He probably ran the 1:26 in a time trial
He probably ran the 1:26 in a time trial
Yes, until roughly 1974 or so, all U.S. high schools ran the 100 yard dash rather than the 100 meter dash. We also ran 220 yards, 440 yards, 880 yards and the mile.
Mark
Alot of my workmates take an interest in my running (perhaps because I don't act like a condescending asshole when it turns out that they are ignorant). Anyway, one of them said that they could probably "only" manage a 3k in 10 minutes. I was fairly certain this was not the case, as he claimed he did it on a treadmill.
Anyway, I could have called him out for being a liar, but I just said that even if it was 10:xx, then such a time was nothing to be ashamed of. Months later, I started running with him a little and discovered that he could barely maintain 9 minute pace for 1 kilometer. He also told me how he had never been much of a runner and that this was typical.
Point is, he obviously just misremembered what he had run in the past and didn't mean anything disrespectful by it. Now he runs 5 miles 4 times a week.
Mark Johnson wrote:
Yes, until roughly 1974 or so, all U.S. high schools ran the 100 yard dash rather than the 100 meter dash. We also ran 220 yards, 440 yards, 880 yards and the mile.
Mark
Tommie Smith and Charlie Greene ran 9.5s in HS
the kid on the block did not.
rcyouknow wrote:
I don't understand why people constantly lie to me about running feats when they know I'm a coach and runner. This happens all the time. It is so easy to catch them in a lie...
Last night I was at a preseason coaches meeting for our conference. I meet the new girls basketball coach for my school. We engage in small talk (I make it a point to never bring up my high school or college experiences, times or feats to non-runners). But, this guy wants to talk track...so I indulge him.
He tells me he ran 1:26 for 800 meters in high school. I laugh outloud and say no you didn't. I can tell he's insulted. Really, the guy is insulted by my response to his obvious lie. I try and help him out and tell him that the world record is 1:41. Oh...he counters and says, "I meant 1:46." Again, I say that would have made you the greatest high school half miler in history. No you didn't. But, the idiot keeps talking. He goes on to say that he took 3rd in "our" (this will be important later) state meet in 800m the year he graduated high school with a 1:56. I ask him when this occurred and he replies 1995.
I again bust out laughing in his face because I know for a fact that he did no such thing. I took 3rd in our state meet that year in the 800m. Liars don't know how stupid and obvious they are when they lie about running.
This happens to me all time. People just plain lie about how fast they were in high school or college. I don't get it. Why lie?
If I was that coach, I woulda beat your ass.
If you were that coach, you'd be an ignorant egotistical braggart, so yeah you probably woulda.
OK, I usually actually never try to have the best story but here's mine. A high school runner, not really to bad either ran a 9:08 3000 at an all comers meet at the beginning of his senior year and used that time as a 3200 time to get into all kinds of meets. He qualified for the Junior Olympics with that time, he ran the steeple and the 10k (DNF). Then he went off to college. One day he runs at the Mt. Sac Relays in one of the 5 10K races they have. He was stopped (by accident) with 2 more laps to go and given that time, 30.xx. He used that time to qualify for the nationals and DNF'd but still says he ran those times. Those are the only times he ever got close to those times.
Lance Armstrong broke 3 hours a few times.
On a positive note, my cousin was dating some jerk that told her that he was a 4-minute miler. She bragged to me about his running ability and I found a 4:57 result. Proud to say I had a hand in breaking up that relationship.
crazy pants wrote:
Lance Armstrong broke 3 hours a few times.
On a positive note, my cousin was dating some jerk that told her that he was a 4-minute miler. She bragged to me about his running ability and I found a 4:57 result. Proud to say I had a hand in breaking up that relationship.
hahaha Bravo in breaking them up
Ok, how do some of you people not get this? People who make outlandish claims are obvious one-uppers. It doesn't MATTER if it's about running or not. It doesn't even matter if the one-upper is referencing his own feats or his cousin Bob's neighbor to the west. Bottom line, they're trying to one-up you. That alone shows disrespect on so many levels, not the least of which is that they think you're dumb enough to believe them. So now they've insulted your intelligence as well.
And if they aren't out to one-up you, they'll say something like "I wanna say I ran a 1:50 800m. Does that sound right?" From there, you can educate them on the caliber of a 1:50 performance. But if they just come out and DECLARE that so-and-so ran or did such-and-such, you have a first-rate d-bag on your hands.
Again, how anyone doesn't see the psychology behind this is beyond me.
Dr. Feel wrote:
Ok, how do some of you people not get this? People who make outlandish claims are obvious one-uppers. It doesn't MATTER if it's about running or not. It doesn't even matter if the one-upper is referencing his own feats or his cousin Bob's neighbor to the west. Bottom line, they're trying to one-up you. That alone shows disrespect on so many levels, not the least of which is that they think you're dumb enough to believe them. So now they've insulted your intelligence as well.
And if they aren't out to one-up you, they'll say something like "I wanna say I ran a 1:50 800m. Does that sound right?" From there, you can educate them on the caliber of a 1:50 performance. But if they just come out and DECLARE that so-and-so ran or did such-and-such, you have a first-rate d-bag on your hands.
Again, how anyone doesn't see the psychology behind this is beyond me.
I dunno, I have a friend with two degrees in psych and a postdoc in psychiatric med. He says everyone is like this ddep down inside and it's necessary and healthy for mentally normal adults to try feel one-up on someone on a regular basis, even when they're totally wrong. Not a problem at all. Shows how much you know.
Mark Johnson wrote:
It's hard to imagine anyone running a 1:56 and not remembering the exact time 20 years later. Maybe if it were a 2:56, I would understand. I think the reason so many runner recoil when non-runners make outrageous claims is that it belittles all of the hard work and unbelievable pain the elite runners must go through.
Mark
I disagree most people really aren't as in to track as we on this site are. To someone who may have only run a couple of years in HS the time was probably not all that important to them even at the time they probably don't remember that there is a huge difference between a 1:56 and 2:10. They are really just tying to hit a ballpark figure that sounds good.
Interesting and funny!
I had a friend that claimed that his cousin got an Olympic medal in the marathon, something he mentioned several times. Well, once I asked for details and looked it up and... actually it was TRUE (non-American)
I also have a friend that claims that her aunt used to have the Canadian record for the women's marathon but I have had a hard time confirming this. I guessing this is false.
Other than that, with times, people don't always remember things. I, myself, can't remember what my 400m time is. I only ever ran it as a relay split, so I never cared that much.
Mark Johnson wrote:
Yes, until roughly 1974 or so, all U.S. high schools ran the 100 yard dash rather than the 100 meter dash. We also ran 220 yards, 440 yards, 880 yards and the mile.
Mark
Later than that. In Minnesota they were doing non-metric distances for HS until at least 1977. Of course we still had cinder tracks in some places, and a couple places had clay (which I really liked). Indoor distances seemed wacky since the tracks always seemed to be whatever the size of the building was.
Why do serious runners lie to the public? When did that become OK .... did it become OK when beggars ran the message boards?
Amazing! An 11 year old girl ran a 5 minute mile!
WRT: The year before Roger Bannister broke the 4 minute mile, you trained as an 11-year-old for that distance. Can you share that story?
(Name Deleted): Each summer, from the age of seven to eleven, I spent eight weeks at camp. At the end we'd have a track meet. The girls did the 100, the long jump and silly things like the three-legged and wheel barrow races. The boys got to run the mile, the glamor event, and everyone watched. It ticked me off. I wanted to see if I could beat them.
An older boy gave me his stopwatch and said if I could get down to low 5's I could beat all the boys. The course was a dirt road with a bit of a rise. That last summer, every morning I ran it. I got my time down to around 5 flat but never said anything but at least I knew I could do it.
No one I hang out with DOES this, ok. Maybe the d-bags you associate with do. Then again, birds of a feather...
Also, apropos of this thread, it wouldn't surprise me if you made up this "friend", anyway. Besides, my friend has three degrees in psychology. So there.
Of course I made up the whole thing, I just had to one-up you. Get it?
most get embarrassed how slow they are maybe
This thread has cooled off, so I'm not sure if this will be read...Just saw your (jag's) reply to my post, and wanted to apologize if I came off as self-righteous. Implying that you ran to impress non-runners was obviously untrue, and I don't think I communicated my point very well.I see your point about the Uncle Rico types. I'm only arguing that we should regard these people as harmless (either because their memories are hazy, or, because they are lying self-parodies), and that serious runners should ignore them.When non-serious runners (however one defines that) say these things, there is nothing I can do about it, and it doesn't really harm me - beyond annoying me a little. So it's not worth worrying about. Similarly, I can't do much about the fact that most Americans don't know anything about running (vs. football, etc.)I feel the same way about the 4:30 "I completed a marathon" types who try to identify with the guy (me) who has busted his ass for years to shave minutes off of my (still far-from-elite) PR. What they think doesn't really matter, and trying to set them right is futile (not to mention, um, self-righteous).Anyway - I wanted to apologize for being a little bit provocative in my last post, and to say that I hope there are no hard feelings, fellow anonymous dude on the internet.
jag wrote:
Perspective wrote:There are a lot of good reasons to put in the work required to run fast times. I don't think impressing non-runners is a good reason.
Well... yes, of course. I haven't run all these years to tell people who don't give a crap all about it. Is this is whole board idea all about people saying the most contrary thing possible? What I'm suggesting is that our culture recognizes the achievements of many mainstream sports and not those of runners, such that you get a lot of Uncle Rico-esque characters telling you they've run an 8:50 3 mile.
Get it? And it's aggravating when people do this because when somebody says they averaged 100 yards a game in HS football everybody gets it. But people feel very much at ease marginalizing and undermining the performance of runners via their ignorance, which was the idea of this thread.
Otherwise, though, you got me, I run to impress non-runners, which is why I buy bumper stickers and t-shirts and advertise my every accomplishment... Christ, what a self-righteous dick...
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