Heaviest sub-5:00 miler?

5 years I weighted 230 pounds, I ran 4'05 mile on the the Tamarack beach.(soft sand) Steve Scott was with me at the time. He couldn't believe.

I'm pretty sure NOONE could do it.

Since it has been fairly well-established that Paul McMullen ran close to 4:00 at 190-200 lbs at EMU (check old threads) please spare us "4:12 at 185 lbs" or whatever.

That link to the NBA player is indicative, unfortunately we have no hard results, nor his weight at the time of his 4:32. But I suspect that 230-240 is the upper limit, even among genetically-gifted giants.

sub-5 is not that fast and I am betting that somebody who is upwards of 270 has done it. I don't know who (and I think it is a rare individual who can do it at close to that weight) but I think the limit is a lot higher than people here are giving it credit for.

I'm 6'20" and about a ton. I've run a mile in 3:58. Barefoot.

Hey George! Wasn't that uphill as well? Don't even tell us what you ran downhill...I won't be able to take it, lol..

Ken Yanowski of Houston/Bremond, TX one of the founders of the Clydesdale division in road racing was in the 190 to 210 catagory and consistently ran in the 4:30's as a young man.

Agreed, I was thinking there must be a tall, fit 280-300 pounder to have done it. I think the difficulty of sub-5 is being greatly overestimated. Heavy doesn't necessarily mean fat. For example, Dwight Howard weighs like 265. There must be athletes around his weight (not necessarily height/athleticism) who dedicate themselves to more endurance training

280 - 300 lbs!!! I doubt it, that's huge. I'd wager the heaviest person to have gone sub 5 is 265 tops, very likely more like 240. I figure this athlete would have to be a minimum of 6'4", probably more likely 6'7" - 7'1" and have a body fat % under 12. They would likely have to be slow-medium twitch fiber dominant as well, and doing specific training. Not too many guys fit the bill.

I once did 1.5 miles in 2:24. I weigh in at about 1200 lbs.

puiuiotf wrote:

I bet there are a lot of American football players with sub-5 fitness.

I'll take that bet.

Someone link to the benching/running thread that was on here a while back. I seem to remember there being a whole hell of a lot of guys claiming to be able to bench 200+ and also break 15 in a 5k.

As it turned out most of them never did it at the same time, their benches were "calculations" based on number of reps at a lower weight, or their 5ks were unofficial (or a combination of these).

I suspect the 200+ lbs bodyweight/ sub 5 minute mile club is similar - that is, sure there are some guys who can do it, but not a whole hell of a lot.

My brother(shot/discus,wrestler) at 240 in HS, dropped a 5:32 1600. Not sub 5:00, but for a 5'9, 17 year old with leftover wrestling training, I was impressed. We have pretty good genetics. I still swear he would have been amazing at 130 lbs.

r quimby wrote:

Someone link to the benching/running thread that was on here a while back. I seem to remember there being a whole hell of a lot of guys claiming to be able to bench 200+ and also break 15 in a 5k.

As it turned out most of them never did it at the same time, their benches were "calculations" based on number of reps at a lower weight, or their 5ks were unofficial (or a combination of these).

I suspect the 200+ lbs bodyweight/ sub 5 minute mile club is similar - that is, sure there are some guys who can do it, but not a whole hell of a lot.

Bench press max estimates are pretty accurate if they're based on 2-6 reps. More than that and they start to lose accuracy.

My sophomore year of high school I went through a phase right before the start of track where I lifted every day. Got my bench press up to 205 (projection from 6 reps of 175). That fall I had run 15:51 on the Footlocker Midwest course, and that spring I would run 1:55 and 4:22. Those have got to all be about equivalent to 15-flat on a track. Granted, when I actually ran the track times my bench was probably in the 185 range, but I was a high school sophomore. There have got to be loads of college guys who could do both at the same time.

As for the thread at hand, my high school football team had an award for guys who could break 5 in the mile. Pretty sure the biggest guy to get it was about 210. There are several guys on my college football team in the 240 range that I assume could do it if they took a couple weeks to train.

I drag on my cigarette wrote:

Indie Douche wrote:

I ran 4'58" for a legit mile at 215; I'm 6'7" though,and wore the weight as well as somebody that big can. I weigh 185 now though, and am glad for the weight loss.

Inspirational ! Maybe we could get Tom Cruise to play you in your biographical movie !

Or drop another 40 lbs. and get one of the Olsen twins to be your(illegitimate mile) concubine, and have Michael Moore direct the flick .

Fahrenheit 4:58 .

ummm ever heard of chris solinsky?

I think that it would be an interesting to put a weight vest on Solinsky and weights until he could only run 4:59. 50 extra lbs? 60? This is an event that he could crush (heheh) the Africans in....

fghrunner wrote:

ummm ever heard of chris solinsky?

Isnt Solinsky down to 160 these days?

slightly off topic but still berry good

baby jogger + man + baby < 5:00