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By Don Allison
Posted Wednesday, 22 June, 2005

Don Allison has been associated with Cool Running right from the beginning in various capacities including Editor-in-chief and a major contributor.

Today he is helping us develop a new Cool Running section where we take a current running news story and pose some commentary concening this news story. We then invite you to add your opinion to this commentary.

Today's Story:

Japanese man, 95, covers 100 meters in 22.04 seconds

Don's Comments:

Who can’t run 22 seconds for 100 meters? A better question might be who can? Sure, it’s only a short trip down the straightaway of a standard track, but if you extrapolate the pace over a mile, it comes out to better than six minutes, 5:52 to be exact. One who can zip down the track at that clip is 95-year-old Kozo Haraguchi from Japan.

This is further evidence that the limitations of aging and fitness are slowly but surely being pushed back with the passing of time. As well know of course, time always wins in the end, but there is something reassuring in the knowledge there is someone born in 1910 still competing, giving the rest of us hope, and something to aim for.

Does Kozo’s 100-meter time show increased potential for older athletes? Or is it an aberration? Was his time as impressive as Asafa Powell’s open world record of 9.77, also recently set? Share your thoughts with us at http://www.coolrunning.com/forums/Forum33/HTML/000001.shtml

Don Allison's background:
There are many ways to participate in the sport of long distance running, and Don Allison has done almost all of them.

As a runner, Allison has completed hundreds of races, including 49 marathons, 30 ultra distance marathons, and even an Ironman distance triathlon. In 1990, Allison founded the Back Bay Road Runners, a 100-member Boston based club.

As a race director, Allison directs the Eastern States 20 Mile, a point-to-point race from Maine to Massachusetts with more than 500 runners. He also directs the Nifty 50 Mile and 50 Km in Coventry, Rhode Island, which has served as the New England ultra championships since 1992.

In addition to the writing and news-gathering he does for Cool Running, Allison is publisher of UltraRunning magazine, a monthly magazine that covers ultramarathons in the United States and Canada. In addition, he recently published a book titled A Step Beyond: A Definitive Guide to Ultrarunning. More information on the magazine and the book can be found at www.ultrarunning.com.

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