At my age, I usually think "how's that possible" when I pass someone.
At my age, I usually think "how's that possible" when I pass someone.
Sawyer Heckard.
I don't care how much of a stud you were 15 years ago, a 200 lb woman is not running a 21 min 5k
I was running briskly in Indianapolis 20 years ago and Bob Kennedy jogged past me. It took me a minute to figure out who he was
Usain.
Haile.
ED!
SpaRtaQQvLUs wrote:
Usain.
Haile.
ED!
+1
Yep! Ed Whitlock A one of a kind talent.
Thing was that race was back in the era before the internet was really robust and it wasn't always so easy to figure out who was who. I carried around that race in my head for several years. At least until I started reading the where he was breaking world ago group records left and right.
I felt just a 'little' better after that. No shame I guess in being whipped by a multiple world record holder...
The biggest one for me was in hs. There was a guy who was pretty good in the same state. Which isn’t that big of a deal except he was hardly 5’ tall, IF 5’! Dude was quick, multi all state honors. He beat me once at a cc race and as We ran side by side for the first 3 miles I swear his legs were so short (I’m 6’ 2”) that he was taking two steps to my one. I could not believe how many steps he had to take! His legs were just spinning around and I was floored. I couldn’t believe someone with such short legs could be so fast. He ended up beating me in that first race. Ironically we became good friends as we happened to go to the same college. Fastest midget I’ve ever seen!!!! I always felt if he were 6” taller he easily would have gotten all American honors.
Running is natural (if you have legs)
Some of you need to get over the fact that there are 330+ million people in this country. Some have never put on a pair of sneakers before, yet they could kick your ass.
Your limitations are all in your head. Free your mind and your ass will follow
Yes but not about running form or age , there are people with bad posture and bad running form but they are "fast" at least at an amateur level.
What is strange to me is the way in a long race 10000 and up some people passs you and they are totally out of breath . I mean if I run at a threshold pace but also at 10 k pace I dont make any noise while breathing , something like 2/2 rhythm, or maybe 1/1 rhythm in the final part of the race but anyway no noise, just silence. Some people they pass you and is like a steam train at full speed with their breathing noise. But is not a good sign cos often in the latter part of the race they will come back.
I saw Ed Whitlock for the first time in Orono, Maine at the Master's Outdoor Championship some years ago. He had the most beautiful form and I think it was 10,000 meters and he ran with other age groups and blasted by all of them. He was a sight to behold. One of a kind and a very nice gentleman.
I don't train in any organized way anymore , my 5k can be 17minutes to not even bothering to wake up early on race day . Big fat dude with a round pumpkin head went flying by me , he was also bald. Double zinger for me . I did catch up and pass the Walrus after a couple miles , and at the end of the race, tubby looked like he had a stream of sweat coming out of his monkey ears . freaked me out .
Not passed but at Rock N Roll San Diego about 7 years ago I ran the first mile of the half in 4:48. At that point, I was almost 25 seconds back of the lead group. When we started they went off like a cannon and I was definitely thinking what the hell is going on. That lead group included some world-class talent including Kipchoge who finished second.
I've run a couple of big marathons and NCAA's XC. And never felt like from the gun I was running a different race from someone else. I was well behind within 200m.
Not really a "what the hell moment" but where and when I run, Im usually running with people that are slower than me, so it's not often that I get passed unless people are putting full efforts into their runs. One day I was cruising at 7:15s in the park and the path has a huge hill so I naturally slowed down of course. After the downhill starts this runner probably in his 20s came onto the path right in front of me. He looked like a regular runner so I made my move to pass him and he just kept going with me and I could not get by him. He stuck with me for the next two miles and never tried to pass me and we ran 6:20 pace `until he turned off towards the park exit. I was so focused on him that I never was really tired during that portion. Wild 2 miles
I have one. I was running in the 1-hour run national championship at UC Santa Barbara in 1978 or thereabouts. Now I had won the race in the DC region the previous year and thought I was decent. Not so, I was lapped three times by the leaders which were the hotshots in SoCal like Ralph Serna and maybe Thom Hunt.
The thing is that I never heard them coming behind me, just a woosh when they passed and a spray of sweat. It just showed that national/international level runners are a whole different level.
When I ran my marathon PR I got beaten by an older woman, which was pretty impressive. I looked up her results and her age grade was above 100% -- she set an age group record!
I was running a 3 miler at a 5:30/mi clip in my late 30s at Riverside Community College (~1988). Another runner was there stretching, and then took off. He had an exception stride and didn't appear to be moving fast, but passed me at a good clip. As I continued, I noticed that he was running 2-lap intervals at ~2 min pace. I wondered who this guy was, particularly since he was only a Junior-college runner. I couldn't pin-down his ethnicity. Over the next couple of weeks I checked the newspaper and found that RCC had an exceptional runner named "Morceli". It turned out to be Noureddine Morceli who would go on to break the indoor record in the 1500 m and the outdoor record in the mile.
I was running a hellish mountain ultramarathon last year in Utah. It was at super high altitude with a lot of vertical gain. We started early and the marathon distance started like an hour or so later. A couple hours into the race I heard chatter coming from behind and these two dudes came flying past me, telling me “nice work” “keep pushing” and all that. I have never seen a human run down a steep mountain trail so fast. To boot he was wearing a button-up flannel shirt. I checked the results after I finished up and it was Hayden Hawks.
Got it handed to me by a guy and a baby stroller
Steve Taylor opened a huge can of whoop-ass on me in an indoor 5000 at Va Tech in the early 90s. I was in college and didn't know who he was. I thought I was cruising to an easy victory with a time around 14:20. All I had to do was drop this unattached dude with a bad haircut and porn mustache. I was going to wait for the final lap, but with about 300m to go, he went wide and just unleashed a ferocious kick.
I couldn’t believe that that blue-collar worker passed me in Boston!!!