Although most of us lose velocity as we age, that doesn’t appear to be the case for Fekih Lahcene of Mitry-Mory, France. Final Sunday, on the 10K Promenade’Traditional de Good, the 54-year-old set a brand new French masters 10K file for males’s 50+, crossing the road in a jaw-dropping 31 minutes and eight seconds.
Lahcene averaged a tempo of three minutes and 7 seconds per kilometre, rightfully touchdown himself on high of the rostrum within the males’s masters division and his males’s 50-54 age class. He missed the world file for his age group by a minute, but when he have been one yr older, his time would have eclipsed the age-group 10K world file for 55+. This file at present stands at 31:40 and is held by former three-time Spanish Olympian Martin Fiz.
Born in Morocco, Lahcene reportedly started working at 12 after a health care provider beneficial it for bodily exercise. In an interview with French podcast Adversité, Lahcene stated he ran by really feel for a few years and solely began following a coaching plan after becoming a member of the La Meute Operating Membership (primarily based in Mitry-Mory) in 2021. He attributes his success to the membership’s ambiance and excessive degree of coaching, in addition to his willpower and confidence in his coach.
Lahcene has made fairly a reputation for himself in France within the final yr, setting the boys’s over-50 marathon file of two:25:19 on the 2024 Valencia Marathon. He additionally set the boys’s 50+ 20km world file on the Paris 20K earlier within the fall.
He stated what evokes him probably the most is seeing older athletes persevering with to carry out. Lahcene began with shorter distances earlier than finally transferring as much as marathons, and says he laughs when he seems to be again on his first few makes an attempt.
The 54-year-old is on Strava and trains upwards of 100 km to 130 km every week alongside his working membership. He talked about on his web page that he’s wanting ahead to returning to the Good 10K subsequent yr to provide the file one other shot… if he doesn’t break it by then.
