Mark Green has competed for many years. At 52 many might question what he was doing out there with athlete’s half his age, but Mark wouldn’t. Before 50 he hadn’t won a single national championship, but he did so at 51 in the one hour national championship. Just two years shy of competing for the US on the World Cup team, Mark finds that if he trains hard he still races well.

Sadly the heat and humidity bothered him more than he expected and was constantly on the verge of overheating.  While he competed reasonably well in other hot races, such as the Pan Am Cup in Brazil last year, Mark states that “training in Reno during a cold snowy winter the change was too extreme for me.” This exacerbated a lack of “distance or enough fast training.” Of course that’s understandable considering he was busy traveling back and forth to work in Washington DC over the last 6 months.  When he was home, his training course was often covered by snow and ice.   Not exactly the ideal conditions to train for a 50K.

Coming off success at the World Masters Association championships in Italy where he got silver medals in the 10K and 20K Mark felt he “had no chance to make an Olympic Team.” Still he decided that he might as well do it.  He wanted to see the other 50 k guys, many of whom he has known for years. 

Mark Green was the oldest walker in the field, but not the last.

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