Colorado’s Roger Sayre, age 61, didn’t need USA Track & Field (USATF) to tell him he was the best 60-64 age group competitive runner in the U.S. It was already pretty clear based on his decisive wins in every USATF Masters Grand Prix national championship road race he competed in during 2018. So now the only question was where he stood against his age group peers on the rest of the planet at the World Masters Athletics (WMA) Championships in Toruń, Poland, which was held the week of March 24-30. WMA is the international organization that governs masters athletic sports, including track and field, cross country, and road running events, and presents world championships for athletes over the age of 35 years every two years.
Sayre captured three medals in Toruń: a bronze medal for Men 60-64 age group with a time of 30:37 in the WMA 8 Kilometer Cross Country event, an age group gold medal in the half marathon with a 1:17:49 finish, and a half marathon team bronze medal for the U.S. by teaming up with fellow Americans Frances Burdett and Dale Flanders, both in the Men 50-55 age group.
Sayre was born in Denver and has lived in Colorado much of his life. He resides in Golden and is an environmental and land use planner for the U.S. Government in his professional life. Sayre is a member of the Boulder Road Runners and the Boulder Track Club. He serves on the Boulder Road Runner’s nationally ranked USATF Men 60+ team.
What follows is Roger Sayre’s account of his medal winning races at the Masters world championships in Poland.
Tell us about your bronze medal 8K cross country race.
It was held at Rudelka Park on a fairly narrow 2 kilometer loop course. It was a pretty tough course and not at all like American cross country races, which are typically held on golf courses or dedicated venues with wide lanes and sweeping turns. It was mostly a wooded trail with three hills per loop and about a dozen sharp turns. One hill was quite steep and had a sand trap that runners had to run through or around. The footing most of the way was rough with roots, uneven ground, some rocks and gravel and two more sand traps about 30 meters in length. The course was half way between a trail race and what we would consider cross country here in the U.S., but I thought it was a great course. The weather on race day was just about perfect for cross country — 40 degrees Fahrenheit and overcast. It sprinkled for a few minutes just before we started, but that didn’t affect our race.
My hope was to be in the top five age group finishers and maybe vie for a medal. I had been warned by other Americans that European cross country is not as genteel and polite as it is at home, so my race strategy was simply to stay on my feet and not get pushed around on the first lap. I also didn’t want to get boxed in and fall behind at the start. I chose not to take the lead, but to keep a fairly even effort and expect it would become a race of attrition where the others would eventually drop off.
The trail quickly narrowed after the start. I was in about sixth place until about 100 meters when about a half dozen runners elbowed their way around me. Then I was boxed in for the first half kilometer. Thomas Payne from Ireland took the early lead and set a fast pace pushing it the entire way. I was soon able to get around a number of runners in front of me and settled into the back of a second pack which was about 30 meters behind Payne and Finland’s Jukka Kauppila. My legs felt rubbery on the first lap and I was just hoping to hang with the group I was in. We began to string out and I was able to move up to fourth place just behind Stanislaw Lancucki of Poland by the end of the first lap. I got around Lancucki just as we turned onto the open stretch on the second lap and was about 30 meters behind the leaders. I caught them near the 3 kilometer mark and then it was just a matter of hanging on to stay in the top three. I momentarily took the lead on the third lap on an open stretch. Now I was thinking, “Maybe I could win this.” But the Finn, Kauppila, just took off a half a kilometer later on a hill.. Breathing hard, I slightly backed off with a plan to go faster on the downhill. The footing was bumpy on the up part and we had a 40 meter sand trap on the down. We could run on the side but it was also bumpy and rooted. Kauppila just flew down the hill and gapped Payne and I by 8 or 10 seconds in no time. It now became a fight for the silver and bronze between Payne the Irishman and me.
I felt confident that I could out kick Payne on the final lap. He would push the pace, but I felt really good and could hang on to his surges. Then he would back down. At about 6.5K I put in a surge of my own, hoping to get a gap and to pursue Kauppila who was now up by about 20 seconds. But the Irishman hung tight and assumed the pacing duties. On the final hill with just 500 meters to go we had navigate the last sand trap. Payne went right I went left off to the side, trying to stay on firm ground. Half way up I ran out of footing, stepped into the sand, and that was it. After a couple strides Payne had a gap. By the top of the hill he had 10 a meter gap, that grew to 30. I might have gained a second or two on the last couple hundred meters but it was not enough. Kauppila ran for the win with a 30:13. Payne finished in 30:33. I was just 4 seconds back in 30:37 (6:09 pace per mile). In light of the fact that I never was able set the pace and was just hanging on to those guys once I had caught up, I was really happy to get a bronze medal out of it. It was a masters dream come true!
What about your gold medal in the Half Marathon race that was held five days later?
The half marathon course started near the Toruń Arena (where the indoor races were held). The undulating out and back course was mostly flat, except for a hill at 8 kilometers and again on the return at about 15 kilometers. It was held primarily on urban and suburban streets, but also ran through a forest preserve, some farm country, and a bike path before circling back to the start near the Arena. The temperature (low 50s at the start) was near perfect.
Like the cross country event, I usually have a race strategy. But I like to keep it flexible and responsive to the situation. I knew that my 60-64 age group opponents would be tough to beat. Sergey Polikarpov from Kazakhstan was scheduled to race and had won the WMA 10 kilometer race in 35:12 earlier in the week. I had also watched him in the indoor 3000 meter track event on the first day of WMA competition. In that race Polikarpov took it out very fast from the gun and held sub-80 second 400s the entire way to go on and set a world record in 9:43. So I knew he would set a fast pace from the gun and be a front runner. The Finn, Kauppila, would also be a contender. Kauppila also looked quite formidable in the 3000, where he ran a Finnish national record of 9:47. His acceleration in the cross country race was astounding. Both Polikarpov and Kauppila appeared unbeatable and I was definitely intimidated by their performances.
However, both of them already had two WMA races under their belt from earlier that week and not much recovery. I had only done one race and was counting on having legs that were a bit more fresh than theirs. But I also knew that they had significantly faster middle distance speed and that I would probably have a hard time matching their pace over the last kilometer or two. I figured it would take a sub-1:19 to medal and that the three of us would finish between about 1:18:10 and 1:18:45. I also had some concern that a “ringer” might appear and surprise us all. But there was much anyone could do about that.
At the race start our age group had to line up 10 or 15 meters behind the start banner, but no one got a big advantage. The first 2 kilometers were very crowded, not unlike the Boston or New York City marathons where you can’t really pass and just have go with the flow. I soon moved up and skirted around walls of runners. I passed Kauppila at about the 1st kilometer, and could see Kazakhstan’s Polikarpov about 50 meters ahead. Kauppila followed me as the crowds thinned and we moved up from group to group. My legs did not feel good and was feeling overall only about 85 percent. However, the pace seemed good and my breathing was under control.
The first mile was slow, but soon we were running sub-6 minute miles once the crowd had thinned. Our 5 kilometer split was 18:34. Jukka took the pacing duties for a bit, and we were now gaining on Polikarpov. I could see that he was wearing capri tights and a long sleeved shirt under his singlet and shorts. It was about 55 degrees and Kauppila and I were just in singlets and shorts. Polikarpov was sweating through the shirt and I figured that this had to be affecting him or would be by the end of the race.
We were all right there, three of us running together, as we approached the one significant hill on the course. It wasn’t a huge hill but a climb about 2 percent over 800 meters, enough to make you think about pacing. Now it was decision time. I used my altitude training to good advantage by climbing the hill at a low 5:50s pace up and probably gained 8-10 seconds on them. I knew this was an effort that I could not sustain to the finish, but committed to hold it as long as possible.. My 10 kilometer split was 36:40. At this point we were out of the valley and into flat upland farm country.
I carried that effort through the half way turnaround point, passing the 15 kilometer mark in 55:04, but could tell things were about to get more difficult. By about 16 kilometers (10 miles) I was no longer passing other runners (up to that point I had only been passing people, and no one else had passed me back). My pace was starting to slow, from 5:50s to 6:00 per mile.. Then there was good fortune, at about 17K and 18K — a 40-44 age group Polish runner went by. By then we were contending with some head and crosswinds, so I just latched on to him and drafted. My thought was to simply run as relaxed as I could with the Polish runner pulling me along. When he pulled away, another runner came up from behind so I did the same. I hit the 20 kilometer split in 1:13:44, still hanging on to about a 6:00 pace.
The last kilometer of the half marathon was tough, but I reckoned that my age group competitors were not going to catch me. I did a sideways glance at the final turn with half a kilometer to go and spotted Kauppila, but he was a ways back. I did not see Polikarpov, who was apparently gaining at the time(!). The last 200 meter stretch to the finish was like a Tour de France stage with spectators crowded on to the street making the path to the finish line only a couple of meters wide. I went into a sprint to break 1:18, which would exceed my best case expectations by 20-30 seconds.
I finished in 1:17:49 (5:56 pace per mile), good for 53rd place overall out of over 500 top class competitors. Polikarpov and Kauppila finished close behind me (respectively, 57th place in 1:18:07 and 63rd place in 1:18:49). Although the overall race winners had crossed nearly 10 minutes earlier, I raised my arms in triumph knowing that I had finished ahead of two very formidable age group opponents. As soon as I crossed I heard the finish line announcer tell the crowd that I was the first place 60-64 year old runner!
The rest of my day was spent in a sort of muted and stunned state. I was happy on the inside but also emotional, almost like I wanted cry. So it was probably a good thing that the awards ceremony was 3 hours later…
After arriving in Poland American 50-54 age group runners Frances Burdett (1:24:36) and Dale Flanders (1:24:43) asked if I would join their team age group team. We thought we might have a good shot at a team medal. We were right. Our team won the bronze medal for the 50-54 age group (rules allow older runners to drop down to younger age groups). It was just one of those days were everything lined up and worked in my favor.
Running in the WMA Championships in Toruń, Poland was a dream come true. I am grateful that USATF provided support through the World #1 Program. Of course there were years of support and encouragement from friends at the Boulder Road Runners and the Boulder Track Club. Perhaps the best part of the experience was to compete for the USA (any American runner of any ability can sign up and compete in a WMA championship!) and to meet and become friends with other masters athletes from all over the world.
Author Bruce Kirschner has been a runner for over 46 years and an active race director and volunteer in the Colorado running community for nearly 40 years. He is a member of the Boulder Road Runners Men 60-69 USATF national championship team.