Hartshorne Memorial Masters Mile 2026
I last ran Hartshorne in 2018 and 2019. What would things look like for me 7 years later?
This was the 57th running of the Hartshorne Memorial Masters Mile. Hartshorne is an annual race organized by the Finger Lakes Runners Club (FLRC) to honor Jim Hartshorne, one of the club’s founders and its first president. The event is specifically for masters runners (typically age 40+), celebrating both competitive running and lifelong participation in the sport—values Hartshorne strongly embodied.
Amy and I have been working out weekly in Cornell’s Barton Hall as part of FLRC’s MITHACAL Milers training series. These Tuesday night workouts are a great way to comfortably work out with friends while the weather rages outside. There’s something wonderful about the energy of 60+ people of all ages running tough workouts inside.
And so I found myself at the start line in Barton on Saturday, January 17, nervous as heck and feeling like quite the imposter. Based on my estimated time of 5:30, I was placed in the Men’s Elite B heat. Elite? Who are you kidding? My face said it all as Adam made the introductions: “What on earth am I doing here?”
I planned to settle into what I hoped would be a consistent pace, knowing that I was smack in the middle of the range of paces in the heat. I wouldn’t be first, and I shouldn’t be last. Targeting the middle sounded just about right.
I didn’t particularly enjoy starting so far on the outside of the pack, and I had to weave my way around the photographer to cut into the first lane. With every subsequent lap, my brain was fully focused on ignoring the discomfort of the pace and welcoming a reduction in the number of remaining laps.
Mid-race, I jockeyed for position with Mike Nier (6), the organizer of the upstate New York PGXC series, and Dave Kania (8), a fellow club runner who I immensely enjoy training with on Tuesday nights. When it came down to the home stretch, Dave would provide pressure for me to kick harder than I thought I could to finish strong.
This video starts at the finish, but you can certainly back it up to see the intros (mine is at 1:17). In the end, Dave, Mike, and I all finished within .13 seconds of each other. Watching the video it doesn’t look all that hard, but I gotta tell you, when you’re in the middle of running a mile, there’s nothing harder.
Age Graded Performance
I finished with a 5:32.45, 9 seconds slower than 7 years ago. My splits were fairly consistent, though to backseat drive I’d say my second lap was too fast, and laps 4-7 were a second off of what I thought I could do. And the last lap is 100% due to competitive stress and adrenaline. I’ll take that.
41.98
39.92
41.53
42.06
42.76
42.87
42.80
38.57
I was 10th of 15 runners in Men’s Elite B, and 5 of 8 in my age group across the meet. But what about that time, decked against my performance 7 years ago? Here’s where age grading enters the chat. Age grading is a way to level the playing field against other runners and yourself. Hartshorne provides lovely age-graded results, as does the FLRC Challenge each year. Here’s how today stacks up against my 2018 and 2019 efforts. Each year is followed by the age-graded mile time and age-graded percentile.
2018: 4:57.00 and 74.95%
2019: 4:54.03 and 75.71%
2026: 4:49.73 and 77.01%
See how that mile time decreases and the percentile nudges up? That’s a good thing, and means that as I’m getting older, my age-graded performance is improving.
1 mi in 5:32 // 19 of 55 overall, 5 of 8 age group, 5:32 pace // strava