Although most of us lose pace as we age, that doesn’t appear to be the case for Fekih Lahcene of Mitry-Mory, France. Final Sunday, on the 10K Promenade’Basic de Good, the 54-year-old set a brand new French masters 10K report for males’s 50+, crossing the road in a jaw-dropping 31 minutes and eight seconds.
Lahcene averaged a tempo of three minutes and 7 seconds per kilometre, rightfully touchdown himself on high of the rostrum within the males’s masters division and his males’s 50-54 age class. He missed the world report for his age group by a minute, but when he had been one 12 months older, his time would have eclipsed the age-group 10K world report for 55+. This report at present stands at 31:40 and is held by former three-time Spanish Olympian Martin Fiz.
Born in Morocco, Lahcene reportedly started working at 12 after a physician really helpful it for bodily exercise. In an interview with French podcast Adversité, Lahcene stated he ran by really feel for a few years and solely began following a coaching plan after becoming a member of the La Meute Working Membership (based mostly in Mitry-Mory) in 2021. He attributes his success to the membership’s environment and excessive degree of coaching, in addition to his willpower and confidence in his coach.
Lahcene has made fairly a reputation for himself in France within the final 12 months, setting the boys’s over-50 marathon report of two:25:19 on the 2024 Valencia Marathon. He additionally set the boys’s 50+ 20km world report on the Paris 20K earlier within the fall.
He stated what evokes him essentially the most is seeing older athletes persevering with to carry out. Lahcene began with shorter distances earlier than ultimately transferring as much as marathons, and says he laughs when he seems again on his first few makes an attempt.
The 54-year-old is on Strava and trains upwards of 100 km to 130 km every week alongside his working membership. He talked about on his web page that he’s wanting ahead to returning to the Good 10K subsequent 12 months to provide the report one other shot… if he doesn’t break it by then.