What 800m times would you class as elite, amateur, novice, hack?

There are no beginners running 1:58 or 2:02, what are you talking about. You should be beaten up by a javelin thrower.

A Romanian woman javelin thrower, with bowel issues.

Seriously, you are roughly 100% wrong. And you should also give up.

elite, amateur, novice, hack?

Elite - Sub 1:52? Good college guys start around that speed and get faster...

Amateur - 1:54-1:59 D2-Great High School Runners

Novice - 2:00-2:15? Sort of the starting ground. Sub-2 MIGHT be a possibility after few years.

I don't think anyone running slower than 2:15 would classify themselves as a 800m runner....therefore hack really doesn't apply here.

I'll take a go

1:40-1:47= Elite

1:48-1:55= Amateur

1:56-2:05= Novice

2:06+= Hack

Just b/c you're in the 'Hack' category doesn't mean you can't move up. Everyone has to start somewhere.

I don't know how bad all the athletes are in america but where I come from if your not running at least 1.51 after a few years training your not going anywhere. Seriously, any chump with the least amount of tallent in the world could still run sub 2:00, is not a quick time.

How good?? wrote:

1:40-1:42 = Worlds Best

1:43-1:45 = World Class

1:46-1:48 = Elite

1:49-1:52 = Good

1:53-1:57 = Average

1:58-2:02 = Begginer

2:02+ = Hack

I would add one more classifications and a few minor changes with times:

1:40-1:42 = Worlds Best

1:43-1:45 = World Class

1:46-1:48 = Elite

1:49-1:51 = Very Good

1:52-1:55 = Good

1:56-1:59 = Average

2:00-2:05 = Beginner

2:05+ = Almost there

How good?? wrote:

1:40-1:42 = Worlds Best

1:43-1:45 = World Class

1:46-1:48 = Elite

1:49-1:52 = Good

1:53-1:57 = Average

1:58-2:02 = Begginer

2:02+ = Hack

1:43 - World champion class

1:47 - 1:44 = WC

1:53 - 1:48 = National class

1:59 - 1:49 = Elite

2:00 - 2:05 = Very Good

2:06 - 2:16 = Good

2:17 - novice

subfive wrote:

How good?? wrote:

1:40-1:42 = Worlds Best

1:43-1:45 = World Class

1:46-1:48 = Elite

1:49-1:52 = Good

1:53-1:57 = Average

1:58-2:02 = Begginer

2:02+ = Hack

1:43 - World champion class

1:47 - 1:44 = WC

1:53 - 1:48 = National class

1:59 - 1:49 = Elite

2:00 - 2:05 = Very Good

2:06 - 2:16 = Good

2:17 - novice

Not at all.

1:40-1:42 = World Best

1:43-1:45 = World Class

1:46-1:48 = Elite

1:49-1:52 = Collegiate Good/High School Best

1:52-1:59 = Collegiate Average/High School Good

2:00-2:07 = Collegiate Poor/High School Average

2:08-2:15 = High School Poor/JV Best

2:16-2:25 = JV Good/Middle School Best

2:26-2:35 = JV Average/Middle School Good

2:36-2:50 = JV Poor/Middle School Good

2:50-3:20 = JV Worst/Middle School Good

3:21-3:50 = JV Abysmal/Middle School Poor

3:51-4:30 = Middle School Poor

4:31-5:30 = Middle School Abysmal

5:31-6:30 = Borderline Pathetic

6:31-7:30 = Pathetic

7:31-8:30 = What?

8:30+ = Nice try troll.

Im guessing all the people who are posting here think they are a lot better than they really are at the 800m. Come to russia and see what times real men run not hopeless try hard chumps who think 1.55 in the 800m is a really good time.

I think it makes a big difference to these categories whether the person identifies as an 800m runner or not. For example, let's say I meet a guy at a bar, and he says he's an 800m runner. I ask his time, and he says 1:58. I'd probably raise my eyebrows a hair, nod, and say "That's decent." So I'd classify this as a decent time - not really good, not really bad.

Let's say instead I meet a guy at a bar, and he says he's an accountant who used to play basketball. He mentions that he recently raced a friend in the 800 for fun, and when I ask he says he ran 2:04. I'd probably raise my eyebrows noticeably higher than before, smile in surprise, and say "Wow, that's great!"

Given the two guys I'm imagining, I'd say 2:15 for the accountant would impress me about as much as the 1:58. Not in terms of that person's quality as a runner, of course, but just in terms of the quality of that time. If you describe yourself as an 800m runner, the standards are higher. I wonder if some of the different ideas people have on this topic might come back to this issue of what population of people we are intending to describe with our classification.

So anyway, here's my take (for a male mid-d runner):

2:30+ = I assume you're joking

2:29-2:08 = That's a healthy hobby

2:07-2:03 = Slow

2:02-1:58 = Decent

1:57-1:54 = Solid

1:53-1:51 = Really good

1:50-1:49 = Great

1:48-1:46 = It's an honor to meet you

1:45 or under = Wait, are you messing with me? What was your name again?

1:40 = Oh, of course. *That* David Rudisha.

Who gives two sh*ts? You aren't in the 1:4x's you're a joker who has no business running the race unless you are in high school and then you better be sub 1:53.

+1

I often wonder what kinds of times the people posting these kinds of things have actually run. It would seem silly to me to post that "if you aren't as fast as such and such you suck!" if said person hadn't run that themselves.

To add to the discussion, I would say that less than 1% of the human population was capable of running sub 2:00. I also feel that if you take some of the best soccer/futbol players in the world and made them run an all out 800m, some of them would break 2:00. If someone who doesn't "do" what you do is better than you at what you do, you probably aren't elite.

I've run 1:54.1, don't classify myself as an 800m guy, and feel that I'm decent at the event.

I would say that less than 5% of people run track though so it is not crazy that less than 1% of people run sub 2. Only 8 out of however many billion people live on the planet made the Olympic 800m final but that doesn't mean that if your an 800m runner you only have a 1 billionth of a percent of making the Olympic final. My PB is 1:47.36. It's not about how you compare to the rest of the world is how you compare to the best in the world. That's an original quote by yours truly right there.

I'm 100% sure that everyone here is telling the truth about their 800m times, and all the macho posturing about "if you aren't running sub 1:53 then you suck" is completely and utterly not garbage... Based purely on the number of 800m threads I've seen, the average person here runs around 2:05 - 2:15, the good ones just under 2, and the very good ones under 1:55. But these are outliers, not common and anyone who tries to pretend that 2:15 and below is a decent time in the general population is delusional or lying. Most probably the latter than the former.

*isn't* a decent time.

Yes yes of course wrote:

I'm 100% sure that everyone here is telling the truth about their 800m times, and all the macho posturing about "if you aren't running sub 1:53 then you suck" is completely and utterly not garbage... Based purely on the number of 800m threads I've seen, the average person here runs around 2:05 - 2:15, the good ones just under 2, and the very good ones under 1:55. But these are outliers, not common and anyone who tries to pretend that 2:15 and below is a decent time in the general population is delusional or lying. Most probably the latter than the former.

According to the revised AAHPER manual from 1966 (back when kids were in shape unlike today), fewer than 1% of college-age men could even run 600 yards in 1:32, 1:27 for high school seniors. Since they are certainly the fastest age groups (in the general population) over middle distance, it's safe to assume that 60 seconds over 400 meters (1:27 is 64 pace) is an upper bound for 99 percent of people, which would be equivalent to a conservative estimate of 2:14 as an upper bound for most people.

Then the percent of the population who can run sub-2 is almost certainly less than 0.1 percent, and probably less than 0.01 percent.

I bet the OP can't do 10 pullups or broad-jump 8 feet. He would have failed the President's Challenge.

Statistics! wrote:

According to the revised AAHPER manual from 1966 (back when kids were in shape unlike today), fewer than 1% of college-age men could even run 600 yards in 1:32, 1:27 for high school seniors. Since they are certainly the fastest age groups (in the general population) over middle distance, it's safe to assume that 60 seconds over 400 meters (1:27 is 64 pace) is an upper bound for 99 percent of people, which would be equivalent to a conservative estimate of 2:14 as an upper bound for most people.

Then the percent of the population who can run sub-2 is almost certainly less than 0.1 percent, and probably less than 0.01 percent.

I bet the OP can't do 10 pullups or broad-jump 8 feet. He would have failed the President's Challenge.

I can garuntee you that i broad jump 3.12m. I did it properly at the track with proper measuring and everything. And 10 pull ups, please. Thas piss weak. I could do at least 20-30