Beth Stalker

Age: 62
Family: Mike, 59, husband; Rachel, 28, daughter; Brendan, 26, son
Residence: Chestertown and Saratoga Springs
Occupation: Retired from SABIC (formally GE Plastics)
Sports: Running, Triathlon, Telemark Skiing

By Kristen Hislop

Age is just a number. You are only as old as you feel. I toss those around a fair bit these days. As a kid I remember my parents turning 50 and thinking “man that’s old.” Now at 90 I figure my dad has another good 10 years (as his mother, uncle and aunt went past 100). But aging can be tough on athletes as you can’t hit the times you once did. A new distance or sport is typically the only way to a PR. You don’t see 60-70-year-old athletes winning local road races, but that doesn’t mean that we lose our ability. 

On November 14, Beth Stalker ran Schenectady’s MVP Stockade-athon 15K in 1:06:10. Just that time alone is amazing, one that most will never see as they cross the finish line. But then Beth is not just any athlete. If you meet her, you’ll agree: humble, supportive, caring, giving – everything you want in a friend.

Beth is also a “world class” athlete. At the Stockade-athon, she was first of ALL the athletes who ran that day in the “age-graded” category. She ran a 92.03%. Reaching this age-graded level was a personal goal of hers for five years but she never made it public. After the Stockade-athon in 2019, achieving 90% seemed within reach. The overall winner Louis Serafini of Cambridge, Mass., who grew up in Niskayuna and is now a pro runner, ran 89.99%. Beth’s age-graded run means that she was just 8% off the fastest 15K run by a 62-year-old in the world as of 2020! 

Age-grading is a way to compare the performance of runners of all ages and both genders with one another on a level playing field. When your time is age-graded, it is calculated as a percentage of the “ideal” time for your age and gender at that distance. This allows races to give awards to the runners with the best performance for their age. Age-graded scoring: 60% and up = local class; 70% and up = regional class; 80% and up = national class; 90% and up = world class; 100% = approximate world-record level.

As longtime area runner Vince Juliano says, “Beth was always a national class runner as evidenced by a second-place finish at the Stockade-athon at age 41. She is one of only four women since the ‘90s to run sub-40 minutes on the very hilly Bill Robinson 10K, when that race served as the USATF-Adirondack 10K masters (age 40-plus) championship. Beth also has the fastest times at that race after age 50. At the Adirondack Distance Run, a 40-year classic 10-miler in Lake George, Beth has the third fastest time post age 50, all time!”

It is appropriate that Beth hit the mark at the Stockade-athon 15K as it was the first race in the area to offer an awards division based on age-graded results. The system is used for USA Track & Field Championships and a few races across the country. Locally, ARE Event Productions uses the World Association of Veteran Athletes (governing body for masters races) age-graded tables in their race results. When runners look up their Stockade-athon results, they can click the Additional Data field, then choose age-graded: areep.com.

While USATF Adirondack uses age-grading for their Grand Prix races, it’s not across all events. This is partially because many race directors are not aware of the system and that there are issues with age-grading. Most notably, the standards are not updated annually. The factors were updated in 2006, 2010, 2015 and not again until 2020. As you might imagine, the top times in the world for each distance at each age definitely changed between 2015-20. A new table is being updated for 2022. 

Even with its flaws, age-grading gives runners a chance to see how they stack up against the best at their age and across all ages and genders. You can even compare your performance to the elite athletes, such as 1984 Olympic Marathon champion Joan Benoit Samuelson of Maine, who’s run the Freihofer’s Run for Women 5K for many years. In 2018, she finished eighth in the masters division at age 60. The women ahead of her were all in their 40s. Joan’s time of 19:24 age-graded was 95.53%. In 2019, Joan won the age-graded Boston Marathon with a 97.02%. At 61, her time was 3:04! Typically, Olympians who keep their fitness at later ages are around 95%. In 2021, Freihofer’s Run for Women introduced an age-graded category with prize money. Marisa Sutera Strange, 58, was first in 18:56 with 95.58%. Aisling Cuffe, 28, the overall winner, was second in 16:34 with 89.14%, and Beth Stalker was third in 21:40 with 87.69%. 

Beth is a lifelong athlete who backed off running in her 40s due to hip/back/glute issues. It was then that she took up triathlon using the biking and swimming to cross-train. Beth has had great success in triathlon going to the ITU World Championships in London in 2013 and Lausanne, Switzerland in 2019. She finished on the podium with seventh place in her age group in 2019 and 20th in 2013. Earlier this year she competed at the USA Triathlon National Championships in Milwaukee where she again finished in seventh place in her age group. In 2022, she will be back at Nationals. Beth credits her ability to stay motivated to the women of the Willow Street Athletic Club, an athlete-directed running team, based in the Capital Region, her run/swim/bike friends and her husband, Mike.

Mike, is also a very accomplished runner, cyclist and triathlete. Earlier this year he completed his first half-Ironman distance race and the USA Triathlon National Race. While Beth is now retired, Mike is still working and plans to retire next year. Beth and Mike enjoy training together, traveling and staying connected to their friends in the Capital Region. Their daughter, Rachel now lives in Long Island after five years in Spain and Mexico, and son Brendan lives in Clifton Park. In fact, their whole family was an Athlete Profile in November 2006. 

Beth offers some advice to those who struggle with competing and watching the clock as they age. “I am trying to age gracefully, and appreciate not only where I am, but to be happy with others’ success. It’s important to me to space my workouts, do “strides,” run slow on non-workout days, and take rest and recovery days.” As someone who chases Beth on workouts, I can also attest that her focus and dedication are unmatched. (For recreational or non-runners, strides are 100-yard accelerations where you start at a jog, build to about 95% of your max speed, and then gradually slow to a stop. One stride should take about 20-30 seconds depending on your ability. The goal is four to six strides with the benefit of building comfort and coordination at higher speeds.)  Tom Dalton reminded Beth of the importance of strides as we age. She is sure that 90% age-graded was not achievable without this wisdom.

I absolutely love being on the same race course as Beth, as you’ll always hear her cheering for everyone else – all while focused on her goals. “I try to cheer and pray for others while I race. Prerace nervousness never goes away so I have certain scriptures that I pray prior to a race.” She also loves American pro triathlete Katie Zaferes’ mantra of ‘I don’t feel strong, but I am strong.’ Every race is better with Beth in your corner… Introduce yourself and you’ll have a new cheer section!

Kristen Hislop (kphislop@yahoo.com) is a member of the Willow Street team and a run/triathlon coach. The Hislop Coaching motto is “Do - Believe - Achieve” because she feels everyone is destined for greatness. She is proud mother to two boys who run in college and a husband who’s recently been winning his age group at races.