The average person is far more athletic than you think and might be able to outrun some of the slower guys on here

Dudes who show up to race are going to be different from dudes walking around Wal-Mart...on average, of course.

They were all trying, even the slow 50 minute runners at the back. This is an idiotic topic.

the "average" person is either obese or overweight so I doubt they could run much at all.

"Might be able to outrun"? (Or might not?) Gee - that's a brave claim. One we won't see proven either way.

hobby jogger nation wrote:

Hobby jogger A - is definitely overweight and may even be borderline obese. He looks to his friend (?), holds up a pair of spikes, and has this conversation:

A:"I'm supposed to wear these, right?"

Friend: "I guess you could use those, but you're supposed to get sprint spikes, not distance spikes."

A: "Oh, whatever. So how do you use and adjust those things again?" (points to the blocks)

A looked really awkward getting out of the blocks, but he somehow ran a wind-legal 12.3x that day.

Pretty incredible considering I learned just the other day, on these boards, that Jakob Ing. can barely break 12 FAT

Sprints don't add up to much.

I had a burnout classmate outkick me in a 10K when I was 13 or 14, he'd never run a step in his life before the day he decided to run the race, too. I have a photo of him some time later, among our XC team when I was a freshman, but I can't recall that he was ever there. I can't ask him about it, he died in drug-deal-gone-wrong over 20 years ago.

A college roommate brought a mountain bike back from a visit home one day, with wobbling wheels, one brake, rusty chain, barely shifted. I was racing bikes for a club team my last semester. He buried me on a long trail ride.

I was a high school state champion, and got money from a D1 there.

I like to run in basketball shorts and shoes. Dressing like a runner is sometimes self deprecating. Why should a man wear a mini skirt and prance around in public for an hour? Come on now. If you want to dress down for the races, fine. But everyday for easy runs? Exvessive.

Based on what I've read here on other threads the average person is definitely not more athletic than "you" think. In fact it's completely the opposite. And you're only proving it with your examples. The "average" person doesn't even show up to compete at a track meet let alone run under 60 seconds for 400m. The truly "average" person is well beyond their athletic peak, overweight, and under trained. They probably struggle to break 120 seconds for 400m. The examples you provided are far from average.

Just because someone shows up and says something stupid doesn't mean they aren't just messing around. I'd probably do the same thing if they didn't know me. Just throw them off a bit. Hey which way do we run around the track for this race?

I still know who wrote:

hobby jogger nation wrote:

Hobby jogger A - is definitely overweight and may even be borderline obese. He looks to his friend (?), holds up a pair of spikes, and has this conversation:

A:"I'm supposed to wear these, right?"

Friend: "I guess you could use those, but you're supposed to get sprint spikes, not distance spikes."

A: "Oh, whatever. So how do you use and adjust those things again?" (points to the blocks)

A looked really awkward getting out of the blocks, but he somehow ran a wind-legal 12.3x that day.

Pretty incredible considering I learned just the other day, on these boards, that Jakob Ing. can barely break 12 FAT

Can you link the thread where this was discussed? Curious to see it, thanks

Imagine being the OP and not realizing what a giant tool you are...

OP has a weird idea of what constitutes the average person.

I wear shoes sometimes, it's fun wrote:

Sprints don't add up to much.

I had a burnout classmate outkick me in a 10K when I was 13 or 14, he'd never run a step in his life before the day he decided to run the race, too. I have a photo of him some time later, among our XC team when I was a freshman, but I can't recall that he was ever there. I can't ask him about it, he died in drug-deal-gone-wrong over 20 years ago.

A college roommate brought a mountain bike back from a visit home one day, with wobbling wheels, one brake, rusty chain, barely shifted. I was racing bikes for a club team my last semester. He buried me on a long trail ride.

I was a high school state champion, and got money from a D1 there.

Ha ha, you loser...no offense.

tight pants 2 wrote:

Umm, parkrun says otherwise.

Young non-runner men don't get up at 9am on a Saturday to run with a bunch of old men and children.

Lol yeah when I was in eihgt grade we did a mile time trial in gym class. I'd never run more than the length of a football field before in my life and I ran it in 4:50. And the crazy thing is it wasn't even on a track it was a trail course around the middle school campus, so convert that to a track with spikes and it's probably equivalent to a 4:30 mile or so.

And I wasn't even the best in my class there were like five guys who beat me. Just goes to show how unathletic distance runners are. They just take the dregs from all the other sports who are too scrawny to compete. Makes me wonder if I could have gone to state if I did running in high school lmao

Sadly I seem to have lost my running ability I just turned 30 and tried running a time trial mile on a track and ran 8:45 so whatever. Although thats speculation cause I had to drop off with 200 yards left cause of a cramp lol. That was at 8:15 minute so I just added 30 seconds figuring I'd have closed that fast if I didn't cramp up. So maybe i would have closed in like 25 s for a 8:40 finish.

Framer wrote:

Buddy from work is 6'4 250 pounds of muscle, really into body building used to run 3:50 1500m in high school. Used to beat me all the time. He decided to come out for a fun run 5k with me and the wife and kids. He was wearing this ridiculous super man costume for Halloween for the race. I was thinking how funny it would be to see super man beet red sweating and jogging lol. Turns out he's actually pretty fast, blew right by me in 15:37. Could've gone faster if it wasn't for the cape and extra muscle. Wife was pretty turned on, kids wanted pictures with him after the race the way he demolished daddy. Moral of the story, all athletic endeavors should be left to only the genetic elite, because it's just embarrassing for us common folk to even bother.

Ouch , never never never

Framer wrote:

Buddy from work is 6'4 250 pounds of muscle, really into body building used to run 3:50 1500m in high school. Used to beat me all the time. He decided to come out for a fun run 5k with me and the wife and kids. He was wearing this ridiculous super man costume for Halloween for the race. I was thinking how funny it would be to see super man beet red sweating and jogging lol. Turns out he's actually pretty fast, blew right by me in 15:37. Could've gone faster if it wasn't for the cape and extra muscle. Wife was pretty turned on, kids wanted pictures with him after the race the way he demolished daddy. Moral of the story, all athletic endeavors should be left to only the genetic elite, because it's just embarrassing for us common folk to even bother.

15:37 at 250lbs untrained?

Most of the people in the OP's example probably play other sports, not exactly "off the couch" efforts.

But it's true that most recreational distance runners are quite unathletic, and most other athletes are, well, more athletic than runners understand.

I can't believe how many distance "runners", young men 20-40 calling themselves athletes, simply can NOT run under 60 for 400. But there are lots of guys who take themselves seriously at 5k-marathon who can't do this.

An active soccer or basketball player may early die in a longer effort, but they could warm up and run a flying 13-point (even 12-point) over 100m, or sub 60 400m, any day of the week.

I wear shoes sometimes, it's fun wrote:

I had a burnout classmate outkick me in a 10K when I was 13 or 14, he'd never run a step in his life before the day he decided to run the race, too. I have a photo of him some time later, among our XC team when I was a freshman, but I can't recall that he was ever there. I can't ask him about it, he died in drug-deal-gone-wrong over 20 years ago.

A college roommate brought a mountain bike back from a visit home one day, with wobbling wheels, one brake, rusty chain, barely shifted. I was racing bikes for a club team my last semester. He buried me on a long trail ride.

Hahaha sounds like you are terrible in multiple sports.

Don't try swimming.

Not sure what the OPs point is.

Yes there are some average people that can outrun people on these boards. Not everyone on these boards is a fast runner. So what?

I strongly believe that the average (emphasis on average) person in the US could not outrun the average person on that reads the LR boards in a 5k

Using 5k as an example her as LR is primarily focused on distance running.

According to the CDC, over 73% of people in the USA are either overweight or obese (42% of the population is obese). While there may be a few extreme exceptions, being overweight or obese are very detrimental to distance running performance.

There are some very fast people on LR boards, and some slow people, but I believe the average time for a 5k of those who post on this site is under 25 min.

There is no way that the average person in the US could finish a 5k in under 25 min. (or even 30 min)