For example, I have a friend who claims that he ran a marathon in 2:30 or 3:30? He ran exactly two marathons in his life!
Ok, that’s a pretty ridiculous spread. I can’t remember if I ran 28:20 or 28:21 or 28:28 for an 8k… that much difference is a bit separated from reality. But I guess it qualifies him for congress where a 3:57 counts as a 3 hour marathon.
I’ve posted this here before and been insulted and scorned, but I don’t remember my 1600, 3200, or 5,000 PRs. I do know my 10,000 and marathon PRs.
Im in my 40s and ran in college for a decent team. I know the general areas of my times, but don’t know exactly and cannot remember the races where I PRed. I’m just old enough that it’s hard to do verifiable internet research.
I’ve posted this here before and been insulted and scorned, but I don’t remember my 1600, 3200, or 5,000 PRs. I do know my 10,000 and marathon PRs.
Im in my 40s and ran in college for a decent team. I know the general areas of my times, but don’t know exactly and cannot remember the races where I PRed. I’m just old enough that it’s hard to do verifiable internet research.
Me too. I ran a while ago. Ran in college, Big Ten, was pretty decent, not great. I can't remember a single time in any particular race. Don't remember my exact PR's in any event, know the range. Didn't save a single ribbon or medal from that time.
Not on purpose. Life just happens and you forget those things. They get replaced with new things, marriage, job, kids...
Like a few other posters I don't remember my times from 40 years ago and I didn't remember them 20 years ago. But I was a mediocre runner who ran 10:14, or 10:18, or 10:28 in the 3200 and around 2:20 in the Central Park marathon tune up 30k, I can't recall. But if I ran a 2:30 marathon I think I'd remember and have a written record, picture or something to verify it.
It means they ran an 880 yard thing as part of a relay in the mid-70s on concrete wearing sprint spikes and had a running start and who knows when to stop the handheld stopwatch anyway.
I’ve posted this here before and been insulted and scorned, but I don’t remember my 1600, 3200, or 5,000 PRs. I do know my 10,000 and marathon PRs.
Im in my 40s and ran in college for a decent team. I know the general areas of my times, but don’t know exactly and cannot remember the races where I PRed. I’m just old enough that it’s hard to do verifiable internet research.
Me too. I ran a while ago. Ran in college, Big Ten, was pretty decent, not great. I can't remember a single time in any particular race. Don't remember my exact PR's in any event, know the range. Didn't save a single ribbon or medal from that time.
Not on purpose. Life just happens and you forget those things. They get replaced with new things, marriage, job, kids...
I thought I was the only one. Of course, none of my teammates in high school, college, or really running after college tended to tout PRs on first encounters a la "Once a Runner." I remember the people I spent time with, especially the nice ones, more than anything else.
I can remember my 1600m HS PR to the second, but no decimal places. The same for my lifetime 1500m PR. But I can't remember my 400m, 800m, 5k, 10k, or half-marathon PRs, though I have raced all of those distances. I am 53, and I know my 50+ 800m PR, but that's my "main" event. I've done other races, but don't really keep track of my PRs. Not sure what it means.
Not knowing an exact time is one thing. Not knowing if it was 2:30 or 3:30 is a little suspect.
Not knowing if it was 2:30 or 3:30 means it was 3:30 because it nobody who understands and has done the work necessary to run 2:30 would get those two times mixed up
Even for a pretty serious runner it's easy to forget the seconds for anything over 5k over the years.
For someone that doesn't take it too seriously but in good overall shape, I could see them forgetting whether it was a 21:30 5k or 22:30 5k or a 3:30 marathon or 3:40.
But yeah, for you example a 2:30 runner and a 3:30 runner are on entirely different levels, so if you can't rembember you're most likely the 3:30 runner.