If you can run 15:00 or faster for 5k, you should be able to train to run 2:16 or faster for the marathon.
This is horribly wrong. So if you can run 4:49 pace for 3.1 miles then you should be able to run 5:10 for 26.2???? Have you ever run before in your entire life?
Frank Shorter couldn't break 10 minutes for 2 miles in high school. Dick Beardsley couldn't break 10 minutes for 2 miles in high school. How fast were women 2:14 & 2:15 Marathoners at age 18 or 19 at 5000m?
There is a huge difference between a 17 HS kid who might be getting really bad coaching , and a 22 year old who probably had at least average coaching. 8:40/15:30 screams a guy with speed not doing enough mileage. If he was running 80mpw, he would be running 15:00. If you read the article, the kid started late and had a pretty unsupportive college environment in terms of number of competive seasons. Most people quit running after that. If more people kept going, we would see more of these stories (and the OT time would be 2:15 to keep the field size down).
Think about how many 4:30/10:00 HS guys we have that run 30mpw and take the summer off. If they all went to college and took the sport seriously, we would have a lot more Brian Sell/Pat porter stories .
You offered no evidence Dick Beardsley or Frank Shorter had bad high school coaches. As far as I know neither said they had bad high school coaches.
If you can run 15:00 or faster for 5k, you should be able to train to run 2:16 or faster for the marathon.
This is horribly wrong. So if you can run 4:49 pace for 3.1 miles then you should be able to run 5:10 for 26.2???? Have you ever run before in your entire life?
I’m saying that if you can run 4:49 pace for 3.1 miles, then given 30 MONTHS OF TRAINING like this runner had, you should be able to hold 5:10 pace for 26.2.
Something definitely seems fishy with that young fellow. I agree he should be tested. No one all of a sudden gets that quick. Probably a cheater taking performance enhancing drugs and wearing super shoes. What a disgrace to the sport.
Lenny Leonard wrote: If you can run 15:00 or faster for 5k, you should be able to train to run 2:16 or faster for the marathon.
Some people with that speed might be able to do it but it's VERY, VERY rare.. According to McMillan, 2:16:35 is equivalent to 14:01/29:07 for an "endurance monster." According to Daniels , its 14:13/29:34.
His 8:39 3k is equiavalent to the following:
15:02/31:14/2:24:17 according to Daniels. 15:12/31:33/2:28:03 according to McMillan.
If he ran an 8:39 3k off like 40-50 miles a week, 2:16 off of 100-110 miles per week isn’t that unrealistic
I know plenty of guys who would be 17 min high school 5k guys and run 1:10-1:15 in the half marathon as adults after some good mileage. This guy is just the more talented version of that
This! I ran 17:12 in high school and was an 800 guy through HS and college and just ran 72:16 last month (ran 2:35 last fall). This dude indeed is super talented, and this is an awesome and very believable story!
If he ran an 8:39 3k off like 40-50 miles a week, 2:16 off of 100-110 miles per week isn’t that unrealistic
I know plenty of guys who would be 17 min high school 5k guys and run 1:10-1:15 in the half marathon as adults after some good mileage. This guy is just the more talented version of that
This! I ran 17:12 in high school and was an 800 guy through HS and college and just ran 72:16 last month (ran 2:35 last fall). This dude indeed is super talented, and this is an awesome and very believable story!
In the article, it says he went to some joke of a D3 school that only started a track team his junior year, but does anyone know how little he was training in college? How does one improve that much? He was in college in 2020.
His best finish at NCAA D3 xc was only 88th.
Seems like a guy who has some natural ability who piddled around in high school and college and then got serious.
I don’t know the man but I’ve been following along the last few years. He has an amazing work ethic, and set a goal and has worked towards it. He moved to altitude bumped up the training and things went well. Leave the man alone. He deserves this more than anyone
In the article, it says he went to some joke of a D3 school that only started a track team his junior year, but does anyone know how little he was training in college? How does one improve that much? He was in college in 2020.
His best finish at NCAA D3 xc was only 88th.
Seems like a guy who has some natural ability who piddled around in high school and college and then got serious.
Yeah, that’s what I’m thinking too. I was just under 10 flat 3200 runner in HS, which wasn’t good enough to make my college team. So I kind of screwed around doing other intramural sports and running just enough that I didn’t get slower, but also didn’t improve any. I ran a few road 5k’s just under 16 flat (Once 15:30 but I’m pretty sure the course was short). When I was 22 I decided to run a marathon and ran 2:36 off only about 50 miles per week. Other than a weekly long run, all of my regular daily runs were only like 5-6 miles long. But that inspired me, and two and a half years later after doing lots of 100 mile weeks I ran 2:22 and just missed the OT qualifier (back when that was the B standard).
That’s still a ways from 2:16, but it was a decade before super shoes. Also this guy has a much faster 3k time, so he’s likely even more talented. I don’t feel like I was especially talented, or even trained as well as I could have, so it’s not inconceivable that someone in a similar situation could do considerably better. Some people are just naturally better at longer distances and respond well to high mileage. Even when I was running 2:22 I still didn’t come that close to breaking 15 for a 5k and just barely broke 4:30 for an all out mile on the track.
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