Some runners start early in life and gradually slow down. Patrick Griffith of Alexandria, VA started running twenty-five years ago when he was thirty-five and to this day continues to improve. His soft southern accent belies the fact that he was born in the Washington metro area and has lived his whole life here. Like many of us, when the Washington winter comes he longs for warmer weather. In fact, when he retires from his job as Deputy Sheriff in two more years, he is seriously thinking about moving south to central Florida. There may not be as many races as around here but he is sure he can find some there to keep him racing toward another personal record.

Griffith took a personal liking to Disney World when he set a lifetime marathon record of 3:00:12 at the 1999 race for 2nd place in the 50-54 division. He suggested in this magazine that he planned to be back. The following year, after entering the 55- 59 division, he returned to win the new division in 3:03:34. The next four years he took aim at the half marathon. In 2001, he ran a then-record 1:24:19. In 2002, he finished in an age group win with 1:27:18. Last year he set his sights on a new half marathon record and set a lifetime record of 1:23:05 at age fifty-eight, good for 13th place overall. This year he raced home in 1:25:58. He was concentrating so hard on the finish that an age group competitor slipped by him near the finish.

In November, Griffith turns sixty. He wants a sub-3:00 hour marathon, a lifetime PR, and a win at the Disney Marathon. He has been training for that nearly all year. He told me that he would like to run Boston next spring but that hinges on his Disney goal. He does not think 3:00:00 will be fast enough to win at Boston.

Griffith compares favorably with some of the area's great grandmasters such as Fay Bradley, Gerry Ives, Mel Williams, John Hosner, Burr Grim, Herb Chisholm, and the late Hubert Morgan. Most of these runners had super fast times and slowly gave way to age. Griffith is following Hubert's pattern of getting better with age. Mr. Morgan used to tease his sons, Tim Morgan (53) and Rick Morgan (52), that they should be running even faster as both had yet to break 60:00 for ten miles. Like Griffith, both are very close to doing just that but seem to be waiting until they are a little older!

Hubert Morgan ran 1:16:55 at age sixty-two for a national age group record in the 20K and 58:12 at Cherry Blossom at age fifty- eight. Bradley, who has run fifty-two minutes, slowed to a national record 59:13 at the 1997 Cherry Blossom at age fifty- nine. At age sixty he ran a state record 57:04 at the GW Parkway.

Mel Williams, who has run every Marine Corps Marathon, claims the Virginia state record with a 36:41 10K for the 55-59 age group. He owns both the half marathon age group in 50-54 (1:16:11) and 55-59 (1:17:04). Always a marathon specialist, Williams ran a record 2:54:45 at age sixty-one. His 3:00:10 Maryland state record at age fifty-six is eerily close to Griffith's 3:00:12 Disney at age fifty-five.

Hosner owns the Virginia 10-mile record in 59:42. Then he ran 61:43 the following year when he turned sixty. Gerry Ives ran Cherry Blossom in sub-sixty in his late fifties. Burr Grim ran 1:20:11 for Virginia's 60-64 half-marathon record. One of Herb Chisholm's many records is a 2:42:18 marathon to set the 55-59 Virginia state record back in 1982.

Griffith is used to winning. He believes you should start out every race thinking you could win it. He blasts out from the starting line at all his races. He is realistic, knowing he cannot win all his races. Still, he has been the overall winner in more than a half dozen races since turning fifty-five. He defends his fast starts with steady running throughout the rest of his race. Since turning fifty he has been a regular at or near the top of the Washington Running Report's Runner Rankings. In November 1999, when he turned fifty-five, he positively drooled at the chance to enter the new age group. He posted a two and one-half minute victory with a 38:03 finish at the NASDAQ Veteran's Day 10K. He has been the Runner Rankings champion for his division every year since turning fifty-five.

As with many older racing stars, Griffith did not start as a youngster. His first race was the Gazette Old Towne 10K in 1980, which he ran in about forty-two minutes. He had been as heavy as two hundred pounds and found that running made him lighter and running lighter made him faster. As he steadily improved his times, he started looking for age group wins. In 1996 he was fifty-one when he won his age group at Army with a record 61:15. Judged by his recent efforts and current personal bests, that time is his softest best time.

While it seems strange to be thinking of lifetime records being set as he turns sixty, Griffith does not feel that old. A few years ago he had a serious intestinal problem that caused him to lose more weight. He does not advise using this method. However, he did slim down to around 140 pounds. This gives him the lift to jet out with kids half his age and stay with nearly all of them. Along with his overall wins, he has many top ten finishes. While training for his destiny with Disney this year, he ran the inaugural Leesburg 20K. This hot August race yielded him another lifetime record. He blitzed the course in 1:19:12, finishing 20th overall, five minutes ahead of the next grandmaster, nine years his junior.

Do not believe Griffith when shrugs off his two-second age group loss at Disney last January; he does not plan to let it happen again. Already this year he has run nine half marathons, all of them first-age-group wins and all of them fast. Of his thirty- six races so far this year, he has won his age group thirty-two times. Twice, with ten-year age groups, he settled for less than first. At Cherry Blossom, where the competition is stiffest, he had an off day and was manhandled to fourth place in 64:00. Bill Rodgers finished third just a minute ahead of him. Another reason for so many half marathons is that he wants to make the first half of the Marathon be as easy as possible so he can concentrate on the second half.

Pat Griffith does not over-train. He runs about 30 to 35 miles a week, though during this fall's marathon training he plans to increase to 50 to 60 miles per week. Most of the time he runs by himself. He figures he wants to practice for racing and he plans to run his own race. We talked about speed work. He likes speed; maybe he balks at the "work" part of it. He enjoys his running and rarely does any track work. This does not seem to hurt him. He ran a record 5:09 mile in 1997 and nearly broke that in 2000, running 5:11. With a little track work, he could be a sixty-year- old sub 5:00 miler.

In 2000 his fast mile translated into fast medium races. He took off down Pike's Peek in a swift 35:51, pretty nifty for a fifty- five year old. His five-mile time of 29:39 at Van Metre nearly eclipsed his best, a 29:36 at Alexandria's Turkey Trot in 1994 when he was a lad of fifty. His 4-mile best time run that year was in nearby Fredericksburg in 23:40. He had set his best 12K at the riverbank in Fredericksburg race in 1998 in 45:54. By 2002, he had slowed just one second a year to finish in 45:58. In 1999, he set the pending state age group record of 17:45 at the Red Ribbon 5K.

For now he pushes that thought away. He wants that sub-3:00:00 marathon. His 83:05 half marathon in 2003 predicts 2:56:10. His 1:19:12 Leesburg 20K predicts the same time exactly. Last year's personal record 2:11:39 at the Stonewall Jackson 20 miler is an even better judge because the distance is so much closer and that translates to 2:55:30. Using the shortest distances, his 17:38 5K in 2001 at Westfield turns into a 2:51:44 marathon time. His 61:31 at Cherry Blossom in 2002 age grades to even better than his 1996 record 61:15. That makes for a 2:52:30 marathon. He keeps getting faster and all the signs say the magic will happen at Disney.

Griffith is a long-time member of the Fifty Plus Club and he plans to stay that way. No, after November he will be sixty but this club is one for runners who aspire to finish fifty or more races in a year. Griffith has more than sixty races each year for the last four years. This year, he says the marathon comes first. So even though he already has 36 races in October, he is planning for a few more long tests like the Stonewall Jackson 20 miler and then some rest before heading for Florida and a January 9th showdown at Disney.

We will be watching and wish him all the best! Editor.