MALCOLM GLADWELL 5th Avenue Mile - 4:54

He also ran 3:58.12 for the mile in college for his club track team. First club runner under 4.

Great job, MG!

David vs. Goliath, indeed!

Facts Facts wrote:

He also ran 3:58.12 for the mile in college for his club track team. First club runner under 4.

Great job, MG!

David vs. Goliath, indeed!

No that was Dave Reid, a runner he beat as a junior.

Malcolm Galdwell has an Olympic Gold for Canada in the 1500!

I am just a bill wrote:

EPO is my middle name wrote:

There's a great Wall Street Journal article about it.

http://online.wsj.com/articles/malcolm-gladwell-versus-the-five-minute-mile-1410485887

The fact that you consider these few paragraphs to be a "great article" concerns me.

The fact that you consider your personal opinion to be the "opinion of others" concerns me.

Opionated wrote:

I am just a bill wrote:

The fact that you consider these few paragraphs to be a "great article" concerns me.

The fact that you consider your personal opinion to be the "opinion of others" concerns me.

I have no idea what you are trying to say. When did I say anything about the opinion of others?

Malcolm Gladwell Runs wrote:

Thank you for recognizing my performance. Though I wish I could have run under 4:50. Alas we can not all raise chickens on diets of sour gummy worms and apple juice.

Great job by Gladwell. Very Impressive. Something all us old guys should look up to.

Of course if I wasn't hurt, I would have beaten him. (Caveat being that if Dave Reid was there, he would have beaten us both.)

next year!!! :)

Signed: Old Canadian runner, who used to be fast back when they had VCR's.

had to look up the results to the '91 pre meet--did not know you had that on your resume.fifth ave is on my bucket list, having never done it back in the day--maybe i'll see you out there next year...

1991premilechamp wrote:

Great job by Gladwell. Very Impressive. Something all us old guys should look up to.

Of course if I wasn't hurt, I would have beaten him. (Caveat being that if Dave Reid was there, he would have beaten us both.)

next year!!! :)

Signed: Old Canadian runner, who used to be fast back when they had VCR's.

Prefontaine 1991 Mile results (sorry Doug):

Canadians 1-2-3:

Doug Consiglio (3:59.8)

Graeme Fell (held Cdn Steeple record before Matt Hughes)

Andy Klassen

Gladwell was good, but not that good, though perhaps he could have been if he'd had prescience regarding 10,000 hours.

I can't remember his exact words, but i believe he said taht at an early age (teens) he realized the amount of work/pain/pressure required to be an elite was not something he wanted to endure, so simply stopped/cut-back on serious running and focus his efforts on other endeavors.

This may have been a loss for the running world (only to resurface again in Masters), but a gain for the literature world.

I'm guessing the Gladwell has made a lot more money from writing than he ever would have made from running.

Let me Guess wrote:

I'm guessing the Gladwell has made a lot more money from writing than he ever would have made from running.

Yes, he even has the wherewithal (and intelligence) to have left the GWN for NYC.

dammnnnn --- respect!!!!

Wait, I still have a VCR

I had a funny encounter with Gladwell after a race (an 800) way back when we were both 15. Being more of a distance guy, I tried to get the jump on him with a hard move at 500m. I gapped him by 5-10m, but he stil managed to run me down in the final few meters. When doing the usual "good race" exchange a few seconds later, he said "I really thought you had me. Good thing I was practicing my last 50m all this week!" I didn't have the best coaching in those days, but I still thought this sounded pretty dumb. Malcolm didn't do much after that summer, and he had never done well in X-C. My hunch is that with better coaching (i.e. a little more easy volume) at the right stage of his development, he might have made a better go of it. The guy was super smooth and fast, and obviously loved the sport (still does, and his failure to get to the top levels still seems to haunt him a bit, in spite of the obviously huge compensation of having become a best selling author!). I guess this is the story of a lot of early phenoms, minus the celebrity author stuff, of course.

Malcolm Gladwell Runs wrote:

Thank you for recognizing my performance. Though I wish I could have run under 4:50. Alas we can not all raise chickens on diets of sour gummy worms and apple juice.

Can or cannot, there is no can not.

[quote]socal cush wrote:

had to look up the results to the '91 pre meet--did not know you had that on your resume.

fifth ave is on my bucket list, having never done it back in the day--maybe i'll see you out there next year...

Cush:

Dam it, if you go next year that will put me back one more place!! Let's make plans to lace them up then.Be awesome to meet up again. Don't think you will be in the same age group as us though. You half a century yet?

i'll be 47 by next year's race--do they run the masters by age groups, or do they run one race? we may have to go by age-grading for who buys the first round afterwards...

I didn't see it mentioned here but Nolan Shaheed ran 5:07 at age 65 (94.51 AG to 3:56).

Wonder what these guys would have run on the track.

Gladwell is English.

MG,

If you happen to see this thread again, I just read the brief article in RW about your 4:54. Congrats. You mention that LSD runs of around 9+ miles have been very beneficial. How many miles do you run in a typical week, and about what % is long & slow? Any plans for a half or full marathon?