What's the most ridiculous claim you have heard from a none runner?

joalturn wrote:

At region I had a teammate who made the claim that it doesn't take strength to hit a home run in the MLB, just good hand eye coordination. I argued w/ him for about 10 minutes and then gave up.

Sure, it does take a certain amount of strength, but the hand-eye coordination and bat speed are much more important in the ability to hit a (singular) home run. Lots of little guys in MLB hit 1 or 2 a year. Being a consistent home run hitter is another story.

I think you were on the wrong side of that argument.

chinocochino wrote:

Adding to the thread: A swimmer guy told me that he ran 5:40 for the mile in HS and that "if he trained", he could get 4:40. Keep in mind that he may not have truly run a 5:40 mile.

[/quote]

Really? I used to be a swimmer and ran 5:45 for the mile. I stopped swimming and started running. Two years later I ran 4:20. a 4:40 isn't very hard

I went for a run after work one day and a security guard at our building told me that he used to run 30 miles a day while in the army. I sense from this thread a correlation between exaggeration/idiocy and military service

An old bloke at my Sports and Social club claimed he had broken the world 100 mile record in the 70's running under 12 hours, and had actually broken the world 50 mile record at the halfway point running under 5 hours. Said he was smoking 20 a day at that time, but not during the race.

Turns out he was telling the truth, his name was Cavin Woodward.

I didn't include the entire story. He lies about his swimming times and I assume that he was lying about his 5:40 mile time. I told him that there is a BIG difference between 5:40 and 4:40. Besides, he would be one of the biggest 4:40 runners I've ever met, as he is a sprinter for swimming.

firefly wrote:

chinocochino wrote:

Adding to the thread: A swimmer guy told me that he ran 5:40 for the mile in HS and that "if he trained", he could get 4:40. Keep in mind that he may not have truly run a 5:40 mile.

Really? I used to be a swimmer and ran 5:45 for the mile. I stopped swimming and started running. Two years later I ran 4:20. a 4:40 isn't very hard

I went for a run after work one day and a security guard at our building told me that he used to run 30 miles a day while in the army. I sense from this thread a correlation between exaggeration/idiocy and military service[/quote]

Just had a co worker tell me that he did a 100 mile bike ride in Arizona averaging 35mph and he got destroyed the the lead riders.

question of words wrote:

t94bell wrote:

I do understand track is not a popular sport, but I do wish some people would take care of their ignorance and at least understand what professional times look like and the effort required to run said time.

I totally understand. Off the top of your head, do you know how fast a top hockey player can hit the puck? Or the average number of yards a quarterback runs the ball? or how long a soccer player should be able to bounce the ball without it touching the ground?

No, but neither does the average fan in any of those sports. What a terrible analogy. Those stats are about as relevant to the fans as say the amount of time a runner does drills or spends time in the drive phase of the 100m sprint.

Finished Daniels Formula wrote:

A former goalkeeper from a soccer club told me he and his teammates used to run a 2k time trial around a lake in 4:40. I said to him that it was not possible, but he insisted.

After a week or so I remembered that there is another lake nearby with a perimeter of a mile.

Soccer players are another group notorious for producing fast times (until the join the track team, then they tell you soccer training is harder).

I heard two modified XC girls talking once and one said- I think that's really fast even for someone on varsity.

I asked what they were talking about and she said a friend's soccer coach had them run "2 miles" around the soccer field and they all broke 11:00. That particular girl joined track and ran 100 meters slower than the pace required to keep going for 2 miles at 11:00. I pointed it out to her and she said- maybe we didn't run 2 miles in soccer.

How well do you know this guy? It's extremely common for people like this to be lying about being Navy SEALs. Unless you or your wife actually went to his graduation you never really know. If you have any doubts about his claims at all you can contact these guys

People lying about this might seem innocent enough but it's actually a felony so it might be worth checking it out.

ysrdf wrote:

People lying about this might seem innocent enough but it's actually a felony so it might be worth checking it out.

How would it be worth checking out? Felony to lie to your family about being a Navy seal? I'd like to see a little back up on that claim.

An old native american claimed to run a mile under 5 minutes in his younger days... backwards.

A typical defensive teenage girl argued that the fastest person on the planet was a woman but couldn't remember her name.

A dude that was trying to pick up my gf found out I was a runner and could run 34 minutes for a 10k, he told her he ran that distance in 23 minutes.

I have an older friend that mentioned a few times that his cousin used to run a lot and that his cousin was crazy fast (coming from someone who has never run in his life) Ok, I get that a lot. Then, one day I mention that I had just started training for a marathon and my friend say "Oh yeah, that's cool. My cousin won a medal in the marathon in the Olympics." Yeahhhhhh......RRRRRRRight... But my friend is not American, so I thought one day to look it up and... it was true. 1968, Mexico City, Mike Ryan.

Eugene the Careful Axe Wielder wrote:

[quote]Woodstock wrote:

Most non-runners live in a "close enough" world of imprecise measurements of time and distance - They simply don't know the difference, nor do they really care... it's close enough. Kind of like how, even among some runners, people interchange 1600m and mile times as equal.

I agree; although some people make up wildly fast times, many others just take their middle school gym teacher's estimate that the grass field is 800 meters, run around it twice and call that their mile PR.

Recently, the entire girls' lacrosse team was loudly bragging about how they had to run a 3 mile time trial, and one of them ran 19 minutes. One girl was running her mouth about how that would make her the xc team's top runner. Well, first of all, it wouldn't - even if it was a true 5k instead of 3 miles. After making that clear, one of us asked them where they did this time trial. We later mapped the route and it came out to 2.7 miles. 19 minutes for 2.7 miles comes out to roughly 7 min. pace, which is a solid time for an athlete on another sport, but if people really understood how precise track is it would shut them up a little.

Dane Rauschenberg claiming to run 202 miles. I lol'd at that one

firefly wrote:

chinocochino wrote:

Adding to the thread: A swimmer guy told me that he ran 5:40 for the mile in HS and that "if he trained", he could get 4:40. Keep in mind that he may not have truly run a 5:40 mile.

Really? I used to be a swimmer and ran 5:45 for the mile. I stopped swimming and started running. Two years later I ran 4:20. a 4:40 isn't very hard

I went for a run after work one day and a security guard at our building told me that he used to run 30 miles a day while in the army. I sense from this thread a correlation between exaggeration/idiocy and military service[/quote]

3 months after my wife joined the air force, her unit decided to do some "team building" by running a local 5K that I was also running. When one of the guys on her "team" found out I was running too he started running his mouth about how he used to run track in high school too and was the best runner in his special forces unit, and could probably give me a run for my money.

I ran high 16s, leaned at the line and got the guy by about 6 minutes.

Good one!

Were you trying? You could have done high 15's and beaten him by 7 minutes! That way you would have REALLY embarrassed him! What did he say after the race? Too embarrassed to talk?

AF Husband wrote:

firefly wrote:

Really? I used to be a swimmer and ran 5:45 for the mile. I stopped swimming and started running. Two years later I ran 4:20. a 4:40 isn't very hard

I went for a run after work one day and a security guard at our building told me that he used to run 30 miles a day while in the army. I sense from this thread a correlation between exaggeration/idiocy and military service

3 months after my wife joined the air force, her unit decided to do some "team building" by running a local 5K that I was also running. When one of the guys on her "team" found out I was running too he started running his mouth about how he used to run track in high school too and was the best runner in his special forces unit, and could probably give me a run for my money.

I ran high 16s, leaned at the line and got the guy by about 6 minutes.[/quote]

So about 15-20 years ago when I was a senior in HS, I went to my cousin's middle school swim meet in Virginia, and this kid that had just finished his heat came over to sit by us. When he overheard that I was a runner, he asked me what my mile time was. I said "4:45", and he said "that's about what I ran in gym class the other day". I laughed it off, figuring he probably ran it on some mismeasured grass loop, but said "hey, you would probably dominate the freshman races with that time once you got in high school"

Then a couple of years later, I was at my cousin's summer track meet and this kid shows up again. He recognized me and asked if I was still running. I said yes and that I had brought my time down to about 4:20 after training in college for a couple of years. He said that's pretty awesome and he had just gotten back from nationals where he ran 4:06. I again shook my head, but decided not to waste energy arguing with this obvious fraud.

Finally, 2 years later I stop back in the area, and ran into this guy at a Five Guys. We again chat about how our running is going. I told him I ran a 4:00.01 1500 at my last chance meet and have hung up the spikes for good. He nod his head and said he ran 3:53 in Oregon a week ago. (I probably should've called him out on breaking one of the oldest high school records of all time, but at this point I could care less about running)

Last time I saw him was at the same Five Guys restaurant. He had grease dripping down the side of his face and ketchup all over his fingers as he was telling some of his buddies about how he ran 3:46 over in Europe the weekend before. I chuckled to myself and left.

A thrower on my track team in 8th grade told me he could run 100 meters in 15 secs....he was 300+ pounds.

bwrunner wrote:

A thrower on my track team in 8th grade told me he could run 100 meters in 15 secs....he was 300+ pounds.

those big guys have a lot of muscle and so some actually will do well at 50m-100m...But no farther! haha

I recall we had a big man relay in high school right before the 4x400 event. All of the teams would put a relay together composed of only shot and discuss people. Those big guys can move!

15 seconds isn't even that fast. If someone can run a mile faster than that, then it's not that fast.