A Guy I Work With Claims He Ran A 1500m in 3:45. How Believable is this?

Is his name Steve?

This guy sounds hilarious! I'm guessing there's no way he ran 3:45 though. I would just ask him for more context. It should be pretty easy to find out if he was actually an elite runner

A liar would probably claim a certain mile time. But a 1500m time? That's kind of specific. Ask him for further details - was he running for a university?

Google his name...Ask him when and where he did that. Find the results.

3:45 almost 40 years ago is like 3:38 today. He would have been a national class D1 runner.

Usually guys like that are people who actually run... because they claim times that would be just out of the reach of making them easy to find. Most pathological liars would have no idea what a good time for 1500 meters would be.

But a 3:45 would make an all time list at many colleges and universities... And it certainly would have made him a letterman at said college. Some colleges have letterman's lists available on the web.

If you don't already know... just ask him where he went to college when you aren't talking about running.

It could be that he's misremembering and he actually ran 4.35?

The stuff from the early 90s is hit and miss. And he is just slow enough to be believable. If he ran 3:40 back then you would have heard of him. There were enough 3:45;guys at the back of conference meets it would be easy to miss.

But odds are he didn't run n 3:45

Interesting situation. It’s not like the guys who say they ran a four-minute mile in gym class. If the guy’s legit and bold enough to bust out this time it’s surprising to me he wouldn’t talk more about it and his running background. Should have won a ton of races back in the day. If he’s making it up it shouldn’t take many questions to figure it out.

It wouldn’t be surprising that there isn’t an old IAAF or a World Athletics listing giving how long ago he would have been racing. Those lists used to be limited to elite performers with major competition wins or participation. It would surprise me that a 58-year old 3:45 guy has no searchable results at all online. You should be able to find something.

No true at all.

Google? your precious google is a joke.

49 guys ran faster than 3:39 last year. Only 35 ran faster than 3:45 40 years ago. Do you want to try again with your dumb statement?

I had this happen at work but the opposite. I used to be quite fast.

a few googles later they figured it out.

i will say some stuff from the 70-80s for track was very hard to find results wise. Might have to find some archives.

Rule 1 on LRC: The difference between what you know and what you think you know is huge. When looking up things that happened 40 years ago, especially obscure running stats, you are unlikely to find what you're looking for.

We had a thread on LRC 20 years ago about sub-4 miles from each state. The most common answer for South Carolina was 1976 in Charleston. I was the only one who said that doesn't sound right. It;s probably Charleston WV*. The usual trolls disagreed, violently. But Charleston WV didn't show up in their precious Google machine. It didn't matter to them. It didn't matter to them ... GOOOGLE!!!!

Your friends 3:45 doesn't seem like something that would show up in results unless he gave you the race. Why not do the simple thing and ask? Instead you created a lame thread on an internet message board that is known for trolls.

* Wilson Waigwa won that race and i was invited to run but didn't. It didn't seem to be something I wanted to do in blister heat a week before the Olympic Trials.

Ask him to jog two laps with you one day, and if he's still slender but is breathing hard at 75s per lap, it's cap

Facts are troubling for those who base decisions on feelings. I provided the facts. You merely attacked the messenger. We would all welcome additional facts rather than your gurt feelings.

Your facts aren't facts at all. You said only 35 (presumably Americans) ran under 3:45 40 years ago. Thats not true. Not even close.

You can look up each year in track and field news but you won't. The point of your post isn't the quest for information, its to be disagreeable for the sake of being disagreeable. We see this crap from your ilk every day.

Go ahead, look it up. Make my day.