Why do military guys feel the need to lie about their mile times?

I think what it comes down to is that a good bit of military guys suffer from low self esteem, they join the army to get self worth, based on the fact that they joined for the wrong reasons a lot of them continually lie about junk like this.

In every platoon there is a guy who has done the 2 mile in 10 flat and benches 325 didn’t you know ????

We used to get guy who went military out of high school come back to visit track practice- they all ran the mile in 4:44 in the military.

None of them ever were runners or if they were they were very slow.

But it was always 4:44. I wondered if they were running 3/4 of a mile and didn't know it.

Lmao I know a guy in the army who said he ran 4:44 as well wtf

I know a guy, 6’2 and about 230lbs who claimed he ran 6 miles in 32 minutes. I saw him about a week later cycling home from work and looked like he was having a hard time maintaining 12mph on his mountain bike on a flat road.

Not even close to a 6:00. I agree with the guy who commented that it looked like he was running somewhere in the 8's.

Everyone in the military has run 10 flat for the APFT 2-mile … in their last unit. Over ten years in the Army and I have seen exactly four people in any of my units break 11:00, and that includes both infantry and cavalry companies. Two of them were of Kenyan background, one of whom broke into the high 9's.

Maybe we should try to get this guy hooked up with Ashley Horner?

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=8917856

Agreed as well that looks like 8 min pace, it also looks like he is starting and stopping ?‍♂️

Esteem wrote:

I think what it comes down to is that a good bit of military guys suffer from low self esteem, they join the army to get self worth, based on the fact that they joined for the wrong reasons a lot of them continually lie about junk like this.

In every platoon there is a guy who has done the 2 mile in 10 flat and benches 325 didn’t you know ????

Straight up had a “former Ranger” tell me he rucked two miles in under ten minutes. When I laughed right in his face he threw his beer on me like women do in terrible movies.

Yeah...I tend to agree most exaggerate their claims, but I imagine almost all of the rangers would destroy most of the letsrun posters in any kind of endurance, 100lb rucksack run/exercise. Better to be tough with them killer eyes than fast when in special forces.

All that said, wouldn’t think of ever picking a fight with a ranger. A scrawny xc racer on the other hand...

Also they did 10M a day every day for PT. Yeah, you were doing 70M weeks.....

Watched the mile part (not the rest) out of curiosity and what's funny is that, even if you believe the timing, he definitely didn't run a mile. He started in lane 1 about 15m ahead of where he finished! I can't imagine why anyone would do that, but assuming a 400m track then he ran about 1585m and not 1609m. Check out where he starts at 2:45 and where he finishes at 3:01.

Military liars wrote:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SP_BY21eVHI&feature=share

Here’s yet another example. This guy has a really popular YouTube channel but based on his stride he’s flat out lieing about running 5:58.

I’ve seen so many posts about army guys lieing about their physical fitness and I was curious to why it even happens..? Is it an cultural thing to just brag / lie about stuff in the military..?

Military liars wrote:

I’ve seen so many posts about army guys lieing about their physical fitness and I was curious to why it even happens..? Is it an cultural thing to just brag / lie about stuff in the military..?

Yes I think so. Lots of tall tales.

This comes up from time to time on these boards. There once was a time when there were some decently fast runners in the Army. In the 22 years I was on active duty I did run into some guys that grossly exaggerated their running ability. However, I have also been stationed with some pretty fast folks as well. In the 90s, Fort Sam Houston was home to the Military Pentathlon Team. There were plenty of fast guys and we had some really good training runs. I knew I was around some fast military guys when I ran a local 5k that had a Military Division. I ran around 15:20 and not only did I not place in the military division, I didn't place in my age group, (San Antonio had some pretty fast runners at the time as well). In 1995 Fort Sam Houston sent two men's teams to the Army Ten Miler, I managed to get on the A team, I was the 4th guy on the team and I ran 53:30 I believe. As a team we were second, (Fort Campbell beat us that year) However, our B team placed 5th or 6th. Different times in the 90s, while there was WCAP at the time, it wasn't filled with Kenyan runners as it is now. I've attached the thread from 2003...some interesting stuff there, including my story of meeting a guy named Cameron Copher, who was from Washington.

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=299092

Esteem wrote:

I think what it comes down to is that a good bit of military guys suffer from low self esteem, they join the army to get self worth, based on the fact that they joined for the wrong reasons a lot of them continually lie about junk like this.

In every platoon there is a guy who has done the 2 mile in 10 flat and benches 325 didn’t you know ????

I agree with this. Especially if they join a fighting branch. Very insecure people. If enlistment age was raised to 26 we would see a far different military. Pentagon is exploiting vulnerable young fellows, and uses recruiting techniques college coaches would envy.

Fair comment?

Similar to everybody on Letsrun having a sub 2:20 marathon, making over 200k a year, and having a supermodel girlfriend.

My name is........hepcat wrote:

Esteem wrote:

I think what it comes down to is that a good bit of military guys suffer from low self esteem, they join the army to get self worth, based on the fact that they joined for the wrong reasons a lot of them continually lie about junk like this.

In every platoon there is a guy who has done the 2 mile in 10 flat and benches 325 didn’t you know ????

I agree with this. Especially if they join a fighting branch. Very insecure people. If enlistment age was raised to 26 we would see a far different military. Pentagon is exploiting vulnerable young fellows, and uses recruiting techniques college coaches would envy.

Fair comment?

I don't know if that's completely unfair, I was a recruiter for the Army so I've seen and recruited kids from different backgrounds and social groups.

However, I have a young man who ran in High School for me a couple years ago. 1:59 for the 800 and 4:36 for the 1600. He came from a completely dirt poor family. He is currently in the Army, in the infantry branch, (he knew exactly what he was doing when he joined) If anyone of y'all would speak to him, he is bigger (more muscular) now than he was just 2 years ago, and he probably couldn't break 5:30 for the mile right now. So you would obviously think he was lying.

Is it possible they run "the mile" around the base or whatever? It's three loops around the building, or something like that. So the dude thinks he his running a real mile but it's just kind of the traditional mile equivalent.

My high-school gym class was like this. 13 laps around the commons was a "mile." Then people would just think they could run a mile in whatever time it was.

A dude I work with who smokes, but is actually fit looking otherwise, told me he ran a 15:20 5k. He actually showed me results, it was a non-certified 5k. Average joes don't even know what certified is.

I'm currently active duty and hate seeing stuff like this. In the Marine Corps our fitness test includes a 3 mile run and there are aren't a lot of Marines who get under the 18 minute limit for a perfect score.... there's about three times as many though that talk about how they "used to get under 18" prior to yadayadayada.

I don't know why people lie about stuff like this when it takes 30 seconds to log in and look at all of their previous fitness scores and see that they never even went under 20 minutes.

I think maybe he did it (5:58 for 1590 m). Last year he did 5:57 and now he weighs 10 lbs more. He says he started too fast so he was dying at the end. It looks slower maybe because he is tall.

What's your evidence he did 5:57 last year? Hopefully not just his word or a video?

Possibly true wrote:

I think maybe he did it (5:58 for 1590 m). Last year he did 5:57 and now he weighs 10 lbs more. He says he started too fast so he was dying at the end. It looks slower maybe because he is tall.