Obviously winning does not measure ability equally. No one thinks the local 5k champ running 17 is as admirable as a diamond league champ.
We're talking about wins because it's a unique experience.
Obviously winning does not measure ability equally. No one thinks the local 5k champ running 17 is as admirable as a diamond league champ.
We're talking about wins because it's a unique experience.
5 road races. Not a single finishing tape.
And I'm not even that fast.
James Baker in the UK is a race winning machine. He's nothing short of a legend around here. Some say he races far too often, some say he never reached his full potential, but no one can argue
590 race wins is a helluva lot.
Some of them are worthwhile races, some of them are silly charity runs he really shouldn't have been at, but Christ alive! That's a massive amount!
Does anyone know of anyone with any more than Baker?
http://www.thepowerof10.info/athletes/profile.aspx?athleteid=3369
Age 29 Now.
HS 5K XC races - 2
HS 3K track races - 2
Walk-on at DI program - 0
Post College- one 5K with ~50 people, one 10K with ~200 people, and one half marathon with ~900 people. About 10-12 other 2nd or 3rd place finishes.
Several national championships, but that's not hard considering the small country I live in.
186 on the track
105 on the road
21 in cross country
2 on the trail
5 on snowshoes
319 total
first across the line, no age group or heats.
Hm, let me see here:
High School:
First race I ever won was the unseeded section of a mile, won as a junior. Senior year I won the mile and 2 mile in 5-6 home meets that really didn't count (a lot were wire to wire wins)
College:
Won my section of a mile once if you count that. Otherwise none.
Road races:
-5 mile race my freshman year of college
-A 5k road race two years in a row run by my school district. Second time was a day after a 10k PR on the track.
-Another 5k road race run by the local running organization.
About 40 in high school
About 15 in college (mostly track, some road races, some relays)
Maybe 5 after college (road races)
About 60-65 wins. I've probably run 350 races.
By the end of college, I'd probably run about 175 and won about 45 - 50.
Last win, a road race over 5K in Golden Gate park at age 38, a few years back. Field of just under 200.
Not counting age group wins.
I would guess I won maybe 20-30 races in two years of HS track and 3 years of XC (3A school out of 3A we raced at least once a week)
In college I remember winning at least one race. I was never the fastest member on our team so I don't know that I won more than that. I won a ton of track races, there was an indoor season I won every single race I entered. Over all four years I'd guess 30. (NAIA school)
After college I've won the female division of about 15 5k-10k road races. I've won overall once (kinda embarrassing for the dudes).
So that puts me around 65 wins.
Not including relays or finals-on-time heats but including league/dual/tri/quad meets, at least 15 that I can remember specifically, probably closer to 25, maybe upwards of 35. I raced a lot in high school and many of the smaller meets blur together now.
I've won a cross-country race, a championship indoor track race, a championship outdoor track race, a road race, and once anchored a championship relay.
But the best was winning a Sunday road race only to be handed a 1st place medal bearing the name of the large cross-country invitational I'd only finished 26th in the day before. I still have in a box a 1st and 26th place medal from the same meet, because one was really a leftover medal that someone had lying around and reused. My teammate who finished second in the road race made out well as he hadn't even earned a medal the day before and walked away with a shiny silver.
But probably like many people here I've also won trophies for top-X finishes in local road races that felt embarrassing at the time and walked away with no hardware at all for much faster finishes over the same course in different years. You only get to race the people who show up, right?
I won my first race ever in a novice meet as a sophomore in hs in a pedestrian 5:04 PR. It was my first time ever at the front of a race so I had no idea what to do and just followed the two kids in front of me until I saw my coach telling me to go with 400 left, and i buried them and a lot left, ended up running a lot faster later that season, but in an actual race so I didn't win. After that I got stuck in easy races for points and won like four more in a row.
I won a few my junior year I think, more slow, easy races at dual meets to score points.
Senior year I think I only won two since I started running tougher races to actually try to do something
Since then, I don't think I've won one.
That puts me at 9. Hope to add more soon.
Around 25. One steeple, one marathon, 10 ultras from 50K to 100K and around 10 - 15 road races. Since I am age 62 and now run like crap I doubt that there will be any more wins.
One legit race.
1000 runners...5k
Sprinted past the two leaders over final tenth of a mile to win. That night it was on the local news sports wrap. The next day I was mobbed at work.
One in high school, 2 mile at a 5 way pre season meet, senior year
One at Junior College, Steeple at a small invite
One at NCAA D2 level, won my heat of a 1500
One outright road race win 5k (400 ish entrants)
One outright road race win 10k (700 ish entrants)
A few age group things, but after about 28 years old I didn't really race anymore, so I haven't had a chance to rock and roll against the oldies.
One of my proudest moments was an age group win. Won 16 and under division of a road 10k in 39:20 when I was 14, right at the end of my freshman year of hs. Felt really good about that because I had only barely been able to sneak under 12 min for the 2 mile during my frosh year of track, but trained for 1 month on my own after the season, taking my mileage up to 50 mpw and had probably the best race of my life relative to my abilities at the time.
3 (2 high school cross country comps, 1 public)
Is it worth me mentioning I seem to be one of those guys that somehow seem to finish 2nd a lot?
13. Mostly small 5Ks, with two 10Ks, a 2-mile road race, and a 5-miler. Ironically, only one of those races was anywhere close to my best time for the distance.
5 since college. 1 5k, 2 10k's, 1 marathon, 1 mountain race. Never broken tape. Won a few really weak track races in high school/college.
Tadpole wrote:
^ So your answer is zero?
NOOOO...I answered this already, and it's enough that I stopped counting.
Probably 6 or 7 total. Like others have said, a couple of my wins were really slow races where I used my kick. I remember winning an 800 in 2:11 and also won a 5K with 200 runners in 20:30 a couple of years ago (tactical race with a huge pack looking around at each other until the last 500 meters when I took off). All of my PRs were set in faster races where I basically got crushed but there were plenty of fast people around me to pull me through to a good time.
Bad Wigins wrote:
The same dude could jog 4:24 for points. And we had a sub-9:20 guy in 3200. There was a 1:57 guy on my team too. We had a sub-8 relay but another school in our district had a faster one. Most of them had a 4:2x or 9:2x guy too.
That's what it's like competing in the high-enrollment division. Every school had 3000+ students and was well funded. Nobody won all their races, except on the girls' side there was a superstar every few years.
ok, that explains it. You had a serious squad and a serious no-joke conference. what state?
Most people did not compete against that type of comp in dual meets. Quite a few people wouldn't even face guys like that their all-state meets.
My school had 1000 students max.
What is the threshold that separates a "hobbyjogger" from a "sub-elite" runner?
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