitely age groups.
Anybody that wants to be out there, you can compete in your age group, trust me.
Hi.
As all of us here know, as we age, our abilities diminish.
And you've mentioned how you've adjusted your goals as you've moved up and aged up to different time slots.
Would you talk about how you've adjusted your training to reflect the changes in your body and ability to train?
Sure.
First of all, I try to run six days out of seven.
I just find I'm one of these people that needs the movement.
As my physical therapist says to me, you're someone I'm going to tell to keep running instead of saying don't run.
I just need that.
That's how my body functions best.
But I've cut my mileage, whereas I may be running weekly mileage of 60 or 70 miles a week.
I'm now running 40 and 50, and that's when I'm actually training for the marathon.
I used to do two speed work sessions a week.
So I would go to the track, I would say try to run as fast as I could, six times 800, which is twice around a lap.
So I would be doing speed sessions like that.
Now I typically do one.
I find that I need more rest, so I'll back off.
I still race a lot.
That's the one thing I haven't given up, but I now use those races as my speed work.
So if I'm going to race, chances are I'm not going to do another heavy speed work.
I may do something light, what we call a tempo, which is kind of you go out there and you run and you're running at what you think you might run a marathon at.
But a speed work is you're running as fast as you possibly can, and that's different.
It's hard on your body.
You have to recover from that.
Recovery is slower.
It takes longer as you get older.
And so I just generally listen to my body, and if I'm really tired or I think I'm starting to get a cold or something like that, I'll also back off.
I'll also skip a day now, whereas before I was really ahead at all, planned out and knew exactly what I was going to do.
And if I was going to run three miles that day, I was going to run three miles that day.
But now if I'm feeling like I might be getting a cold or I'm just overly tired for some reason, I may skip that day.
You prepare for the possibility like a cold and you back off, you rest.
Have you prepared for maybe that day that you won't run again?
No.
I hope.
I mean, I know it's always a possibility, but I hope that whatever life throws in my way that could potentially mean that I don't run,
that somehow I can find a solution to keep running other than some sort of devastating illness or major injury that would mean that I simply can't.
I intend to keep running.
And my father passed away at 90 and my mother just passed away a couple of weeks ago at 98.
So I think I've got a good chance of making it, but we'll see.
Running seems to be a family affair in your family.
I'm wondering, did your parents or grandparents show any sign of unusual stamina?
Or can any able-bodied person who is determined to train become a marathon candidate?
So my parents did not do any sort of sports.
I actually don't, my father, I suppose you could say stamina just because I always looked up to him.
Certainly with the stories that I had, you know, I heard from him during the war.
I always felt he was a very strong individual.
But in terms of sports, no, they always encouraged us to do sports, but they were not doing sports themselves.
I think we were sort of born to run because we all three can and we all three have sort of had the natural ability to pick it up and do well.
But it's not like my parents were out there doing it and then showing us how.
I have a brother, an older brother who is not athletic at all.
But he also doesn't do anything. He's not trying to be athletic.
What I will say is this, never say never. Anyone can do exactly what I did.
I could not run a mile.
So when I was living overseas in Holland, actually we were in Belgium at the time.
My husband, another male friend, and I decided we were going to have a little competition to see who could run a mile first.
So it took weeks. We went out there, we kept trying, we kept trying.
So I won, but the point of that is I could not run a mile without walking.
And if somebody had said to me at that point, well, you're going to be running 26.2 miles without stopping all the time, I'd say you're crazy.
So it takes training, it takes commitment, but anyone can do it.
I mean, it's not that you necessarily, you may not have the success that I had and I do contribute that to just my natural ability to run, but you definitely can run.
And when you see the marathons, a lot of people do these races for different reasons.
I do it for the competition.
There are people that are out there for charity that may not be doing a lot of training, but they just want to be there.
There are people that do it because they want to travel and they just want to be a part of something.
And it looks like something fun and big and, you know, kind of rumor gets out and they want to do it.
So anyone can do it, anyone can train, anyone can run, you know, certainly a mile or two, hopefully work their way up.
There's no must.
It's not like everybody has to run a marathon.
I tell some of my friends that really they, there's no reason for them to run a marathon because they're so successful at the shorter distance.
And, you know, they're different body types.
There's something called slow twitch and fast twitch muscles.
And I definitely have the muscles for the longer distance.
Some of my friends have the muscles for the shorter distance.
And if I had to run a short distance race to get them, I'd be blown out of the water so much faster than I am.
But at a marathon, I would then beat them.
So anyone can do it.
You just have to work up to it slowly and enjoy it.
Hi, I have two questions.
Do you compliment your training with strength training?
And if so, what do you do?
And secondly, in that time period where you improved from 327 to 302, whatever it was, what did you do?
Because that's an enormous gain.
I am going to be very ashamed to admit this on the first half of that question.
And don't follow the way I do it.
I don't do a lot of strength training or what's called cross training.
I always tell myself to do it.
I think for me, because I've been successful in the beginning, just running and getting faster,
I got kind of stuck into the pattern of using all my free time to go running.
I think the reason I've slowed down on those uphills is because I've lost some muscle mass as I've gotten older.
And if I was to do some weight work, I think that would help.
I tell myself after my race, okay Sharon, next marathon you're going to do weight work.
It's like with everything else in life, you need to make the time to do it and you have to have the commitment to do it.
I'm working on that.
I've got some years left to try to improve on that.
In terms of that big drop in time, I think two things happened for me.
I think I was still somewhat of a novice runner, so many people, all of a sudden their race times will just get better.
I think it was because I was still sort of in that beginning phase of my running.
I think having a child makes a big difference.
You're carrying around that extra weight.
Your lung capacity gets a little bit more efficient.
So I think that after I gave birth to my first daughter, and that was then the following year that I ran,
I was just a little bit stronger.
I was stronger in my lungs, I think I was stronger in my body having to work with all this extra weight that I was carrying.
I also pushed her in a baby jogger.
So I was one of the very first in New York City that had, it's like three wheels.
It's two in the back and one in the front.
And then I used to put her in as a baby into this, it's almost like a sling if you will,
that she could comfortably lay in and I'd pat her with this foam pillow thing so that her head wouldn't move and what have you.
I would run through Central Park pushing her.
And I think the pushing her and just the extra coordination that it took and what have you made me a better runner.
So I think that those are the reasons that I was able to drop that time.
I think also I was just probably, I probably would have gotten there anyway.
It might have been a little bit slower of a process.
And I think I've got my daughter to thank for that.
Have you always run on roads or have you ever done cross country running?
I've done a little bit of cross country.
I spent a couple of years with the coach where I did more actual track races.
So shorter distance but running around track and also some cross country.
I'm naturally more of a road runner and certainly because my specialty is marathons, those are mostly on the road.
There are people that do trail races.
That's their thing where it's only on trails.
I certainly now as I've gotten older I have a little bit of arthritis in my left foot.
And I find trail running and cross country to be a little bit hard because you know you're moving your feet a lot and that tends to bother me.
So I have done it but my true love is road running and I train on the roads for the most part.
I like to run on the trails out there because those are beautiful trails.
A question is about knees and people retiring early because they started running early.
I'm in that category.
Two questions.
Do you see that the men fall more into that category with knee injuries because they started running earlier than women?
And do you have an opinion about the bands or the copper support system for knees?
I would say I don't actually really know if it's more men or women.
I look at my husband who was very athletic.
All the way he was a very good speed skater and tennis player.
He now at this point in his life has a few more injuries.
He runs but not as much.
He's had to slow down.
It may very well be indeed that because men were able to do more competitive sports in groups when they were younger.
I find that some of the women that I used to run with are not running anymore.
Perhaps that stresses in their lives.
They got maybe with kids and different scenarios that happened in their lives.
I don't know.
I know a lot of them have had injuries that they haven't been able to rebound from.
So maybe that also is because women didn't have all the advice about training in the beginning that men did.
So it may be in my case for the group of people that I knew that when we started running we were basically guessing at what we were doing.
Whereas men were playing, you know, doing sports.
They had more coaching and help specific I think to them.
I don't know anything about the copper bands.
I know of them.
I know some people that wear these copper bands which I think is what you're talking about on their wrist.
But I actually I've never used one so I don't know.
I think knees is one of those things, I have my sister, the one that you've seen in these pictures.
She still runs and she obviously has been traveling to some of the marathons with me.
But she has very bad arthritis in her knee and she has to wear a knee brace actually all the time.
And she has continued to run and race with that knee brace.
So, you know, knees, I have been very fortunate.
I've never had a knee injury and so I knock on wood.
I count my blessings but she definitely has knee trouble.
Alright, so Sharon has promised to give anybody willing to fall out this afternoon between 5 and 7 o'clock.
Come join me.
A seminar Greenwich Point.
Please wear your sneakers and other paraphernalia.
Let's give her a big round of applause for being here today.
