Willards 50 or Solinsky's 23?

Solinsky's 5 mile course he ran for morning runs was probably 4.75 miles like a lot of ours were. He probably measured it in a car.

23:00 for 8k would even be unbelievable. That's a time that is usually in the top 10 at the 8k road nationals. It was a time when I was running around 8:44 for two miles and 13:45 for 5000 that I would run for 8k however. So he quite possibly could have done it in a race back then but no way in a solo morning run. I wonder if he did these runs in racing flats.

Willard is probably a typical female who can't remember her pr's and thinks a 50 is pretty much the same as a 54. or she ran 54.2 and forgot her time and is making a mistake. I don't think she is intentionally bullshitting. If she is then she is definitely one of the coolest female runners ever.

His 8K pace en route to his 10K is 21:35.

Running 23:XX in practice doesn't seem too crazy.

Read the article. It was something the author wrote about his morning runs while in HS...

X-Runner wrote:

His 8K pace en route to his 10K is 21:35.

Running 23:XX in practice doesn't seem too crazy.

In highschool?? I dont know about this one. Maybe if it was 23:5X.

I had a teammate in HS run 8:5X and he would do a 6 mile run that the team ran a couple times a week in 30:30 to 30:45.

The course is accurate because I still run it with a Garmin.

With Solinskys talent and work ethic I don't doubt he could churn out something like 23:45 for 5 miles a few times a week.

Couldn't click the link, wasn't going to copy and paste.

Didn't know it was a high school claim.

Heck of a practice for high school.

We should list a practice hall of fame.

I'm assuming were talking about Solinsky going out before school (in addition to his regular practice and race schedule) and popping a 5 mile run at 4:36 per mile. In high school. That's goiing through 5000 in 14:20 which was like running faster than any of his cross country times and running mnearly 2 more miles at that pace.

I would believe he could do this with a warmup and cooldown maybe on the track or a flat hard measured trail but that is really hammering. This is a good workout for a 13:30 5000 runner. Its possible he hit one of those incredible days once, I'm just highly skeptical about the accuracy.

I think the nature of the article seemed a little defensive as to explain his great running to an unusual ability to hammer fast runs day in and day out and never get injured. The high school workout was intened to prove he is one of the all-time amzing talents ever in the U.S. Which isn't necessary because everybody already knows this.

Willard's 50

He probably said 23:59.999 and the SI writer wrote 23:00 because he doesn't get the difference.

When his high school coach told me this story, it was 24 minutes, not 23. He said he kicked it in 4:50, too, which would mean it was 24.xx, not 24.00. The amazing part of the story was that this was at 6 AM.

There is a huge difference between a 25 (ie a 30 min 6 mile run) and and 23 5 mile. One is a hard tempo run. The other is faster than race pace. I would be surprised if your friend (or Solinksky for that matter) could haven broken 24 in HS in a practice run much less 23. I am sure the correct answer is the course is short. You read the articles of the guys in the 80s doing thier 40 mile runs in 48 min. I sort of doubt most of those were on accurate courses either.

Resu wrote:

I had a teammate in HS run 8:5X and he would do a 6 mile run that the team ran a couple times a week in 30:30 to 30:45.

The course is accurate because I still run it with a Garmin.

With Solinskys talent and work ethic I don't doubt he could churn out something like 23:45 for 5 miles a few times a week.