Why is everyone slower than you slow?

Obviously age and gender are big factors, but generally i'd say anything under 3:10 is respectable, and anything under 2:45 is great.

And the answer is obvious, people want to feel good about themselves, especially if nothing else in their life is goign right besides running, so if someone is proud of their 2:50 marathon, and another person has run a 2:40, obviously he should be that much more proud for going :20 faster per mile.

Splain this to me wrote:

A 3hr marathon is not 'fast' - guess what,it's fast. World class, hardly, fast - yes.

I've run 2:50. I am not fast at all -- I am slightly above average (3:00 = average).

Maybe that's average for a serious runner, but I doubt it. I would guess more around 3:15 for people who really get after it. The average for all completed marathons is around 4:30.

Everyone slower than me is slow because I am slow.

What scale are you using to show that the 3hr mark is average?

Lets use NY as an example (37K finishers +/-) and lets remove 20K+ of these just for arguments sake as I'm sure there's a reason that these can't be considered 'real runners since they're so slow - right?

Looking at 15K finishers of NY, the avg of these would be about 3:45. The 3hr mark is still in the top 6% when we remove over 20,000 of the bottom finishers so tell us what method you are using to define 3hrs as average?

It's all relative to personal experience. If I'm doing my best then everyone ahead of me is fast, as in faster than me, and everyone behind me is slow, as in slower than me. Everyone behind me is behind me because I am ahead of them. Everyone older than me is older than me because I am younger than them. Anyone who loses to me at Scrabble is not very smart because I'm not very smart. Anyone who beats me at ping pong is obviously cheating because I rule the table. Anyone who spends a lot of time on Second Life needs to get a life because I was shunned as an unbeleiver when I argued that purgatory is nothing like a train station.

See. That sort of thing.

I've run 4.06 and 8.04 for 3k.

When people ask me what my mile time is I do not say it thinking they will be impressed (even though they usually are). I say it thinking man I wish I could say I was a sub 4 guy cause that's so slow.

I would not consider myself fast because I train with people who are much faster. I am decent but know my place.

A 2.50 marathon is not fast. Sorry.

A 4.20 mile is not fast.

A 32 min. 10k is not fast.

Fast doesnt have to be world class, but has to be something that is somewhat exceptional. The 1500 meter NCAA final this year was fast. A guy running a 2.15 marathon is fast. Doesnt have to be world class, but has to be somewhat astonishing to the people watching. A high school kid running 46 seconds in a relay 4x4 is fast, or a high school kid running 4.02

It has to be exceptional and it has to be exciting to watch.

Runners will always compare themselves to those that are better than them, but there has to be some objective standard where as everyone can agree it is fast.

Why are you so hung up on this? "Fast" is a relative term, and depends upon one's frame of reference. Is a Major League Baseball player who hits .133 a really good hitter? He's a much better hitter than 99% of the guys out there, but that's not the usual frame of reference from which he's judged. By MLB standards, his hitting sucks.

I understand that people should be careful about being unduly dismissive of the accomplishments of others. But why insist that everyone accept your view that a 3-hour marathoner, or a 2:40 marathoner, is fast?

Master of Class wrote:

Maybe that's average for a serious runner, but I doubt it. I would guess more around 3:15 for people who really get after it. The average for all completed marathons is around 4:30.

And that average will continue to get slower as more fatasses try to play marathoner and more marathons cater to people who walk marathons and them claim to have "run" a marathon. Why do you think Boston had to move it's start from 12:00 noon to 9:00AM? To give the fatass cahrity cases a chance to finish before sundown. I bet within 10 years the average will be over 5 hours.

2 Question for you (referring to male athletes <40yrs old):

Would you say an OT qualifier is fast?

What is a fast marathon?

bull.

Why bull? I know a couple of high 3:4x guys from college who'd say the same exact thing.

My most impressive times were 14:48/30:49 on the track and I wouldn't say it's fast 'cause I got spanked on a weekly basis back in college.

2:45, 3:00 IS slow

4:15 mile in HS IS FAST

What top % in a field do you have to be to be deemed fast?

It depends on the field! (Olympic, local 5K race, etc)

Obviously everyone in the friggin oly is fast (don't tell me about some odd-ball country that gets into the 5K just b/c - they're still fast by mortal standards).

Regardless of whether it's your local 5K or the NYC marathon, what % of the top of the field is considered fast?

Whodee wrote:

A 2.50 marathon is not fast. Sorry.

A 4.20 mile is not fast.

A 32 min. 10k is not fast.

Whodee,

All you've done is express your opinion. Since your opinion is no more valid than mine, I am not bound to your opinion. Since I am not bound to your opinion you have no need to apologize.

666 wrote:

My most impressive times were 14:48/30:49 on the track and I wouldn't say it's fast 'cause I got spanked on a weekly basis back in college.

Classic LetsRun premise - state obviously fast times that you've run and then self-deprecatingly say thay are not fast for the purpose of stating your fast times.

Fast, to me, is a performance that the average person couldn't attain even if they tried hard for it. So 32 minutes for 5k is definitely fast. So is 2:45 for a marathon.

Lots of arrogant and ignorant folks on here.