A Guy I Work With Claims He Ran A 1500m in 3:45. How Believable is this?

True story.

Met a homeless gentleman. He was not strung out on drugs or anything and was in solid shape for his age. Just a bit beat up from life. He was at a park sitting on a bench.

Another guy had on a T-shirt from a road race and the homeless man read it out load and then mentioned that he had been a runner. He asked a couple of questions about the race that an average person wouldn't likely ask. Then in return the guy asked the homeless man when he ran. He said the years and then named his PR's. These were PR's that only a runner would know and they lined up for 800m, 1500m and 5k. He wasn't bragging, just answering the question. We looked him up. The guy had been an all-American and competed at the US Champs / Olympic Trials back in the day.

You never know who you will meet and when. Someone who was a good runner years ago isn't like a pro basketball or football player where their size would be an indicator of their history. Tons of former great runners out there of all ages just living life.

I don't know your co-worker obviously, but a 3:45 1500m from 35-40 years ago in the 1980's wouldn't be outrageous. Very do-able. That's about a 4:02-4:03 mile. Lots of good college guys did that. Now if he said 3:35 in the 1980's then that's another level.

Is his name dahl?

Ask if he remembers his splits from the race, and where he placed in it.

We had a fella at Folsom back in the day, mighta won the Olympics if he was a free man. Called him Lickety Split, think his name might have been Larry.

Where did that ridiculous 35 number come from? Google?

There were 3 guys on my college team who ran faster than 3:45 40 years ago. Only 1 of them ever made nationals. Are you seriously saying that only 32 other guys came from the other 100+ D1 programs? I know D2 guys who ran that fast 40 years ago. You can Google yourself to death and none of their results will show up.

3:45 is about 4:02/4:03 for mile.

At 58 he would have been college class of 1989.

If you know his school, you might be able to check.

As a betting man, I would judge he did not do it.

Of course always possible, but unlikely.

No, it’s not. The WR for the 1500m, 40 years ago, was 3:29.6. You’re seven second adjustment would require a current WR of 3:22.6, and most followers of the sport know that 3:45 is not within a 4:00 mile.

Someone on this site will have t&f news from that year - and it should have results of big meets plus rankings. The issues might be digitized somewhere. If you know where the guy went to college, who their rivals were, big meets in their area, you should be able to at least find a result in line with what would indicate 345 potential.

Yeah, it's funny how slow some of these posters seem to think we were in the late 80s. 3:45 was a solid time, but it wasn't notable and it wasn't getting you to nats.

I do agree, though, that 3:45 then was 3:41-42 now. But that's a whole different story mostly relating to super spikes and bicarb.

I know that guy!

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We aren't comparing world records. We are comparing where it would rank on am equivalency. Using your logic, every high school boy on the 800 is much worse now than they were 2 years ago because the high school record is so much faster now.

You would never find it in google.. Google is a toy. Its not that sophisticated. You could find that using old skool research.

111 men ran 3:42.44 or faster in calendar year 1986.

#35 that year was 3:36.40

12 Americans at 3:41.83 or faster in 1986

I'm surprised. Are you sure? In 1977 me and my college teammate Mike Wyatt were 12th and 13th with 3:42.2.

Huh? You can beam your 3:45 guy from 40 years ago to the present, and he’s not running 3:38, and most likely, he’ll run 3:45.

I think there's a good chance this guy is telling the truth. The biggest indicator for me is that he's saying what his 1500 time is not the mile. 3:45 was fast back then but also accomplished by many. 95+% of 58-year-old guys probably don't even know the 1500 is a track event.

I'm a couple years younger and there's no way to find old college newspaper results online. Local newspapers may or may not have been digitized (might require microfiche search at a local library) but school newspapers are highly unlikely. The only results I can find for myself, not including my own writing on my pocket calendars (my training logs back then) from the '80s is digging up stuff that I actually clipped out with physical scissors. I have a common name (literally a dozen people in just my college phone directory shared my name) so my race results are pretty much unsearchable until you add a location, and even then I've not seen my pre-2000 results. In fact, my 2000-2010 results in things like ski races and local road and trail races have disappeared from the internet too.

You're kidding? 100% of 75 year olds would know the 1500m.

I don't know a single person in real life around my age (56) who watches track.