At 70, Eugene Runner K.C. Taylor Still Breaks 7-Minute Miles
By @sharedot · · 6 pages
- Fitness
- Running
- Masters Running
- Marathon
Eugene runner K.C. Taylor, 70, won his age group at the Rogue Valley Half Marathon at a 7:29 pace and aims to match last year's 1:30:05 half.
A 70-year-old outrunning runners decades younger
K.C. Taylor of Eugene, Oregon, recently turned 70 and is still breaking 7-minute miles.
Lookout Eugene-Springfield reports that at the Oct. 10 Rogue Valley Half Marathon he placed first in the 70–79 age bracket and 34th out of 277 total runners, finishing in about 1 hour, 38 minutes — a 7:29 per-mile pace.
'I'm just getting started,' Taylor told the outlet. 'I'll be younger next year.'
For devoted fitness readers, the feat is the kind of age-group performance that would be remarkable even from a runner half his age, and it comes with a season of goals still ahead.
Why it's surprising: a late start, then a 3:01 Boston
What makes Taylor's results astonishing is how ordinary his start was. He ran the 800 at South Eugene High School without standing out, skipped his senior season, and only got serious in his 50s.
He ran the 2010 Boston Marathon in 3:01:52, missing the sub-3 mark that only about 1% of marathoners ever break. Most people his age are slowing down; he got faster after starting late.
Old-school training: 12 wilderness miles from a truck cab
Taylor's method is as surprising as the results.
Per Lookout Eugene-Springfield, from ages 62 to 67, while driving a Sherwin-Williams truck, he would park at Willamette Pass and run 12 miles on the Pacific Crest Trail toward Rosary Lakes nearly every week — drinking straight from the lakes — then towel off and drive on.
Now retired, he runs three or four times a week, often 10 miles around 7:30 pace along the river, fueled by coffee and raisin toast, without headphones. 'Running to me is all business,' he said, describing the endorphin flow state he chases: 'I start entering into another dimension, in a way.'
What's next: matching 1:30:05 at age 70
Taylor's goals are refreshingly narrow: he wants to match himself. Lookout Eugene-Springfield reports he'll run the New York City Half in March — staying with a runner he met on Strava — and the Eugene Half in the spring, targeting his 2025 mark of 1:30:05, a 6:52-per-mile pace.
'All I try to do is match what I did 12 months ago,' he said. His message for the rest of us is simpler than his splits: 'Life rewards action.
Get out of the house. Keep moving.'
The story, carried on Lookout Eugene-Springfield and syndicated via NewsBreak, is already being shared as proof that the margins, as Taylor puts it, leave 'no room for slop.'