You're basing this solely off your one gym class dude. There are literally thousands of middles schools. In mine, we had one guy in the low 5s, one guy in the high 5s, a few low 6s and average was high 7/low 8s. Definition of talent is extremely arbitrary so not sure the point in even debating it.
To go along with this, my son's middle school cross country team ran a mile time trial two weeks ago and the fastest time was 5:54. Fifteen other kids were between 6 and 7, twenty-eight more between 7 and 8, the other 30+ kids were over 8.
XC /= track. unless the TT was on the track than the kid running 5:54 was probably good for closer to 5:30
What a liar haha. For comparison, Alan Webb ran in the 4:50's in middle school. So no, running sub 5:20 (not that far from Webb level of talent) with zero training in middle school is not common, it would mean you'd be among the most talented middle schoolers....not in your school, but in the country.
And you supposedly had two faster kids living near you as well. So either all three of you ended up being among the best milers in the nation in HS, or you're full of it. And the fact that you think sub 5:20 is common for middle school shows you simply have no idea what you're talking about lol. Most kids don't start running until HS, and under 5:20 would show solid good talent for a middle schooler who was training all through middle school. Anyone with your make-believe level of talent who started training let's say freshman year in HS would be sub-4:30 as a freshman, which obviously is anything but common. That's the type of talent that the top kid in the state would have.
1. the difference between 4:50 as a middle schooler in 1994 or whatever, and 5:20 in 2015 is astronomical.
2. according to athletic.net, my state had 25 middle schoolers under 5:02 in 2015
3. I ran 4:42 and 2:01 as a freshman, and no I wasn't the best in the state for my age for either of those either.
In the 2000s my school had a few freshmen who ran low 5s as 8th graders without serious training. I narrowly broke 5 at that age but I had trained for a year and a half. What 'not in my house' says isn't really unreasonable.
hahaha, no you did not do that. in 2023 that would have put you in top 10 in the country for 12 year olds. and you are telling us that 3 12 year olds ran top 10 or faster in the same race. with no training. troll
it takes zero effort to fact check what you just said. straight from athletic.net 25th in the 1600 (for 7th graders only) was 4:52.44. in 2015 when I ran that race, 25th was 5:04.65. Both lists are likely missing a couple hundred kids who ran ~ the same times cause middle school meets don't get recorded that often. if someone had enough time on their hands they could probably figure out what state I'm from cause not a lot of states listed middle school times back in 2015 (I checked cause this thread had me curious) but I'm not gonna purposely give out personal info to make a bunch of letsrun bros believe me lol.
it takes zero effort to fact check what you just said. straight from athletic.net 25th in the 1600 (for 7th graders only) was 4:52.44. in 2015 when I ran that race, 25th was 5:04.65. Both lists are likely missing a couple hundred kids who ran ~ the same times cause middle school meets don't get recorded that often. if someone had enough time on their hands they could probably figure out what state I'm from cause not a lot of states listed middle school times back in 2015 (I checked cause this thread had me curious) but I'm not gonna purposely give out personal info to make a bunch of letsrun bros believe me lol.
show us the proof or STFU troll
just checked athletic.net and you are indeed lying, again. on top of that, 1600m is not a mile dumba**
1. the difference between 4:50 as a middle schooler in 1994 or whatever, and 5:20 in 2015 is astronomical.
2. according to athletic.net, my state had 25 middle schoolers under 5:02 in 2015
3. I ran 4:42 and 2:01 as a freshman, and no I wasn't the best in the state for my age for either of those either.
In the 2000s my school had a few freshmen who ran low 5s as 8th graders without serious training. I narrowly broke 5 at that age but I had trained for a year and a half. What 'not in my house' says isn't really unreasonable.
There is NO. F-ING. WAY.
You all are delusional to believe that these were true, full "miles" being run by untrained 12 year olds on a whim.
Kids are doing it, yes, ABSOLUTELY, but these kids are serious, committed athletes, devoting lots and lots of time to training, making lots of sacrifices in their 12 year old lives to be able to do so.
How do I know?
I've been at youth nationals and JOs the past few years. I know of what I speak.
At Florida MS and elementary state, the best in the state 5th graders were running high 4:40s, low 5s in the 1500m. All of them were on top track clubs and had been training at the very least that season but probably for years already. Those were 10-11 year olds. I don't see any kids just coming out for the first time at 10, 11, or 12 and running 5:15/5:20 miles off the couch.
Also props to the creator and team, because that was an entertaining video. The 5:06 guy was actually a distance runner who came back. I am not surprised to see many sprinters on a college team running sub-6 miles, because first they have more than enough speed to make 75s feel like a jog at first and then they are talented enough to run in college, they have been running for years and have to be able to run multiple events in a day, and the 400 runners are often going to be doing 3-4 mile runs once a week as well.
In my day, there were a few sub-5 8th graders in my county. I ran 5:32 and that was on less than 10 mpw. Nowadays, I see a sub-4:30 8th grader, Marcelo Mantecon, but he has been training very, very hard for years with Belen Jesuit (14:52 xc 5k at Huntsville recently and low 9 3200m in 8th grade).
i'll help you cope. how fast you run as a noobie doesn't determine how fast you run after some years of training. i've seen a guy who ran sub 20 in the 5k as a 9 year old, but by the time he finished high school, he never broke 17. i've also seen guys whose best mile was an 8:45 during the physical fitness test in high school and then broke 4:10 in the 1600m just 2 years later. now if you're doing 50mpw and can't break 5 minutes in the mile, then maybe you're just not talented
To go along with this, my son's middle school cross country team ran a mile time trial two weeks ago and the fastest time was 5:54. Fifteen other kids were between 6 and 7, twenty-eight more between 7 and 8, the other 30+ kids were over 8.
XC /= track. unless the TT was on the track than the kid running 5:54 was probably good for closer to 5:30
Sorry that I wasn't clear on this -- they run their time trials on the track, practice is in the morning before school. If anything I'd bet that the mile was a phantom 9 meters short.
In the 2000s my school had a few freshmen who ran low 5s as 8th graders without serious training. I narrowly broke 5 at that age but I had trained for a year and a half. What 'not in my house' says isn't really unreasonable.
There is NO. F-ING. WAY.
You all are delusional to believe that these were true, full "miles" being run by untrained 12 year olds on a whim.
Kids are doing it, yes, ABSOLUTELY, but these kids are serious, committed athletes, devoting lots and lots of time to training, making lots of sacrifices in their 12 year old lives to be able to do so.
How do I know?
I've been at youth nationals and JOs the past few years. I know of what I speak.
I wrote '8th graders' and you are now ranting about '12 year olds'. Did this whole rant come about because you don't understand what a middle schooler is? Middle school is from 6th to 8th grade and 8th graders in the spring are very likely to be 14.
One thing you're right about, though: they were 1600ms and I forgot that detail. So you can add a second or two to that.
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