Who is the best runner you have ever TRULY beaten?

my claim to fame wrote:

Alan Webb, this was the summer of 2001 at the Utica Boilermaker. This was the same year he ran that 3:53 mile. He was in great shape, but he didn't race that day, he just ran it as a workout.

Frank Shorter in 1986 Tyler, TX Azalea Trail Run- he was 38 yrs old, long past his prime but was still running in the high 31- low 32 min range for 10K.

Interesting..There are only about 10 or so people that you could be.

tnRUNNERgirl wrote:

Not in a 3K! : )

l33tf3m4l3 wrote:

I'm a female. No longer remotely competitive. I beat Emily Lipari by over 40 seconds at a 3k once. Now she runs 4:05 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

LOL right. I believe she's sub-9 now. I ran sub-10 in the 3k race I referenced in my original post, which was a PR for me, and I believe she finished in 10:40 something. I beat her every time we raced that year but I was a senior who had been running for a few years and she was an eighth grader just starting to run, not even close to her potential. She ran 10:17 or some similarly huge PB in a 3k a week later so I knew she was a big talent. The next year was my freshman year of college and her freshman year of HS. I would not have beat her at all her freshman year of HS; that's when she really started to improve. We actually ended up running for the same college but she had a MUCH more successful career than I did.

I beat Cush once (or thrice)... I'm pretty sure he was something like 65 yrs old by that time, but I still beat him. He still drank me under the table though... ;)