Masters Road Racing Profile:

Iain Mickle Joins the Seniors

By Bob Burns

Maybe the timing was just too good to be true. Iain Mickle’s 50^th birthday fell on the same day as the 2010 California International Marathon. He was in top shape.

“What a thrill it would be to be celebrate my 50^th birthday at the CIM,” Mickle said. “Everyone could come to my birthday party.”

The best-laid plans of mice and marathoners go oft awry. Mickle came down with a cold and back spasms before the Dec. 5 race and never made it to the starting line.

“OK, what’s Plan B?” Mickle asked one of his training partners, Mary Coordt.

Coordt suggested that Mickle enter the Rock ‘n’ Roll Arizona marathon on Jan. 16 in Phoenix. The weather would be good, the course was known in marathon circles to be fast, and he might as well put his good form to use as soon as possible.

Plan B was a winner. Mickle churned out a succession of six-minute miles en route to a lifetime-best clocking of 2 hours, 38 minutes and 54 seconds. He finished first in his age group and 19^th overall, beating his lifetime best by five minutes.

Mickle had enjoyed success at the shorter distances since beginning his masters career in his early 40s. He finished third in the men’s 45-49 10,000 meters at last summer’s USA Masters Track & Field Championships in Sacramento and clocked 1:15:14 in the Clarksburg Half Marathon in November, but he had never been able to do himself justice in a 26-miler.

“In a 10k or a half marathon, you can pretty much predict how you’re going to run, but it’s extremely difficult to do that in the marathon,” Mickle said. “My goal in Arizona was to break 2:40. To break 2:39 was a bonus.”

To get an idea of just how significant Mickle’s time is, it would have won the men’s 50-54 age group title at the 2010 USA Masters Marathon Championships by more than six minutes and would also have placed him first in the M50 division of the 2010 New York City Marathon. Comparing marathon times on different courses is an inexact endeavor, but any time under 2:39 typically ranks in the top 20 on the M50 world’s list at the end of the year.

It’s rare that a 50-year-old runner sets a lifetime best, but Mickle had never really given the marathon a fair shot. He joined his father in running the first San Francisco Marathon in 1977, finishing in about three hours. Several years later, when he was running track and cross country for UC Berkeley, he planned to run the Nike Marathon in Portland but wasn’t able to officially enter the race.

He copied his father’s bib number and attracted some unwanted attention late in the race.

“Some people saw me and said, ‘That guy’s 44 years old? That doesn’t look right,’” Mickle recalled with a laugh. “I pulled out at the end. I would have run in the low 2:40s.”

After graduating from Cal, where his best time on the track was a nondescript 14:41 for 5,000 meters, Mickle took a job as a runner on the Pacific Stock Exchange before opting for law school. He was class valedictorian at Hastings Law School and embarked on a successful career as an attorney specializing in corporate and securities law.

Mickle became a partner at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, working for a spell out of the firm’s Sacramento office, before joining Boutin Jones Inc. in 2006. As his workload lessened in his early 40s, he rediscovered competitive running.

“We held at fund-raiser for Cal track and field at my house, and a guy told me about these Tuesday morning runs they did at Bella Vista High School,” Mickle said. “I had no idea that there was this thing called the Pacific Association and that they had a series of races for guys my age. That’s when I got back into it.”

The early-morning group runs from Bella Vista and Nimbus Dam were a welcome respite to his law work. Mickle became acquainted with Coordt, who helped him develop a training program geared toward the 2008 Twin Cities Marathon.

Coordt, an Elk Grove resident with a master’s degree in nutrition from UC Davis, qualified for the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in 2000, 2004 and 2008.

“Iain’s pretty savvy himself, but it’s good to have someone to bounce some things off of,” Coordt said. “He’s a real pleasure to run with. He always has such a positive attitude.”

But the road to his breakthrough marathon in Arizona wasn’t always smooth. He had to drop out of the Twin Cities Marathon, and he has battled some of the injuries that endemic to distance running.

“Running is a real process, figuring out what works and what doesn’t,” Mickle said. “At some point, my times are going to slow down. A lot of it just staying healthy.”

At the 2010 USA Masters Track & Field Championships at Sacramento State, Mickle placed third in the M45 10,000 in 34:52.12 and was also seventh in a very competitive 5,000 in 16:21.37. Mickle plans to take advantage of having the 2011 World Masters Athletics Championships being held in his backyard this summer. He entertained the idea of entering the WMA marathon but will probably stick to the track races.

The WMA Championships will be held July 6-17, the first time in 16 years that the event has been held in the United States. Organizers are expecting a field of 5,000 athletes from about 80 countries.

“I’m really looking forward to it,” he said. “I think I still prefer the shorter distances to the marathon.”

He met his wife, Casey, when she was a long jumper and high jump at Cal in the early 1980s. They have two children, Colin and Olivia. Olivia is a sophomore at Brown University, where she’s a distance runner on the Ivy League school’s track team.

“She and I were able to train together when she was home for break,” Mickle said. “That was really special.”

All things considered, the timing, while matybe not perfect, is pretty good. The kids are out of the house, his career gives him flexibility, and his wife is supportive while he logs as many as 80 miles a week.

“She’s great,” Mickle said. “She knows it makes me happy.”