How fast of a runner was Mark Wetmore?

At a talk, I think I heard him mention that he ran mid 2:20\'s. I think he a had a VO2 of like 30 though.

I've heard 50-point for the 400-meters during his undergrad years at Rutgers (pre-Internet and almost prehistoric so don't bother confirming), 1:55-6 or thereabouts for 800-m, and a 1:13 half-marathon in 1993 at 4,000' altitude in Moab. Not sure about the 2:20s for mary but that sounds believable. Has a VO2 Max of 37, lowest ever recorded at Columbia (his grad school) or something like that. Like a good runner using one lung. Did see him run an honest altitude effort of 28:47 for five miles at the Boulder Reservoir in a race at age 42 (1995) so he isn't hat bad.

37?!?!? I thought the idea was to have a high VO2 Max. 37 is pretty horrible. If I remember right, Shorter had about a 72, Prefontaine was around 83, and the highest ever recorded for a male was around 94 or 97, by a cross country skier. Did you mean to say that his resting pulse rate was 37, cause that would have been pretty badass.

Keep in mind that, contrary to what a lot of people seem to think, VO2 Max (normalized for body mass -- that is, ml/min/kg) can vary tremendously with one's level of fitness. I would be very skeptical of any report that someone has run a marathon in the mid-2:20s while having a current VO2 Max of 37, since that would require a level of running efficiency far beyond that of any world-class runner that I am aware of.

Wetmore himself told me his VO2 Max was a paltry 37, the lowest ever recorded at Columbia U. It's beyond horrible and he's not prone to BS'ing. I was so surprised I filed this info away indelibly. Another PR he mentioned was a 15:45 for 5,000-meters, so 2:20s for a marathon might be a little exaggerated (and he never claimed this one to me). Maybe on a godspeed day he'd pull out a low-2:30s but not 2:20s off of a 15:45 5K best. And the Moab 1:13 half-mary race may have had a bit of downhill.

Maybe he did have a VO2 max of 37 at some point in his life, but I doubt that he was able to run a 15:45 5,000 at that time. World-class runners, on average, consume over 58 ml/min/kg of oxygen at 5-minute mile pace (3:06 min/km), and even the most efficient world-class runners that I am aware of would consume at least 55 ml/min/kg of oxygen at 15:45 5,000 meter pace.

VO2 Max? wrote:

37?!?!? . . . If I remember right, Shorter had about a 72, Prefontaine was around 83, and the highest ever recorded for a male was around 94 or 97, by a cross country skier.

Kenny Mayne wrote a great book all about a bunch of different runners, and in it he talks about the time when Shorter, Pre, etc. had their VO2 max tested. I can't remember exactly what happened but I know Shorter didn't really take the test all that serious so the results, even though they've been tossed around as proof of this or that for the last 30 years, may not be all that accurate.

Maybe Kenny MOORE's "Best Efforts"??

VO2 Max? wrote:

37?!?!? . . . If I remember right, Shorter had about a 72, Prefontaine was around 83, and the highest ever recorded for a male was around 94 or 97, by a cross country skier.

Said Aouita VO

max 96.

Questionable VO2 wrote:Shorter didn't really take the test all that serious so the results, even though they've been tossed around as proof of this or that for the last 30 years, may not be all that accurate.

Shorter didn't take the Olympics all that seriously either, that's why Waldemar Cierpienski kicked his butt.