What is the most outrageous high school gym mile exaggeration you have ever heard?

I work as a lifeguard and a man who played football in high school told me that in order to make his HS team you had to run a 2 mile in under 8:00.

People usually have some concept of what a fast mile is...they're vaguely familiar with the 4 minute mile so they use that, and they aren't afraid to use it regarding 2,3,4,5 mile runs such as "I did 5 miles the other day in like 20 minutes" not knowing how absurd it is to say that...also what really sucks about these self important d-bags is that when they ask for your best time, it pales in comparison to their BS time...not me though because I call their bulls**t and raise...usually something 15 to 20 seconds faster than their time just to anger them

Attention:

Non-runners have no clue.

Many of my high school track members think that , and I quote .."if you can run a sixty second qurter, then you should be able to run a 1600 in 4 minutes, easily"

Where do I begin?

According to my gym teacher, I ran a 1:42 800m on a hilly course in court shoes ... in the sixth grade! I just barely missed Seb Coe's WR of 1:41.73

Funny thing is I would have been hard-pressed to run 75 seconds for a 400 on an actual track at the time ...

westrn wind... wrote:

What is the most outrageous high school gym mile exaggeration you have ever heard?

Gym is a building, you mean Physical Education class?

I hate you.

I was in Southeastern Ohio once, and got lost on some hillbilly trail. I was dehydrated and had the nerve to stop at a random house (double wide) with 4 broken down cars and 5 satellite dishes and ask for some water.

The whole family came tumbling out of the house to see who was stopping by to visit. They gave me a glass of water, and then proceeded to tell me how they knew a guy "over yonder" in the next county who ran a 3-minute mile.

I didn't want to argue considering they were probably carrying. So I just humored the man until I was recovered enough to get the hell out of there.

Pot calling the kettle black?

jerrry wrote:

"...2) I didn't say my 10K pr was 31:00 - I said at the time of the VO2 test I was probably in sub 31:00 shape (i was training for triathlons at the time - so i don't have a time to compare - only what i estimated i could run)"

Speaking of whacked out Tri-hack-a-letes...back in college I went on an 8 mile run, at a fairly decent pace - maybe 6:15/mile pace, with an area triathlete. He was really talking up his running by saying that, while he never ran in HS, he could have broken 4 minutes for the mile had he stuck with running past Jr High. “Wow, that’s fast,” I remarked,”by the way what was your PR?” “Oh, it’s like a 4:09/4:10” he replied nonchalantly. “Ok, I’m calling BS,” I insisted.

He was not a bad runner by any stretch of the imagination but I felt I had to put my foot down. He was indignant and wanted to prove it by running a mile on the track right now. Opps, I felt kinda bad, in the awkward sort of way when you catch a delusional person in a lie.

So here we are at the track, after our run, ready to verify his claims. I tried to give him numerous outs but he would have none of it. So I'm timing and it should also be known that we started at the "full mile" line on a 400m track. Also, there were all sorts of hobby joggers out there hogging lane one.

So this guy takes off, sometimes running in lane 3 flying by everybody. “Ohhhhh, this is going to be good I thought to myself” as he is out in 62...damn if he didn't run a 4:10 low. It was one of the most amazing runs that I've witnessed.

I was shocked that he could do that with all the joggers, the 8 miler we’d just run, that he supposedly swam that morning and had some kind of hard bike ride the day before. He seemed just as shocked as I was because after he crossed the line and I called out his time he was like, “See! I told you! But you didn’t believe me did you? Blah, blah, blah!”

So know I'm begging this guy to dump the triathlete scene and give his 4 minute mile a shot.

name of triathlete?

i ran a 4 mile xc race in 16:00, and a marathon in sub 2:00

I was doing a session a few years back being taken by a fairly top notch coach and a former Chicago marathon winner. Now I'm no great shakes as a runner anyways but at the time it was my very first session back after nearly 18 months out injured on/off - I doubt I was in any better than 17 minute 5k shape if that.

The two of them had gone out and very carefully measured 800m along a towpath before the day started ( was a performance squad thing). We get to the session which was 6 x 800. All set off and I'm left trailing 10m off the back of the rest of the blokes. Come through the line stopping the watch and started jogging and the coach looked at me and went "how fast was that", a bit out of breath I looked down and replied "1:51" - "You're going too fast!" he barked. Now I swear before he'd even started saying that he realised but his first instinctual thought was that I'd just gone and run 1:51 rather than he might have mis-measured it in the slightest!

When I started running track my dad told me he ran a sub-4 mile during Army basic training and that about half of his basic training class was under 4. When I told him that there was no way that a couple dozen random Army recruits barely out of high school were running as fast or faster than the best runners in the world at the time (early 60's) and that it took years of training for someone to run under 4minutes for the mile, people who just ran now and then had no chance no matter how talented. All he said was that "We were a lot more active as kids than kids are now"

A student of mine (11th grade) was claiming he ran a 7:53 2 mile in middle school. I introduced him to the class as "world record holder in the 2-mile.... Steven"

haha, I've got several good ones...

I guess that I might have been in 5th grade and I knew a little bit about running at the time. I had run like 7:24 in some kind of fun run and I thought I was the sh** which is really funny now. Anyway, me and a few of my friends who didn't run are throwing football or something, and we start talking about how they ran the mile in PE. The kid who was talking claimed to have run 1:12 in the mile but didn't win. He said that the fastest kid in his class ran, no lie, 56 seconds to which he added "because he's really quick."

This next bit happened in 6th grade when we were walking to PE class and we were talking about running the mile for class. Some girl insisted that she had run 1min and some odd seconds and her cousin could run 57 seconds.

I guess another funny thing in 6th grade was when one of my buddies told me that to be a fire fighter, you had to do a 5mile run. Not only did you have to do 5 miles, but you had to do it in 15 minutes...

As I got older, I stopped hearing of the "one-minute milers." I had a teacher that was also a baseball and football coach (small school). This guy was at least 250lbs. Didn't look like he had run very much in his life. He insisted that during football training which he ran a "hard mile" once or twice a week during the season, that he ran 4:24 but he never got to his goal of 4 minutes. Furthermore, it was during his junior year...if he only ran his senior year.

I think what we be funny was what someone posted earlier in response to a 3:30 miler. Like maybe, "oh, well that's decent for a beginner who has never run."

My dad also claimed to have talked to a guy when I was trying to break 5:00 for the mile when I was in 9th grade. This older guy claimed to have broken 5:00 for the mile while carrying a 100lb back pack. I guess that it's not impossible for some incredible miler (like Solinsky-size and almost as good) but very unlikely.

One time a bunch of people thought that I was full of BS when I told them in 10th grade that my PR was 4:45 in the mile (very small, hick-town meet). I jogged with them for 2 laps and then made them cry. I might have run like 4:49 in that meet. It feels really cool to hear everybody cheering but then you see a time that isn't even good...kinda funny.

I had a friend of one of my college roomates come by when a couple other guys on our XC team were there as well. He was your typical washed up high school football player who was horribly out of shape.

He proceeded to tell us that if he trained for a month he could run a 4:30 mile. Knowing all of us were runners he still stood by his story when pressed on it. I told him I would be shocked if he could break 8 min. He never did attempt this mile.

jerrry wrote: the reason the test needed to be longer was it started at a very low effort.

The test didn't need to be longer -- it needed to start at a higher effort and ramp up more quickly. The protocol should be chosen to ensure that you reach exhaustion after ~15min, and it should only end when you can't continue anymore.

This Hammer guy certainly sounds like an idiot, but his mistake wasn't in making the test "too short."

my cousin used to claim in HS that he'd run his mile for PE in 4:20

being that I was leaner and doing all I could to break 4:20 I called him out on it one day and we went to the school track...

by the time I went through the half in just 2:30 he was a good 150m back...

afterwards he showed me he ran the "mile" as a loop around the school and fields....

I've been living at 15,000 ft.

I have also run a 1:59.98 mile.

when i was in hs i had a middle school kid tell me he ran a 4:16 around his school's outdoor basketball court.

i invited him to come out and practice with me the next week, which he did, and held on for about 200 meters of the first rep in a set of quarters. he was wearing basketball shoes.

Snakedoctor09 wrote:

I've heard a few:

1)Guy on my HS track team claimed to run a 5:20. He ran a 6:30 in his only 1600m the next year.

2)6' 200lbs football player claimed to run a 4:50 in fall weight training. During track he ran like a 1:00 400m.

3)Went back to my HS to do a 3xMile Workout, afterwards a guy on the XC and track team claimed to run a 5:30 mile. When I know that he hasn't even broken 21 minutes for the 5k.

Then again, I went to the school that just started XC my junior year and was coached by the head basketball coach. After he got done driving the bus. So he wanted to start practice at 4pm..in September..in North Carolina. It's like 95 degrees here easy at the time.

In response to #3

My sophomore year of high school I ran a 3 mile best of around 21:15ish...

That same year, my fastest time was around 5:36 in the 1600 (and I missed the last two meets due to a stress fracture).