Who is the best runner you’ve ever defeated?

I put the hammer down on Frank Shorter in a 5k in 1992.

Mr. Pedantic wrote:

Ironically, I also found a google hit that has me credited as running 10.74 for the school record, which is ALSO wrong. Again, that seems to imply that coach never really learned much or cared about sprinting.

I assume I was at one point credited with that 10.74 by adding .24 to the 10.5 hand time I had run that year, but the 10.76 FAT I actually ran is the result I thought the "team" had settled on as the more legit "FAT" record. Even if the hand time records were phased out, I would have figured that FAT record would have stuck as official.

.

This is what can be expected when you're dealing with high schools and the types of people they employ.

I have a friend who ran 9:06, 4:09 and 1:52 in high school -- all yards. His high school lists their school records something like 10:05, 4:35 and 1:56 (3200, 1600, 800m) No amount of explaining will convince them they are wrong.

I beat Brian Hyde in a 1500m race in 1993 where he finished 2nd.

He ran his lifetime PR of 3:35 in 1995 and made the 1996 Olympic team.

I beat Eric Nedeau and Paul Vandegrift in a 1500m race a couple weeks before the 1996 Olympic Trials where they both made the finals (and I didn’t).

Leo Manzano in 2005

Galen Rupp in 2006

Gabe Jennings in 2006

Greg Dell, British 100K champion back in the day. Very solid runner at all distances. Beat him in a cross country race when he was having a bad day

Well, clearly any amount of converting ultimately favors your friend, for sure. But I suppose an argument could be made that his records should stand, but only as "yards" records, and let the newer records stand as the now metric era.

Our school record for the 200 meter was written as 21.7, and apparently that was a 21.7 that was recorded in a 220 yard race run back in I think the mid-60s. Someone somewhere decided, in our schools case, to just make the 220y record the 200m record, and by the time 2000/2001 rolled around it had been the record for over 30 years. 220 yards is 201 meters, so really I guess it's totally fair.

My senior year, I wasn't anywhere near running 21.7 even though most of our meets were hand time and I was a consistent 10.6 100 guy. Once the "post season" of track began, everything went to FAT results, so by that point I knew I had no shot as at the record as I figured they'd only honor what I ran as a record if I broke the 21.7 officially. Districts, regionals, and state were all gonna be FAT official results, so....I didn't see myself running a 21.4 equivalent hand time any longer when all I had mustered am was ONE 21.9.

I ended up running a 21.86 FAT at the district final the day I ran my aforementioned 10.76 100m record, and technically that's superior to a 21.7 hand from the 60s (surface comparisons notwithstanding), but I hadn't even considered that being recognized as a record. In hindsight, I think the coach at the time was planning to make a separate, distinct, FAT record that I would be awarded so as to acknowledge the run on some level. But as it happened, I went on the next weekend to run a 21.68 winded aided 200, which was essentially the race of my life at the time as I beat some heavy hitters in the race, and that ended any debate and they just gave me the record outright.

Now, one of the REAL issues in all this is how pedantic (pun) real record keeping is over LARGE era's. Really, there should have been a long honored and stringent protocol or the whole yards-to-meters era of the 80s and 90s, but while I think many schools attempted conversions, it was a universal thing. And, considering how most schools probably dont have terribly rich history or track culture over wide swaths of time, event iui ally you'd likely run into admins/coaches who just say, "to hell with it, any records before 197x or whatever are bologna anyway" and they just go with the more con ienet recent results.

Also. You've got situations like where I ran a 10.31 into a friggin headwind at a rivals schools stadium with a fairly rich sprint history. Then that school hosts the DIII nationals one year and a kid runs something 10.36....and they give him the stadium record. What, do I call the Ad and be like. "Ecuse me sir, you are in ERROR."? I mean, like the 10.76>10.80 high school thing, we aren't talking conversions from distances or so.ething. But...like, people only care if there is something in it for them. It was probably fancy at the national meet to announce "new stadium record!!!", but they could care less about the truth...

Geoffrey Mutai...right after he dropped out of Boston in 2012

I beat Deek in 1984. He was pushing a stroller, but still, was Deek.

Mr. Pedantic wrote:

malmo wrote:

This is what can be expected when you're dealing with high schools and the types of people they employ.

I have a friend who ran 9:06, 4:09 and 1:52 in high school -- all yards. His high school lists their school records something like 10:05, 4:35 and 1:56 (3200, 1600, 800m) No amount of explaining will convince them they are wrong.

Well, clearly any amount of converting ultimately favors your friend, for sure. But I suppose an argument could be made that his records should stand, but only as "yards" records, and let the newer records stand as the now metric era..

No conversions are necessary. One mile is longer than 1600 therefore the 1600 record should be the mile time. That's intrinsic.

i beat usain bolt in the 100 in 2008

Eamonn Coghlan when he was reigning world 5000m champion at the 1984 Irish Track & Field championship

(**I should point out that Coghlan dropped out with a few laps to go and I finished and barely avoided getting lapped by John Treacy!).

Faster than some, not others wrote:

I beat Deek in 1984. He was pushing a stroller, but still, was Deek.

Did you complete the sweep and also beat the child?

A person named Kareem Hunt owns the 100m record at South (Willoughby) High School. Must not be your high school.

I beat the best distance runner on my team from the track to the locker room. Probably 5-600 meters but he started slow so I was able to take my time getting into a higher gear by the end.

I will violate the rule about runners past their prime and join on the Shorter train: I beat Frank Shorter in a 20k in 1994. My friend and I talked to him for about 6 miles. We asked him to resolve a dispute about the lyrics to the song "Blinded By the Light." He did not give a definitive answer. So we asked him "Are we annoying you." He said: "At least, you are still aerobic." We stupidly sped up over the last few miles and beat him by a few minutes. To this day, I wish we had hung back, so we could have got a race photo with him.

He was pretty cool considering we were being really annoying.

notrump wrote:

A person named Kareem Hunt owns the 100m record at South (Willoughby) High School. Must not be your high school.

That's actually not correct.

notrump wrote:

A person named Kareem Hunt owns the 100m record at South (Willoughby) High School. Must not be your high school.

Who owns the 200m record, in your estimation?

He went by Lew Alcindor in High School

Mr. Pedantic wrote:

notrump wrote:

A person named Kareem Hunt owns the 100m record at South (Willoughby) High School. Must not be your high school.

That's actually not correct.

Laker Historian wrote:

He went by Lew Alcindor in High School

Mr. Pedantic wrote:

That's actually not correct.

Wait...don't you mean Abdul-Karim al-Jabbar (born Sharmon Shah)?