Who here has a PR that is mind-numbingly close to a time barrier?

I'll preface my reply by saying that I never ran for any school team of ever had outside coaching. All my times were run by my own doing, in terms of training plans.

For some reason, all my PRs were set when I was 39-40 years old, after having run for 18 years. Even though I already knew that genetically I was more of a marathoner, my favorite distance has always been the 5k, because it always proved such a challenge for me with my complete lack of leg speed.

All my running life, I chased breaking the 16:00 barrier for the 5k. Year in and year out, I'd try and try. I consistently ran in the 16:30-17:00 range. My road 5k PR reached 16:08, but there's always a question about how accurate road courses are, so for it to count to me, I needed to break 16:00 on the track.

One of the biggest highlights of my running life came at a track meet at Lewis & Clark college in Portland, OR. where I toed the line of a 5000m with a couple other running buddies, all of aiming for that elusive 16:00 barrier. All race long, we were right there, taking turns leading our own little pack. I was right on the edge over the final three laps, trying to battle the increasing pain and fatigue.

With 200m to go, I heard them yell out '15:30' and CRAP, I knew there was no way I could run a sub-:30 final 200m. I crossed the line with a brand new 5k PR of 16:04.

I'll never forget the mixed emotions I had. On one hand I was ecstatic that I broke my 5k PR at the age of 39, yet I had just fallen FIVE SECONDS short of my life-long goal.

And that's where things stayed - 16:04 for my track PR and 16:08 for my road PR. Sigh...

imarunr wrote:

And that's where things stayed - 16:04 for my track PR and 16:08 for my road PR. Sigh...

Now at age 57, I'm busting my butt to break 19:00. Getting old sucks. :)

1500m 4:01.66 back when i was trying to crack 4:00. But the d3 ecac qualifier was 4:01.76 so i just got under.

The season before this, the d3 ecac indoor mile qualifier was 4:23.x and i ran 4:24 leading from start to finish trying to get it. My 400 relay split pr is 52.99.

One of my teammates was training to go sub 17 in the 5k. He ran 17:00, 17:01, 17:00 his last 3 weeks of competing.

I have been trying years to run a race where I age graded 80%.

When I was 39, I ran a 4 mile in 22:20 for a 79.24 ag

When I was 45, I ran the same 4 mile race in 23:20 for a 79.37 ag

I hadn't run a mile race in over 30 years until last year when I ran 5:53. This year I was much faster and ran 5 one mile races. I needed to run 5:18 for an 80% age grade. My official time was 5:18.8 so I missed it by 8/10ths of a second. age grade was 79.83.

I also ran 5k(79.01), 5 mile(79.14), and 10k(79.15) this summer that age graded just a little over 79%.

When I was trying g to qualify for the world junior athletics championship in 1988 the qualifying time was 1.51. I ran between 1.51.09 and 1.51.8 7 times before I got it. Tried negative splits, even splits and positive splits-everything came out at 1.51 point

one year of base training wrote:

I have been trying years to run a race where I age graded 80%.

When I was 39, I ran a 4 mile in 22:20 for a 79.24 ag

When I was 45, I ran the same 4 mile race in 23:20 for a 79.37 ag

I hadn't run a mile race in over 30 years until last year when I ran 5:53. This year I was much faster and ran 5 one mile races. I needed to run 5:18 for an 80% age grade. My official time was 5:18.8 so I missed it by 8/10ths of a second. age grade was 79.83.

I also ran 5k(79.01), 5 mile(79.14), and 10k(79.15) this summer that age graded just a little over 79%.

My 800 pb is 159,9 so I Spose you could say I'm pretty smug

1500m pb of 3.59.98. Split 64s the entire way. Like clockwork.

oh so close wrote:

I don't have one oh-so-close, but I have a 15:12 5k that I tried for a couple years to get to sub 15. I also tried a few times to get a 2:35 marathon down to sub 2:30. And those aren't really even the agonizingly close type of PRs I'm thinking talking about.

I went 25:00.8 in the 8k. I was ticked. The clock said 24:58 when I passed the line, but it was one of those meets where they place the chip timing mats 10 meters beyond the finish line (which is flat out idiotic).

My 9:00.23 for 3000m is pretty annoying.

I've heard of a guy who has run 59:59.99999999999999999999999 for the Half-Marathon.

Dathan something...

50.00 for the 400 M IH, never run faster than 50.50 ever again. i and i let down in the final meters, it still gets to my nerves every other day.

The winner has to be the guy who ran 3:59.99x for the mile a couple years ago. He was under 4, but any thousandths round up the hundredths in the official time, so he wound up with 4:00.00 knowing he had been under by a few thousandths of a second.

My buddy ran 3:26.00

15:01 twice at Mt Sac, couldn't dip. This was in 2001 and still bugs me.

In high school (at altitude) there was a group of 5 seniors who all wanted to go under 5:00. For one, it was trivial (he was a 4:30 guy). Three of us ran in the 4:50's. However, one guy got stuck at 5:00.04. We offered to set up a time trial where the rest of us paced to get him under, but he passed on the offer. Regrets it to this day.

For a season my PR was 15:00.00 in the 5000. I had come through with a lap to go and saw the clock said 13:53, and I knew I had to kick it into gear if I wanted a shot at sub-15 (I was pretty certain of a PR, as it had been 15:22 before that race). After the race, I went to check with the official timing crew, and they told me my time was 14:59.997, but it had rounded up.

Luckily I ran several seconds faster the next year, to remove all doubt.

Other than that, my half marathon is just a couple seconds under 1:10. I have also snuck just a little bit under 2:00 in the 800 once, although I hardly ever race the 800.

Steve "Madness" Magness could be the poster boy for this. He ran 4:01 in hs, never to pr in college at Rice. Eventually he ended up pr'ing at the 800 and the 1500, but still was over 4 mins, despite numerous attempts to get below.

Not me but Mike Tate of southern Utah currently owns pb's of 14:00.08 in the 5k and 4:00.07 in the mile.

Have been trying for years to break 16 minutes in the 5K. My best is on a track, FAT timing, at 16:00.48.