Does it bother you when people claim false PR's? Should it?

citius5000 wrote:

Only when its a big lie like saying they ran a 4:00 mile back in the day or something.

This is the really sad part. Shaving a second or two off is bad enough, but those with "quantum lies" really need to get help. If their self-imagery relies on a large amount of delusion, then we should feel sorry for them.

There is a guy where I live who tells the most outrageous lies about his running past. And the thing is, I'm the same age and he knows I've followed the local scene for years now. I've never called "BS", I guess because of the embarrassing conversation that would follow. Maybe I should one day, though.

citius5000 wrote:

Only when its a big lie like saying they ran a 4:00 mile back in the day or something.

Seems like some create a career-boosting mythology, even:

I know this has been covered many times on letsrun, but why is it always the military guys who make up the most outrageous things? My brother-in-law was a Ranger and we were talking about running one day when he casually threw out, "yeah, my best mile time was 3:53."

To the OP, I don't give a rip if a guy says his 2-mile PR was run in a 3200 on the track. That's pretty petty. But if I had a nickel for every has-been weekend warrior who finds out I'm a coach and tells me they ran 10.1 for the 100 or 4 flat for the mile, I could retire comfortably, even in this market.

I was at work one day in high school and this one kid knew that I was on the track team, and he asked me "hey whats your best mile?"..I told him my p.r. of 432..he then says "thats not bad, last year I ran a 3:42 in military boots for our boot camp mile fitness test"..i said "really you should race el g then, he will prolly want to considering you just broke his world record"..the sad thing is..he didnt just mix up a 6 and a 3 to give him 342 instead of 642..he knew what he ran

we have a kid on our college team now that is just full of himself, he claims to have beaten all these kids in high school and have run these times that he is like 7 sec off in the 800..i kinda make it worse since i know he is lying i egg him on and ask for more details..like when he said he made it to state in xc (he finished 64th in his region..top 16 make it) i asked him what his first mile was and how was his finishing kick..and he goes into great detail about everything..if you didnt know he was a pathological liar you would believe him..

You are right, this has to stop. In this day and age there should be a way to keep a data base of legit times and use that for meet entries. I know that in swimming they keep very good records of times from age group swimmers to olympians to masters. Why can't track do the same??

The Marathon Guide website is a great way to expose these people if they're talking about a marathon. A triathlon coach in NYC recently told a friend of mine that he'd run a 2:20 marathon in New York, then asked what my friend had run. My friend said, "Oh, nothing near your level--just a 2:38 last year," and then asked when the coach had run his great race. "Oh, a couple years back," the guy said. My friend started to get suspicious, and later he used the Marathon Guide search device to check the story. The guy had no recorded marathon finishes at all since 2000 (the starting year of their database), let alone a recent 2:20 at New York. I think my friend might look for another triathlon group.

I've caught probably ten big lies of this sort. A guy told me he'd run 2:25 in NYC in 1978; since I happened to have run that race, I checked my old results book: 2:55! I can't bring myself to call people on this stuff because I figure they must have serious self-esteem problems if they have to go to such lengths. As a very good runner I know always says, "He's been punished already: He has to be him."

It only bothers me when people claim false PRs that are faster than my false PRs.

This is as old as air. People have claimed pr's after cheating, flat out lying, and many just exaggerate. I have a friend who's marathon times have gotten faster, even though he hasn't run one in over 6 years.

Call them out on it. Canfront them in front of others.

The down side is you will look like you are nit-picking over nothing.

What's the general thought on claiming a pr from a split?

This has always been tough for me as I ran a 3:42.2 1500 split but never quite matched in an open (3:44). So on the one hand I like to lay claim to having run the equivalent of a 4 minute mile, but I always feel like I have to qualify it to people that it was a split.

1500 split of what? DMR? But then that would have been a 1600...

trolly mctrollerito wrote:

1500 split of what? DMR? But then that would have been a 1600...

How about 4x1500m, there are a few of those relays around.

It was back in the day when Penn ran 4x1500 vs the 4x mile.

I swear Penn purposely changed it back to 4xmile because Arkansas ran such a phenomenal time in '85 and knew no one could break it. Besides that for a while it gave the record back to Nova, who they have always played favorites with.

he maned up wrote:

What's the general thought on claiming a pr from a split?

This has always been tough for me as I ran a 3:42.2 1500 split but never quite matched in an open (3:44). So on the one hand I like to lay claim to having run the equivalent of a 4 minute mile, but I always feel like I have to qualify it to people that it was a split.

I hate when people claim relay splits as pr's. Here are all the ways a relay split could be inaccurate:

1) It's hand-timed. I've had people hand time me a full second faster than my FAT time for the very same race. Can't trust anything hand timed.

2) You have a running start.

3) The actual distance run is impossible to determine because of the exhange zone. It's entirely possible that you got the baton late in the zone then handed it off early in the zone, thereby running less than 1500 meters. Of course the opposite is true and you may have run farther than 1500, but my point is that we can't know either way.

Sorry dude, you should go with the 3:44.

Wow I totally agree with the OP. Also I hate bad conversions in the 1500m. People claim 15,16, or 17 second conversions when they don't even break 4 minutes in the 1500m. Even El G only managed 17 seconds (perhaps he could have gotten within 17 but he never did). Its gotta be at least 19 for people in the 4 minute neighborhood.

Don't even get me started with 3000 conversions to two mile. How can some people say that they could run a race 218 m longer faster than the race they already ran. People think they have a double kick or something. Just stupid.

I manage a retail store and I see the local kids come in wearing their xc and track tshirts/hoodies. I'll ask them what events they do and their times. I'll mention that I was pretty good locally and was a walk on at a major university. I even won the road race in this god forsaken town three years ago!!!! Basically, my questions are a set up b/c I know this school has had no track success that I know of, their coaches never competed in the sport, and the kids in this town are lazy, liars, and future participants in our nation's welfare system.

The best one was some dirtbag kid who said he ran the 1000m in 2:30. He couldnt tell me what his best 400m or 800m was. He just said that time was what his coach had told him. I informed him that his 2:30 would prob make the final at the state indoor meet and that he must be close to 50 in 400m and 1:54 in the 800m. I tried to ask him about his training and all he said that his coach makes them run in the school hallways b/c "runners need warm legs to run fast".

what if a coach lies about his performances as an athlete and gets hired? (not naming any names, but there are definitely some out there)

As a former world record holder in three different track events, two relays, and one throwing event, it really doesn't bother me at all when people lie about past performances.

I know I was better than them, that is all that matters.

gardener wrote:

[quote]he maned up wrote:

3) The actual distance run is impossible to determine because of the exhange zone. It\'s entirely possible that you got the baton late in the zone then handed it off early in the zone, thereby running less than 1500 meters. Of course the opposite is true and you may have run farther than 1500, but my point is that we can\'t know either way.

Sorry dude, you should go with the 3:44.

You are actually supposed to take the splits when the runner crosses the start line before/after each handoff.