At 46, Simon enjoying success at a different pace
By Mike Tymn
Special to The Advertiser
Farley Simon will not be participating in Sunday's Honolulu Marathon.
Advertiser library photo • 2000
It is too soon after his victory in the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 28. But Simon serves as inspiration for many runners over the age of 40 who will be participating Sunday.
Farley Simon won the Marine Corps Marathon on Oct. 28.
Simon, who will be assisting Honolulu Marathon officials in coordinating activities for the invited runners this week, is now looking ahead to the Boston Marathon next April.
At 46, Simon knows that he is not the runner he was 17-18 years ago when he was setting local road racing records while stationed at Camp Smith and when he won the 1983 Marine Corps Marathon in 2 hours, 17 minutes, 45 seconds.
But he hasn't lost very much, as evidenced by his victory over some 15,000 participants in this year's Marine Corps Marathon. His time was 2:28:28.
No one seems to know for sure, but Simon is believed to be the oldest person ever to win a marathon, at least in the United States. The 18-year span between victories is also believed to be a record.
"My goal was 2:23, but the conditions were not conducive to running that kind of time," Simon said after returning to his home here three days after the race. "The temperature was perfect, but it was just too windy. I really think I could have bettered the record if the wind wasn't what it was."
Simon, who moved back to O'ahu after retiring from the Marine Corps last year, was referring to the American 45-49 age record of 2:25:50, set back in 1984 by Jim Bowers of California.
Born in Grenada, Simon moved with his family to Brooklyn, N.Y., at age 15. Because of part-time jobs, he didn't participate in sports in high school. He became interested in running after joining the Corps in 1978.
"It was their emphasis on physical fitness that got me started," Simon explained, adding that he "maxed" the annual physical fitness test every year he was in the Corps. That meant doing 20 pull-ups and 80 sit-ups in two minutes and running three miles in 18 minutes or faster.
He ran his first road race in 1979 and began winning races and setting records while stationed at Camp Smith. He still holds the Hawai'i state records in the half-marathon (1:07:12) and at 30K (1:37:47).
Simon was stationed in San Diego when he entered the masters (40-over) arena and turned in some outstanding efforts, including a 31:40 for 10K, a 2:25:25 in the 1995 Marine Corps Marathon, and a 2:22:42 in the Cal International Marathon in Sacramento that same year.
But then injuries began to take their toll.
First, it was a stress fracture in his leg and then groin injuries. In September 1999, he underwent foot surgery, which kept him out of action for nearly a year.
Running injury-free
In preparing for the recent Marine Corps Marathon, Simon regularly put in 90-100 miles a week of training.
"The last few months of training went very well," he said. "My wife accompanied me on a bike on my tempo runs, and when I started slacking off she would let me know. On my Sunday 24 milers, she would hand me water so that I wouldn't have to stop. I ran injury-free for the first time in a long time. It was really a great feeling."
Besides the long run on Sunday, Simon focused on a weekly track workout and a quality tempo run once a week.
"As long as I had those three workouts in, I didn't worry about the overall mileage," he said. "Everything else was easy mileage, recovery mileage, usually twice a day, but there were days when I'd wake up and was too tired for a morning run. So I'd just roll over and go back to sleep. I didn't worry about it. The main thing was to get those three quality workouts in every week."
Listening to his body
Simon admits that he has lost something to the years.
"I definitely don't have the leg speed I had years ago," he said, "and the recovery time isn't the same as it was. I can't bounce back after a hard workout like I could when I was 28. You really have to get smart as you age. You really have to listen to your body a lot more."
As a former Marine, Simon knows that when you "jerk the trigger," you don't hit the target. He kept that in mind during his training. "There were many times I felt I could have run faster during my workouts," he explained, "but I'd ask myself if that was the wise thing to do and usually decided it wasn't. I took my time and it seems to have paid off.
"But the marathon really beats you up," he said. "Before this last one, I hadn't run a marathon in six years. I have done only six of them and plan to be very selective in the future."
