Co-worker told me he ran 4:30 and 15 something for mile and 5k in highschool-but he's like 250 pounds

I'm not trolling, he actually said these things to me. I work at a car dealership.

"gym class"...LOL

At the DI university where I ran, we had 3 All-Americans (one of whom was a nat'l champion; 2 of whom ran the Oly Trials). Today, two of them - 5'9" and 5'11" respectively - weigh 250 and 380. Some athletes just "let themselves go" when the competitive fire burns out. Dunno.

Newbury Park's 8th runner ran 15:44 last year so I guess if he was only around 15:40, he may not have made top 7.

This tread illustrates why almost all conversations about running are completely pointless. I would venture to say that all conversations about running at car dealerships are pointless.

Nobody in the history of the world has run a 4:30 in gym class, nevermind that being their fastest mile ever. Sure could a 4 minute miler bang out a 430 solo in gym class. It would be possible, but not sure why they would do that. It takes a lot of talent/pacing experience to be able to solo a 430 between social studies and math class on any given Thursday while lapping 30 kids on the track. Obviously false.

My son ran 4:42 in gym class in 8th grade. True that he only ran 4:40 in gym class in high school but could have gone sub 4:30. His PR was 4:10. He had to run 4:40 to get a B in gym class because they are graded based on heart rate.

When someone says they ran 15 something for 5K it means they never ran that fast. Who can't remember their 5K PR. I mean come on.

questionnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn wrote:

Like the title says. He's about 23 and 5'7 250 pounds. He says he has gained weight since highschool. I looked on athletic.net but his name isn't there. He says he ran it in gym class. Should I believe him? He keeps insisting but I don't see the evidence. Its kind of hard to believe considering he isn't into running at all now too.

I had a neighbor who was almost 300 lbs. Was a state runner up in xc in highschool

Nope. Didn't happen. Maybe if he was a top level soccer player he may have run some times like that in gym class. But a random non-athlete? Nope.

There are gazillions of these stories and it's still baffling why people do it.

By the way, awhile back I googled my college teammates (1980s). One sub-14 min 5k guy is a Crossfit coach. Another All-American XC guy is a XC coach who is now about as wide as he is tall. One was running 2:40 marathons in his 50s. The others had no indication that they did any running. I'm a former skinny high jumper who now looks like a former defensive lineman

People can get fat. It happens.

The giveaway is "gym class"

Plausible. Not probable.

If it's gym class, there's likely a margin of error in distance/timing. Even among fairly honest people, there's a personal fudge factor and faulty memory. And keep in mind that non-runners have worse memory of their PRs than runners do.

That's to say: Those times might be quite inaccurate, even if your coworker believes them himself.

But maybe he was just a genetically gifted non-runner.

You know the guy better than we do. Use your best judgement.

When people know you run seriously it's not uncommon to come across someone who'll tell you about some really good times they ran, often better than your own and nearly always unverifiable. I remember one of them from when I was in college who did this and said that he quit the sport because it was just too easy. I doubted it but who knew? On the other hand, if you have a body that puts on weight easily and go from very active to very sedentary once you're out of high school you can put on a lot of weight really quickly. Believe him if you want and don't believe him if you'd rather not. There's no way to verify this and it doesn't affect you.

Did you read my post? Yes we call it gym class.

How many sub-4 milers are there from U of I, anyway? Are his initials L.S.?

Only Jon Davis but you probably mean Len Sitko who ran sun 3:40.

Eh, ever heard about a guy named Henry Rono? If you look at him now you'll never believe he was a world record holder.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.runblogrun.com%2F2009%2F07%2Fhenry-rono-at-keep-la-running-by-larry-eder.html&psig=AOvVaw37Vuh94zFATwae9giw9ZZe&ust=1604781046538000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCJC62brh7uwCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD

No, you shouldn’t believe him. Although, I once had a guy (6 ft. or so and around 220) tell me that he’d ran 2:30 for the marathon. Didn’t believe him or maybe thought he’d got it confused with the half. I asked where he ran it and later went and looked up the results and confirmed that he’d, indeed, ran that time.

It’s well documented that everyone ran 4:30 in high school.