Published: Oct 25, 2016 5:04 PM EDT

Health - Injuries Ed Whitlock Ed Whitlock’s single-age world records for 5K, half marathon, and marathon, Kenenisa Bekele We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back Eliud Kipchoge has a competitive record that goes back to a world championships 5,000-meter title in 2003 and an Olympic Marathon win just two months ago.

Still, Whitlock, the seemingly ageless and definitively peerless 85-year-old Canadian from Milton, Ontario, has achieved an unparalleled dominance. A week ago, he set his most recent record, running a 3:56:34 marathon in Toronto. That makes Whitlock the first 85-year-old to go sub-4:00 at the classic distance. He’s also the oldest ever to have broken 3:00 in the marathon, having run a mind- and body-numbing 2:58:40 at age 74.

Races - Places MastersTrack.com, urges caution with any listing of Whitlock’s world records on the track, as there are so many of them, indoors and out, meters and miles. Stone isn’t saying that Whitlock doesn’t hold dozens of such records; he does. It’s just that they are difficult to find all in one place and to verify. In a typically unassuming recent interview with the Toronto Sun, Whitlock admits that he can’t keep up with all his records, and doesn’t much try.

Ken Young of the Association of Road Racing Statisticians does better with his precise listing of single-age road records. These lists show the fastest road time ever recorded for a given distance, like 5K, by a male or female, at every known age. The ages might span 4 years to 94 years, as they do for the men’s 5K.

Searching the ARRS.run site for single-age records for three key distances—5K, half marathon, and marathon—and Whitlock’s name appears 22 times. All 22 are listed at the bottom of this article. If you are a 60- or 70- or 80-year-old runner, you can only read them and weep.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Galen Rupp DAA Industry Opt Out The Wildest Stats from Faith Kipyegons Run in Rio in 2:10:05. His best 5,000 meters this year was 13:20.69. Whitlock has been racing both distances for most of this century. In 2016, he ran bests of 3:56:34 and 24:03.99.

That gives Rupp a ratio of 9.78 (2:10:05/13:20.69), while Whitlock’s ratio is 9.82. In other words, when he moves up in distance, the 85-year-old is able to maintain pace nearly as well as the 30-year-old.

How does Whitlock do it? That remains a mystery. And perhaps we are all the better for simply acknowledging the wonderment of Ed Whitlock without trying to analyze and understand. In interviews, he says things like: “I don’t have a manager. I don’t have a coach. I don’t have a trainer. I don’t take any supplements. I don’t accept any commercial endorsements.”

No, he just runs slowly, for three to four hours a day, around a cemetery a little more than 100 meters from his front door.

“I don’t follow what typical coaches say about serious runners,” he told Runner’s World in 2010. “I’m not sufficiently organized or ambitious to do all the things you’re supposed to do if you’re serious. The more time you spend fiddle-diddling with this and that, the less time there is to run or waste time in other ways.”

Ed Whitlock’s single-age world records for 5K, half marathon, and marathon

Note: The years when Whitlock doesn't hold records are mostly years when he was injured or he didn’t race the given distance.

CA Notice at Collection