Ancient marathoners

[Bob S.]

After I finally got around to doing a marathon this morning, I got curious as to whether or not I was the oldest one to rank a marathon. I checked the rankings back to 2002 and found only one other person 80+ who had one listed in the rankings - an Australian who was 83 at that time (2002). All the other listings were just the four that I have ranked. I am 85 now, so I guess that my question has been answered, at least as far as the 2002-2010 C2 records are concerned.

Does anyone know if there are any other octogenarians (or nonagenarians for that matter) who have done marathons on the indoor rower but have not entered them into the rankings - or, perhaps ranked them before the current system was set up.

Just curious.

Bob S.

P.S. It is my guess that my fellow octogenarians have better sense than to get into this kind of foolishness.

[johnlvs2run]

Congratulations, Bob!

You're not only inspiring, you are trail blazing for others.

[bloomp]

Foolishness? Nonsense, it is great to have a passion for something throughout your life!

[Yankeerunner]

Well done Bob. It gives us almost-ancient guys hope that there are still some decent years ahead.

[TabbRows]

Congrats Bob...altitude must ultimately work in your favor

Josh Crosby of IndoRow has indicated his grandfather still rowed at age 94. Whether or not he did marathons in his 90s or if he was all OTW isn't mentioned. Liked his quote though: "Take your exercise sitting down!"

Stephen

[Bob S.]

Congrats Bob...altitude must ultimately work in your favor

Josh Crosby of IndoRow has indicated his grandfather still rowed at age 94. Whether or not he did marathons in his 90s or if he was all OTW isn't mentioned. Liked his quote though: "Take your exercise sitting down!"

Stephen

Well, I don't know about marathons, but Josh's Grandfather did indeed compete in erg events. I remember seeing him at one of the CRASH-Bs many years ago. His son and grandson were there with him, but I don't know if either of them competed that weekend.

He was one of the ones that inspired me, along with Ernestine Baeyer and Joe Clinard.

Bob S.

[Tinus]

There are about a million people using the C2?

Let's assume only 1 per mil of them is rowing marathon, only 1 per mil is above 80 years old, and distributions of age and distance are not correlated. You'll end up with only 1 person being both older than 80 years old and rowing a marathon.

The estimate for age might be too low but on the other hand the estimate for rowing the marathon might be too high. Might there be some way to get better estimates? This would reduce the problem 'how many over 80 yr olds are rowing marathins' into 'how many 80 year olds are rowing' and 'how many are rowing a marathon'.

My gut feeling says that 1 rower who is above 80 yrs old and rows a marathon per million rowers is not a bad estimate.

[Bob S.]

My gut feeling says that 1 rower who is above 80 yrs old and rows a marathon per million rowers is not a bad estimate.

Tinus,

You may well be right. It certainly gives me a rather lonely feeling. It reminds me of being on a trail for several hours, not seeing anyone, and wondering if I am just lost.

There are a few over 80 rowers out there, and I have met some of them, but I haven't seen posts from any of them on the US and UK C2 forums, so it gives me that same feeling. Training is the same deal. I do know of a couple of other erg owners out here in the boonies of Owens Valley, but there is no sharing of experiences. I see that only on this forum.

Bob S.

[mikvan52]

Bob:

Your incredible!
Great Job!

Keep @it.

~ regards,
Mike