runningart2004 wrote:
Old training never goes away. Its always there somewhere.
Alan
How true. I was a 10'30 two miler as a 13 year old in the mid-70s then put an end to my running "career" as father thought it was becoming too serious. Started running again 35 years later (2-3 times a week, after a sedentary life) and as a 51 year old can still run a 19' 5k / sub 40' 10k / 3h10 42.2k. Very far from AG world class but definitely enough to beat office coworkers!
Inquisitor wrote:
D3 Elite wrote:I didn't want to get into an all-out sprint at the end just cuz I didn't want to look foolish trying to kick hard in an 18+ 5k.
So you didn't want to look foolish. What are you, 14 years old? This is why fatboy dominated you--because he doesn't care if he looks foolish or not. What fatboy wants, fatboy goes for and, in this situation, got. Where is your competitor mentality? I don't like your complacent attitude. Re-post when you finally get that spine transplant and start sprinting at the end of every race and dominating at your job.
-Gunnery Sergeant Hartman
YES!!
circumspector wrote:
Talent never goes away.
I thought you just had to BELIEVE you have talent.
A perfect example of natural talent will ALWAYS beat hard work. This guy probably ran his 9:30 2mile off of 10 miles a week and a coach that didn't care or know what he was doing.
Don't worry about it though. Based on your name, you went to a D3 school; which tells me you LOVE to run but zero natural talent. That is very commendable in my mind, but I do grow tired of runners with no talent thinking they are the best. And if you embellished yourself as a 15:30-16min 5k runner in college then I find that comical...
Some people are just super talented. A few summers back I was at a 5k race with some friends. One of them asked me if I'd met "so-and-so" who'd ran the race and then another friend went on to say that "so-and-so" was really fast and had run 2:30 or so in the marathon. I thought it was interesting but, in the back of my mind I was thinking "2:30!? Really!? Maybe they meant 3:30."
Any how, we were milling around the finish and a friend grabbed me and introduced me to this guy that was probably 5'9" or so and was well over 200. Come to find out this was the guy that'd been talking about that had run "2:30." Now, I was really interested. We started to talk about training and I asked him a bunch of questions so I could go home and look stuff up because the whole time I was thinking "There's no way this guy ran 2:30." He seemed pretty knowledgeable and admitted to gaining some weight since his running days but, it had been rather recent that he'd ran the time.
In any case, I went home and look it up. Everything checked out. The guy had ran low 2:30s and I was floored. There are plenty of super talented people out there. Every year I run a single marathon that I hope to be able to hit around 3:00. I'm always amazed by the number of people that can run sub 3:00.
All this raises the obvious question - why hasn't someone made a lot of money hustling the local 5k fun run?
Show up in Vibrams with a big belly and a color run t-shirt and start chatting up the skinny guys in racing flats in-between strides:
"What are you hoping to finish in? Oh really? Hmmmm... I'm going for 16:10 myself ... want to make it more interesting?"
Questioner of Questions wrote:
All this raises the obvious question - why hasn't someone made a lot of money hustling the local 5k fun run?
Show up in Vibrams with a big belly and a color run t-shirt and start chatting up the skinny guys in racing flats in-between strides:
"What are you hoping to finish in? Oh really? Hmmmm... I'm going for 16:10 myself ... want to make it more interesting?"
I'd watch this reality show.
This is a completely believable story. I think you're right that the guy likely wasn't really 220, because runners are terrible at estimating body, weight, but go to any big 5k and look at the 18:30 finishers. Some will surprise you.
Tyrannosaurus Rexing wrote:
D3 Elite wrote:There's a guy at my office who is not Biggest Loser fat, but he's definitely carrying extra lard. He's approximately 5-8 and approximately 220 pounds. It's not a built/athletic 220 pounds either, he has a gut on him. ....
So anyway, at the race, he shows up in short shorts and a singlet with a gut that is hanging out from under the singlet. ... I ended up losing the front runners and decided to just pack it in because I kind of needed to take a dump.
...He buried me, putting 10 meters between us over the last 200 meters or so. He finished at 18:25. I was shocked.
My initial score would be 3/10 (good job on all the semi-believable random details). But the "I needed to take a dump" line pretty much lost it for me.
However, because not a single person has called BS on you so far, I guess I need to up it to an 7.5/10. Not bad, not bad at all.
(and shame on the rest of of you for thinking a 5-8 220 lb fattie could run 18:30. This was the whole premise of his story, the letsrun elitist belief that ANYone with a modicum of running talent can run 18:30. C'mon, it didn't happen. At best: it happened but the guy was something like 5'9" 190, with some muscle (COMPLETELY different build than his guy), but he changed him into a complete fattie to make the story what it was...funny and absurd and not true)
Nice work OP, nice work indeed.
Slow Bro wrote:
Questioner of Questions wrote:All this raises the obvious question - why hasn't someone made a lot of money hustling the local 5k fun run?
Show up in Vibrams with a big belly and a color run t-shirt and start chatting up the skinny guys in racing flats in-between strides:
"What are you hoping to finish in? Oh really? Hmmmm... I'm going for 16:10 myself ... want to make it more interesting?"
I'd watch this reality show.
Especially if it were someone good that I knew, just dressed in a fat suit.
The running version of those Uncle Drew/Kyrie commercials. For some reason I picture Will Leer doing this with a sloppy beer gut implant.
I find this hard to believe. 18:25 for someone 5-8/220 is flying. There--I said it. An in-shape runner of 5-8 goes about 100 pounds lighter than that. Yes, there are exceptions, but not all the way up to 220 pounds, especially being only 5-8. That is one stubby physique. I know this has been an opportunity to pound on someone here, and show us how slow our times are (and how fast yours are), but everything has its context (age, gender, etc.), and the context here is quite unbelievable.
And, by the OP's description (the gut), an out of shape 5-8/200, too.
No way...
I had doubts, and then completely stopped believing this story at "he shows up in short shorts and a singlet"...nice try.
i can't believe runningart2004 posted on this. Some of the ghosts of TnFmedia still come to this shit show of a message board from time to time. Whatever happened to Via Delarosa.
You don't think a 5'8" 220 lb fatty could run 18:30? You don't get out much do you?
I took off 9 years off from running and ballooned up to 245 from the 170's. I'm 5'9". I started back running in '09 at age 33 and 235 lbs. Ran just under 1600 miles over the next 2 1/2 years (~12 miles/week), weight down to 215, PRs of 19:03 for a 5k and 1:32 for a 1/2. Did a biggest loser contest and lost 40lbs in 13 weeks and dropped my weight to 175 and my 5k time immediately went into the upper 16 range. Current post-college PR's are 16:31 and 1:16 in the half. Currently participating in another biggest loser contest and hopefully will get my weight down under 160 and actually be able to run some good times.
My running resume is pretty weak. Ran 16:21 in HS, only ran track my soph yr with a 2 mile time of 10:45. Tried to run in college but didn't really care or try very hard, took up biking instead. First time I broke 1000 miles in a year was 2011. Don't really enjoy running that much, just like checking out the women, offsetting my chocolate-eating habit, winning stuff to subsidize my racing and hearing people tell me that I run fast for my size. Don't lift weights and races are pretty much my only form of speedwork. I would probably quit running if I could but it's the only thing keeping me from getting fatter since my diet is atrocious.
I really, really want to believe this mythical 5'8", 220 lb out of shape sub 18:30 5k runner exists. Kind of like I used to make excuses for Santa when I found the trove of presents in my parents' closet ("well, maybe he just stores them here to make it easier on Christmas day"), I am trying to find ways to make myself believe this is possible.
I have a soft spot for overweight people. After all, I'm 5'8" and used to be 200 lbs., myself. How inspirational would it be to see a man with a huge gut blazing through the 5k at sub 6 minute pace? That would be the stuff of legends.
Has anyone seen any race results online with finishing photos to match, that would provide some evidence that this creature exists?
He has talent. You don't.
Next
D3 Elite,
For someone who is 32 years old who ran 9:30 for 2 miles in high school, an 18:25 is VERY doable even if they are overweight. That's 3 minutes slower than they could have done a 5k in high school.
I ran a 5k in 17:48 carrying at least 30 extra pounds in my 30s.
I saw a fat guy run 16:01 once.
You just never know the talent that lies underneath. Thinness isn't the ONLY measure of who can run what...certainly it is A measure though.
And, as others have said, 18:25 isn't really that fast.
I'm 31, balooned up to 205 after being 170 for most of my life (6 feet tall). A stressful desk job, grad school in the evenings, and settling into married life will do that sometimes.
Have a high school 5k PR of 16:10. Recently started training about 6 weeks ago and entered a local 5k. Weight is now 190, and I ran 18:24. As many have said here, 18:30 isn't that fast, but it is hauling ass for a guy who is 20-30 lbs over weight.
this is a troll. i've read this story before on here.
7/10
FINALLY you show back up! http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=5864606