What are some of the slowest college PRs (males) to go on to qualify to the marathon trials? I definitely know some dudes north of 15:00 in college have gone on to make it. Any crazy improvement stories?
What are some of the slowest college PRs (males) to go on to qualify to the marathon trials? I definitely know some dudes north of 15:00 in college have gone on to make it. Any crazy improvement stories?
I’m sure there are 16:00+ HS guys that didn’t get recruited or didn’t choose to run in college that chose to get back into it.
There’s this story about this one guy I forget who, who not only made the trials but almost made the team, and his high school mile PR was in the high 4:30s, so no way he was under 15:00 for a full 5k.
Brain Sell....4:28, 10:06 in HS.
31:17 XC in college.
2008 Olympian. 2:10:47 PR.
As far as just qualifying? I am sure you could find people who didn't run in HS or college at all who went on to Qualify....2:22 was the B standard for a long time.
Alan
My 5k PR is 15:14, 10K PR 31:14 and Marathon PR is 2:18:43.
Runningart2004 wrote:
Brain Sell....4:28, 10:06 in HS.
31:17 XC in college.
2008 Olympian. 2:10:47 PR.
As far as just qualifying? I am sure you could find people who didn't run in HS or college at all who went on to Qualify....2:22 was the B standard for a long time.
Alan
Mike Wardian was a Lacrosse player (played D1 for Michigan State) and did not run competitively until after college.
Tyler Underwood is up there for the most insane progression ever. Played tennis in HS and college and started running after college. His first marathon was 4:12 in 2007. he made the trials with a 2:18 at CIM in 2017. Pretty wild.
Jim Pearson was in the '76 marathon trial. He'd done 2:22 something. I believe his best mile was just under 4:50, three and six mile bests were over 15 and 31. He did have the US 50 mile record for a while.
I ran 31:41 for the 10k in college, but had a 14:53 college 5k pr.
I continued training pretty hard and got my 10k down to 28:59 on the track and qualified for the marathon with a 2:17 pr.
So I think being able to break 15 in college was really helpful for long term success. I definitely sucked in the 10k but increased mileage like a madman and brought all my prs down.
Some guy named Galen Rupp ran the trials in 2016, and he hadn't even run a marathon yet!
Most of you guys aren't calibrated to female times, but I qualified for the marathon trials with 2:42:50 having never in my life broken 18 minutes for 5K. (I didn't run in HS or college.)
Tim Young was in my district in HS. He was a 4:26/9:51 guy after running like 16:30s in XC.
He went to JMU, but the program got cut his freshman year. He then started training for the marathon.
He eventually got himself down to a 1:06 half, which was good enough to join the Hansons, and then he ran 2:19. A few years later he went 2:14.
So a guy who would potentially not make the State Meet final, to not having a college career, to a 10+ career as a marathoner running USOT qualifying marks.
A true blue collar hero.
slom wo wrote:
Tyler Underwood is up there for the most insane progression ever. Played tennis in HS and college and started running after college. His first marathon was 4:12 in 2007. he made the trials with a 2:18 at CIM in 2017. Pretty wild.
This guy's story destroys anything anyone else could possibly post here - it's truly unbelievable. All self-coached as well. You young guys should be beating his door down to have him take you on as your coach.
Jonas Hampton had a college PR of 14:52 so slightly under your criteria, but he didn't just make trials he ran 2:12 at the 2020 trials for 8th overall.
amkelley wrote:
Most of you guys aren't calibrated to female times, but I qualified for the marathon trials with 2:42:50 having never in my life broken 18 minutes for 5K. (I didn't run in HS or college.)
I'm sure there are many similar stories on the female side. I think one of the local qualifiers was a woman with little competitive running experience that started running to get back in shape after children and got on a roll and ended up getting the qualifier in her thirties. Some of the others ran for a DII program and the other for a low quality DI program. Heck, here are a couple random bio tidbits from the Atlanta trials website that I stumbled upon by clicking on random profiles:
--Was a 400m hurdler in college, but soon afterward ran one and barely qualified for Boston in 3:40; after that she didn't run another for 10 years but then ran a 3:08
--Although she's long been a runner, didn't start training and racing until she was 40; was coached by her husband until this year when Ben Bruce, husband of Trials contender Stephanie Bruce, took the role
These kind of stories will be much less common on the men's side, as most qualifiers were somewhat competitive at the college level. Of course, this doesn't take away from the work and achievement of meeting the women's qualifying standard. This has been discussed ad nauseam, but because of lack of access to sports for many women around the world, the qualifying standard is designed to fill out the international field for the Olympics. But in more developed countries with better rights and access for women, the standard is quite achievable.
I've never broken 18 either in the 5k, but the marathon is more forgiving in that you can run sub-3 probably and have a 5k between 18:30 and 19 flat!
This isn’t a case of “crazy improvement” so much as an example of stasis, where an extremely slow runner still managed to get an OTQ for the marathon: Leading up to the 1984 trials -where I believe the standard was 2:21:54 or thereabouts- there was a guy in the NY/NJ area who put down a qualifying time without ever having broken 16 in the 5k (Yes, sixteen, that’s not a typo).
He was an anomalous one-gear grinder who had the ability to run at a given pace nearly all day, but even when dropping way down in distance he just couldn’t shift out of that gear, and was barely able to run any faster.
I cannot remember this man’s name, nor was I able to glean it from an internet search, but there was a profile about him in a running magazine at the time. If any of the old-timers here on the boards know who I’m referring to, please chime in.
Nice.
For guys, 14:40s/50s is generally the slowest 5k times you need for 2:18 whether you run that in college or after.
The never breaking 18:00 & then running 2:42 is pretty surprising. Basically 5:50 for 5k & 6:10 for the marathon. Guessing you could run in the 17's. 17-mid is probably what you typically see for the 2:44 types.
Illium wrote:
My 5k PR is 15:14, 10K PR 31:14 and Marathon PR is 2:18:43.
Excellent! Good job!
My 5km PR at the time I ran 2:18:27 in Berlin (in "normal shoes") was 15:11.
Ever going back to 1896?
The majority of the stories are about guys because the female equivalent of 2:19:00 should be about 2:36-2:38 and not 2:46
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