Gary Patton of Rock Rapids, Iowa, gave himself a fitting early birthday gift: a world record in the indoor mile for the 70–74 age group. It was something he’d long pursued, and he had improved his training over the past year to chase the goal.
On December 7, a few days before his 72nd birthday, Patton ran 5:29.81 for the mile on the indoor track at the New York Armory.
He broke the previous world record of 5:32.4, which had stood for 30 years.
Patton has been a top age-group runner for a decade, and he holds several American records in the middle distance events. But the indoor mile world record had been elusive—and intriguing.
He first took a serious crack at it last year on the same track, but he ran 5:34.9, missing the mark by two and a half seconds.
As the race last week got under way, Patton settled in and felt relaxed. Perhaps he was a bit too relaxed. To set the record, he needed to cover each quarter mile in a shade over 83 seconds. But when Patton heard his half mile split time of 2:49.2, he realized he was well off pace.
“I kind of messed up the first half,” he said. “And when I saw I was almost four seconds off the pace my thought was, ‘I’m just going to sprint this sucker and see how long I can last.’”
He sped up on each of the remaining four laps to finish in his record time. His take? “Sometimes you just start flying,” he said, “and it works out.”
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Patton does not run a lot of miles. But he is adamant about supplementing his running with a full complement of strength work and cross training. Each of the past few years he has tacked a bit more onto the schedule.
“This year I’ve added a morning session of a lot of squats, push-ups and burpees, and a lot of stretching,” he said. “I spend 30 to 40 minutes every morning doing those. And I’m on a three-day rotation with my afternoon workouts—one day of running, one day of weight training, and one day of cross training.”
Below, Dr. Jordan Metzl demonstrates variations of the burpee as part of his IronStrength workout:
That’s right—Patton runs only once every three days. He also follows a rotation with his running workouts. One day it’s hill repeats. The next day it’s a 7-mile run incorporating long intervals (typically 1200-meter repeats with 400-meter jog recoveries). The third day shorter is intervals (200s and 400s) on the track. He does the same running workout only once every nine days.
“The fact that I mix up my training is why I don’t get injured, which is probably my primary advantage over my competition,” he said. “I haven’t missed a masters indoor or outdoor national meet since my first one in 2008. Fifteen miles a week or so is easy on the legs.”
A retired engineer, Patton spends time as a volunteer, helping seniors figure out the Medicare system. “I sit down next to a lot of 65-year-olds, and I’m thinking to myself, ‘Boy, I’m sure glad I’m not in their condition,’” he said.
“Yeah, to get to 72 and not have any major health problems—and to still be able to run—you’re doing a few things right. And you’re also extremely lucky.”
