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Left to right, Larry Rechtin, 65, Fred Torneden, 69, Mark Carver, 66, and Rick Lee, 65. They set a 4x800 relay world record shrugging off one hiccup after another.
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By Ray Glier
This story is about running through things meant to discourage us.
Also, this is not just a track story. It’s a trust story.
**
There was nothing about the circumstances last weekend that would help the Medicare 4 set a world record in the 4x800 relay, Men 65-69 years old.
The first day of the USATF Masters Outdoor Championships the air was a soup of smoke blown into Geneva, Ohio, from Canadian and U.S. Midwest wildfires.
Day 1, Thursday, was cancelled by smoke. Day 2, Friday, was cancelled by more smoke. The smoke was so dense it set off a fire alarm in a hotel when a door was held open too long.
The Medicare 4 (my name for Larry Rechtin, 65, Fred Torneden, 69, Mark Carver, 66, and Rick Lee, 65) was on the verge of disappointment. They had this 4x800 world mark schemed out.
There was worry the national championships would be called off and 1,719 athletes sent home doleful and out thousands of dollars in travel because of dangerous air quality.
The air started to clear at 4 a.m. Saturday. The meet finally commenced Day 3.
There was another stall for the Medicare 4. They had a 4x800 start time given for 5:30 p.m. Saturday, but thunder, lightning and rain rolled in. There was another delay. Some relays before theirs were run in a driving rain..
The weather moved out. Rechtin, Torneden, Carver, and Lee had a runway for their plan to break the world mark of 10:16.67. But they didn’t have time to suitably warm up because the two relay races before them were suddenly moved inside.
Fred and Friends had to throw on spikes and did a 50-meter stride to get loose and line up immediately and run for the Greater Philadelphia Track Club.
They shrugged through all of it.
“It was all just a very positive vibe with all of us,” Torneden said. “There was nothing like ‘oh this is too much’. There was no negativity. We just had a task at hand, and we weren't going to let wind or smoke or lack of warm up keep us from doing what we knew we could get done.”
They got it done. They ran 10:01.73 and obliterated the mark set in 2024 by 15 seconds. It was one of six World Masters Athletics records set at the meet.
Here is the trust factor with these guys.
“One thing we wanted to do with Rick (Lee) as an anchor, the three of us needed to make sure we ran even,” Torneden said. “We didn't want to go too aggressive, blow up, and then cost us. So we were trying to run more even. I'll say conservative, but yet still fast.”
Lee, who is from Bayville, N.J., is a generational superstar so the team figured he was a cinch to go under 2 minutes, 30 seconds on his anchor leg. At the championships last weekend, Rick won gold medals in the 800, 1500, 5000, and 2000 Steeplechase.
Rick's recovery time and range of events is extraordinary and he will be a force for the U.S. at the World Masters Athletics Championships in Korea in August. Lee is No. 1 in the world in the 1500, 5000, and 2000 Steeplechase.
Rechtin, who is from Spring City, Pa., led off and immediately ducked down to Lane 1 from Lane 6. He was fast and steady and impressive for two laps in 2:27.4.
Torneden, who lives in Manhattan, Ks., came next and stayed in rhythm with a 2:32.0.
Then came Carver, who is from Nashville, Tenn.,who was at 2:33.7. Lee anchored and came in at 2:28.4, though it sure looked like he was coasting and could have gone 2:25.
“We had the best weather of the entire weekend and we all ran close to our potential,” Fred said.
It was a club world record and open world record by four guys who still have their own hair.
“Probably the hardest part was the fact that we thought we were running Thursday evening, and then it was postponed, and then we thought it was Friday, and then it was postponed. Saturday, they canceled the 10,000 early in the morning and I'd almost come to the conclusion, you know, it's still bad air quality, they're going to cancel this meet.
“After three days of all that it was a relief that we were finally going to get to run.”
**
For Torneden (TOR-nay-done) it was his second world record in the 4x800. He was part of a team with Mike Lebold, David Westenberg, and Tim Owen, who set the world mark in the 2024 USATF Masters Indoor Championships in Chicago. (Fred’s wife, Deb Torneden, was part of a women’s 60-64 4x800 world record at the same meet, on the same day, and within an hour of her husband's world mark. They also have a book).
Important feedback in this story is how an old fellow at 69, Fred, was not a ball-and-chain to younger runners. The fact is the Greater Philadelphia Track Club, Torneden said, “has a wealth of talent” in the middle distance events and others could step into his shoes. Fred couldn’t be the slacker and he made an adjustment in his training this year to make sure he was reliable.
“One thing that Deb and I did do in April through June is we incorporated more of what they call the Norwegian method,” said Torneden, who has a training web site, Master Class Runner. “Our recovery runs were truly recovery.
“That was probably a difference maker. We just truly recovered on our easy running days, and our legs felt better. And then we do the occasional quality session, and the quality sessions were matching what I was doing two, three years ago, for the most part.”
Fred runs just 25-30 miles a week, so he was fresh. The question was whether he was race ready.
“I hadn't raced for a while,” Torneden said. “My workouts indicated what fitness level I'm at, so I was having to kind of draw confidence off my workouts, not so much races. And, so there's always that unknown when you haven't raced much.
“That's one thing in Kansas, there's not a lot of track racing opportunities in the summer for older runners, and so that wasn't ideal.”
But when it came time to race, Fred knew how. He didn’t have to check his watch every 200 meters to stay on pace. He didn’t wear a watch.
And that is how you slap back when hubbub comes around. Geezer Jocks find a way through smoke, rain, and delays.
"As a 69-year old, sometimes you're just thinking, 'Okay, I'll wait till next year when I turn 70'. But to find four guys in that age group and they're able to run the kind of splits that we did, and everybody's healthy, and it all comes together on one day., that's pretty special,"
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