Although marathons are lengthy, races usually come right down to seconds—seconds that separate runners, private bests, or, on this case, a nationwide age-group document. Calgary’s Ken Younger has twice come heartbreakingly near setting a Canadian masters marathon document, solely to be hindered by the handicap of beginning in a crowded corral—costing him probably the most treasured factor in a marathon, time.
Earlier this month, on the 2024 TCS New York Metropolis Marathon, Younger set his sights on two bold objectives: successful his males’s 65+ age class at an Abbott World Marathon Main and breaking the two:55 mark—a strong time for anybody, not to mention a runner over 60. Not solely did he obtain each, however he got here agonizingly near a fair greater milestone: Ed Whitlock’s males’s 65-69 Canadian age group document of two:51:03.
In the long run, Younger fell in need of the document by simply 21 seconds—the precise period of time it took him to cross the beginning line after the gun went off on Staten Island. Underneath Canadian Masters Athletics (CMA) guidelines, solely gun time—not chip time—is taken into account for document functions, making his near-record effort ineligible.
When Whitlock set his document on the 1999 Columbus Marathon, he began on the entrance of the race, making certain his gun time and chip time had been similar. Whereas Whitlock didn’t face a delay attending to the beginning line, he additionally lacked the technological benefit of as we speak’s carbon-plated trainers (which Younger took benefit of)—however that’s one other story.
New York Metropolis marked the second time CMA’s gun-time rule has dashed Younger’s document aspirations. On the 2019 Toronto Waterfront Marathon, he completed two seconds forward of the boys’s 60+ document of two:47:02 on chip time, solely to fall brief by 12 seconds on gun time, rendering the efficiency invalid from a data perspective. Equally, the earlier document holder, Herb Phillips, had began on the entrance of the Victoria Marathon in 2004, making certain his chip and gun occasions had been (once more) similar.
On each events, Younger submitted a request to the CMA, advocating for a rule change. “I’m not asking for it to be retroactive, however I don’t suppose the gun-time rule makes a lot sense,” Younger mentioned. “I perceive [using gun time] for the open class, however for age-group data, it doesn’t matter. Penalizing a runner from the beginning due to their place—it’s not rational.”
The CMA isn’t alone in adhering to this rule, which dates again to the institution of World Masters Athletics (the World Affiliation of Veteran Athletes on the time) within the late Seventies. Whereas chip-timing expertise has since turn into the usual for entering into occasions just like the Boston Marathon and different Abbott World Marathon Majors, the CMA, WMA, and USATF proceed to depend on gun time to validate age-group data.
Sure, Younger might’ve chosen a smaller marathon to chase Whitlock’s time, however the 2024 New York Metropolis Marathon offered him with a chance to run whereas being cheered by his daughter, who lives within the metropolis. Nonetheless, big-city marathons convey challenges, together with the big mass fields that include it—in New York’s case, 55,000+ members. “Until you’re prepared to elbow your strategy to the entrance—which is hard as a 65-year-old man—and make loads of enemies, there’s no strategy to have your gun time match your chip time,” Younger mentioned.
Beginning farther again additionally meant coping with the chaos of jostling and discovering his rhythm in the course of the first kilometre—points much less frequent in smaller marathons. These challenges underscore the disparity between elite runners, who begin on the entrance, and prime age groupers, who’re relegated to assigned corrals.
The CMA board acknowledged the problem of chip time versus gun time and met to debate altering the rule for street race data. They determined to simply accept chip time for nationwide street race data beginning in January 2025. A consultant for World Masters Athletics mentioned they don’t have any plans to alter their use of gun time for world street race data.