At Sunday's Toronto Waterfront Marathon, Ed Whitlock did what he usually does--astound the running world by setting another age-group world record, and feel afterward that he could have run faster.

Whitlock broke the age-82 world marathon best by running 3:41:58 at Toronto. The old age-82 record was 3:48:35, set by Ed Benham in 1989. (Fun fact: The fastest marathon ever run by a man in his 80s not named Ed is 3:39:18, by Robert Horman in 1998 when Horman was 80.)

At Toronto last year, Whitlock set the age-81 world best of 3:30:28. He tried to run a similar time this year, hitting halfway in 1:44:31. But he was far from confident before or during the early part of the race.

"I had a higher degree of uncertainty than usual about what I would run, largely because of the cold issue which came on two weeks before the marathon and was slow recovery," Whitlock told Runner's World Newswire. "It's still hanging on now.

"Weather conditions were good and I decide to go out at 5 minutes per [kilometer] pace, see how things were going, potentially slow up a bit if that seemed appropriate and drop out at halfway if things were tough then," Whitlock said. "I felt OK as the race got under way and I was running a little less than 5 minutes per [kilometer] until halfway, so I kept going but I was beginning to realize that holding on was going to be difficult.

"The wheels started to fall off just after 25K, but not seriously until about 32K, when things became ridiculous and I was just surviving," Whitlock said. "I don't think the 3:30 pace bunny passed me for a couple of Ks after that. I was running 6+ mins per K for the last 5K."



Whitlock said he didn't feel the cold too much during the race, "but I suppose it had some effect and I hope it was a good excuse."



Whitlock hopes to recover in time to run two November races in the United States, the Stockade-athon 15K in Schenectady, New York on November 10, and the Run for the Diamonds (a 9-miler) on Thanksgiving Day in Berwick, Pennsylvania.

While recovering this week, Whitlock will spend a lot of time at his computer, taking Runner's World readers' questions Monday through Friday during an Ask Me Anything session on our forums.

Scott Douglas Scott is a veteran running, fitness, and health journalist who has held senior editorial positions at Runner’s World and Running Times.

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