Dave – 15 years post THR, 65 years old, 43 minute 10K (almost) after 28 months injury layoff

Last month I celebrated my 15 year hip replacement, finishing the year with 1,440 miles. Less than half my highest mileage post op but better than last year. I haven’t posted for a couple of years due to an injury, not so much with my actual hip, but the muscles that they severed to do the posterior replacement. A couple of times I thought I had shaken it off only to have another setback a couple of months later halting my progress.

I know I should do strength training but I love running so much that I never set any time for it and just keep running, preventing my injury from recovering and putting more stress on me without building strength. So a year last September I joined a gym, however progress was short lived as 3 weeks later our house was hit by Hurricane Helene and we had to move out of our house for 5 months as it was put back together. March and April I started running well again and was preparing to run the Pinellas Trail Challenge, a 46 mile race in the Florida heat in the peak of summer. However by May my muscle injury had returned and prevented any real training until August so I couldn’t race. Since then I’ve been going to the gym once a week and just doing leg exercises for about 40 minutes, and running the other 5 or 6 days. I haven’t been running as far and at the weekends rather than running for 2 to 3 hours each day it was more like 90 minutes. I think I’ve lost the desire to run ultra’s, or at least I’ve come to the realization that maybe all the training associated with it to compete at a high level is too much for my body. So I’ve been comfortable and just tried to keep healthy and running as that gives me so much pleasure.

October came and I set my goal on running the Rome marathon in March 2026, so I started to increase my distance and intensity a little and luckily my body has held up nicely with it as I’ve built up to a few 2 hour training runs. I wanted to race to get ready, but the thought of a fast 5K pounding the streets may disrupt my raining and set me back again I’ve been hesitant. Too be honest, I think there was also as much fear, I hadn’t raced for over 2 years now and I didn’t know how competitive I would be. I came so close to registering for a couple of races then backed out. I finally decided it was time to pull the trigger and sign up for Rom on Dec 22nd, only to find out it had sold out on the 17th.

Finally on New Years Day I saw an email in my inbox for a local 10K that I’ve ran several times, it was half price for the first 25 people and the race day was January 3rd. Without hesitating, and luckily without having time to think about it, I registered. I didn’t sleep well the night before the race and got up early to get ready. I arrived at the location and ran a couple of miles warm-up. I saw a couple of friends before the race started and admitted to them I had no idea what I could do. I think my stretch goal was 45 minutes, but I would have been happy with anything less than 48 minutes. As I glanced around at the runners around me, both the 5K and 10K started at the same time, I saw a guy that looked like he was probably in my 65 to 69 age group, he looked like a runner and I was wondering how I would stack up against him in the race.

I started the race near the front as we climbed up a short hill before making a right, along a road for 1/4 mile before then hitting the bridge climb. I glanced down at my watch and saw a 6:50 pace so slowed myself down as I had no idea what I was capable of. Luckily I do most of my training running over bridges I was able to maintain a decent pace and the first mile clicked of at 7:06, okay I’ll take that, I felt okay. As we ran down the bridge I didn’t push harder and then we hit a flat stretch with the second mile at 7:07, by this time I was running behind someone in their 40’s and thought I would just try to keep pace with them. We made the first u-turn around 2.5 miles and I saw I was about 100 yards ahead of the person I spotted before the race, hoping that I could keep the pace and stay ahead of him. The person I was following then started to slow a little so I made the bold move to pull out and run by myself, maybe I stayed behind him a little too long as the 3rd mile was 7:20 as we made it back to climb over the bridge again.

I pushed hard but didn’t want to get crazy, we were only just past half way and I didn’t know how I would hold up. My glutes were beginning to tighten a little but I managed to pass 2 runners on the climb and could see a couple more ahead but that mile was 7:23. Around the 5 mile mark there was another u-turn and I saw the lead pack of runners coming back towards me, most of them were high schoolers with a couple of mid age people, there was 1 woman ahead of me but no one that looked my age. As I made the turn the person I was closing in on made the turn ahead of me and I could see he was a similar age, I heard one of the race volunteers saying this was going to be a chase the last mile. That mile was a little quicker at 7:14 but I knew I would have to run faster than that to catch him and hold him off so I increased my pace and quickly passed him and I could hear that he responded to try to keep up with me.

We made it to the last sharp turn with about half mile left, the race was a little shorter than 10K due to a last minute change due to road work, and I could still hear his steps behind me. I felt good so increased my pace more and as we rounded the last bend with the finish line in sight I went into full sprint mode. It felt good to be running that fast and could see spectators before the finish line watching me flying by. I saw the race clock ticking down 42:50 and pushed hard to try to beat it but finished in 43 minutes flat for 6.01 miles with the last mile at 6:48. I finished 14 seconds ahead of the runner I passed and the person I thought would win our age group was about another minute behind. I surpassed my A goal and my hip felt fine, none of that pain usually that I feel when I cross the finish line. I was 18th overall out of 277 but 2nd in age group 65-69, 36 seconds behind Derek Froude, a former Olympic marathoner (1984 and ’92) for New Zealand. He’d better watch out, I have more than 6 seconds a mile left in me.

So now you know why you’ve not heard from me for a while. I’m glad that I can still perform at a high level but also know that I walk a fine line between injury and fitness. I’m not going to rush into any more race but definitely will approach them with a little more confidence. My glutes were pretty sore after the race and I didn’t go for a run today, so not sure how they would hold up at a longer distance. I think that’s because of the lack of motion range with my hips. Maybe I need to do some stretching and possibly yoga. Hopefully it won’t be another 28 months before you hear back from me.