Is my former HS teammate the biggest XC/track prodigy ever?

Thanks, malmo. Great info !

"Jim Ryun pretty impressive runner," is like saying Michael Jordan is pretty good at basketball.

Runner62783848 wrote:

I've heard of Jim Ryun. Very impressive runner. I know of course he broke 4 in HS and first did it as a Jr. How fast was his first season running?

<4:10 on a dirt track his soph year (I think)

3:59 jr year

3:55 sr year

WR mile freshman year of college

Read “The Jim Ryun Story”. Many workouts from HS and beyond are detailed within.

This is fairly common (not that it makes it any less impressive!)

We had a guy come out for XC his Soph year as a way to get in shape for wrestling (he was a top ranked wrestler in the state) and run about a 15:40 5k. He also moonlighted playing backup free safety on the football team.

He didn't run track at all until halfway through his senior year, when he decided to come out to see if he could run a time that would allow our big state school he was attending in the fall to let him be a walk on. With no base or real training he soloed a 4:27 1600 in a dual meet, then two weeks later at the district meet ran 4:20 and qualified for the state meet. Ten days after that he ran 4:13 at the state meet.

Talent is talent, and is pretty damn obvious when you see it.

What was Galen's progression during his first year?

Chris Walden. This thread is about Chris Walden from Carmel, IN. The times are a little off, but after a couple minutes of research he's the only guy who fits the mold. Ran at UC Berkeley, graduated HS in 2011. Still ran 3:45/7:55/13:59 in college. Looks like he competed all of his years. I'm sure some parts of the guy's story got misremembered, but yeah... that's what I dug up.

8th grade: 55 for 400m

Freshman: 2:03 in fresh-soph conference, 1:55 in state.

Impressive runner.

This reply is going to address multiple posts. First, yes all these times are precise and yes this person 100% exists. The only thing that isn't precise is his placement at FL. They are ballpark places because I knew anyone could just look up the who took 30th then took 5th the next year if they really tried so those are close but not precise placements. This runner was in high school around 12 years ago not exactly 12 years ago. Again, I really want to keep him anonymous because posting about him on the internet with his real name to me feels like would cross a bit of a line. Even if it is a harmless thread about how talented he was he might feel like his privacy was invaded. He's a nice guy and I'm sure he wouldn't care but ya never know. So no, this thread is not about Chris Walden. The runner I'm talking about started running sophomore track and that guy started running sophomore XC it appears. As far as trying to find out who my guy was you did a really good job researching cuz that guy is very similar in terms of his times and talent level.

As far as the talent debate goes. Y'all have listed some pretty talented runners. You guys appear to believe Jim Ryun was more talented. While I do believe Jim Ryun was insanely talented he was training at 110 mpw in HS and doing crazy workouts such as 50x400m and 10x800m ect. And it even took him nearly a year to get to 4:15 shape. Again, I'm not saying my teammate was better than Jim Ryun by any stretch, I am only saying he got into sub 4:20 shape faster. Andrew Wheating still had a season of XC under his belt before he went 4:12 in track.

So I guess to be more accurate this debate should be about has a runner developed into a 4:16 miler faster than 5 months ever?

The times don't come close to matching anyone from Footlocker. It is made up. And it is not impressive.

Runner62783848 wrote:

So I was curious as to what's the fastest development any of you guys have ever seen in a runner? What are the fastest times you have ever seen for a runner in their first year in XC or Track. Because there was a runner I went to school with back in the day who I think may have caught on to the sport of distance running faster than anyone I have ever seen.

Anyone who has been around a while has at least one or 2 stories like that. Maybe not quite as impressive. What's important to note is that for these super talented kids, the initial performances and big improvements come quick, but as they get closer to the elite level, they have to work hard for small improvements just like everyone else. This is where they sometimes get discouraged and quit. I've had girls train for 3 years to get over 5 feet in the high jump and top out at around 5' 5". I've also had girls who are dancers or do competitive cheer, jump 5 feet after a couple practices, but they also top out at at around 5' 5" dedicate themselves like the less talented.

Really not trying to trigger anyone. Just want to know if there has ever been other people who have developed this quickly. I genuinely want to know if someone has maybe joined track and run under 4:10 only several months into running ect.

To make it clear one last time my teammate was not better than runners such as German Fernandez, Jim Ryun or Andrew Wheating. Those guys are insane and I have a lot of respect for them. All I'm saying is he seemed to pick up the sport quicker than them. Obviously he didn't take his development as far as they did.

That's cuz I made it so you couldn't find him. He could have taken 32nd or 28th at FL ect. He was in HS before every time was posted on athletic.net or milesplit so you would have a very difficult time finding his results. They exist though. His 4:05.7 for example is not on milesplit or athletic.net it's on the meetpage for the race he ran it in.

Yes. You don't seem to understand that at 17 years old, it only requires a few months of training to get close to your potential. The reason that it is rare is not because people can't get there that fast but instead because most talented runners gravitate toward the sport at a younger age because a coach or gym teacher or parent urged them to run because they were so talented. If Grant Fisher played soccer throughout high school and then went out for track senior year, he would have run 4 flat in the mile.

I struggle to believe Fisher would have achieved the same result minus several years of training. Training from his freshman year on led him to a 4 flat mile. If he hadn't had that background he still would have been a great runner but not the same runner.

You may not believe it and we will have no real way to prove it. Maybe doctors could examine the body of a 17 year old basketball player or soccer player and elite runner to see if there is a physiological difference that the runner created by running for several years prior but you know that none would be found. Maybe Fisher would have run faster had he only played soccer until senior year because he would be mentally hungrier for wins.

Obviously your teammate had talent. But I wouldn't consider it exceptional.

Overall, his progression looks pretty similar to my own at the same age (and also with no prior experience). I always considered myself a very good runner on a local level but nothing exceptional on the national level. So I would say the same about your teammate.

This is good for America. But a guy like Cheptegai his progression is way faster than this. This is good for an American. But honestly nowhere near the talent level of the world beaters like a Bekele of Kipchoge.

A california guy wrote:

I assume he was pretty big into soccer and didn't just casually play it. Tons of young soccer kids start running and do great, because you run a lot and essentially do interval training in soccer. It's not like he came off the couch.

If he just came off the couch, I'm gonna get a couch like that.

I suppose but I still think it is seriously impressive regardless. I played soccer from K-8th grade and it still took me several years of consistent training and decent volume to achieve a 4:16.