Who here became a good runner after first showing little to no potential? (Need stories)

galen rupp had never won an NCAA title until his senior year

I was a swimmer as a kid up until 8th grade. Fat in high school and then played no sports. In my senior year of high school I started playing basketball w my friend. Got thin then played basketball seriously for about 10 years. In my mid 30s I started running. I was extremely slow. I became obsessed and trained like mad and ran 16:49 for 5000m at age 38. My mile best is 5:02. I was never athletic and was a slightly above average swimmer.

JAKIR wrote:

I was a swimmer as a kid up until 8th grade. Fat in high school and then played no sports. In my senior year of high school I started playing basketball w my friend. Got thin then played basketball seriously for about 10 years. In my mid 30s I started running. I was extremely slow. I became obsessed and trained like mad and ran 16:49 for 5000m at age 38. My mile best is 5:02. I was never athletic and was a slightly above average swimmer.

Jakir, what's Makhloufi's take on the IAAF doping scandal?

Ran the mile in 6:08 at start of soph xc season. Had never run before.

Ran 1:55.7 and 4:16.4 as a senior. Not exactly Jim Ryun, but not bad improvement.

Wouldn't say I got "good" but I did have an improvement that surprised a few people.

I was an overweight teenager before taking up running to lose some weight at 19 years old. Went for my first 10km training run a couple of months later in something like 48-52 minutes.

Now 6 years later I'm a 32:51/ 73:40 guy and hoping to still get a bit faster.

Nop200 wrote:

Ok, so I'm writing a paper for my writing class exploring whether anyone can become a relatively good runner barring irreversible physical disabilities (by good I mean ~ low 5 in the mile, ~18-20 in the 5k for 18-30 year old males or better).

I am need of some success stories from those of you who before you started running did not think that you were capable of becoming decent.

Anybody who just did not respond to training at all?

I doesn't work that way. Read this article by David Epstein, or better yet, read his book Sports Gene.

Typical runner or sockpuppet wrote:

I doesn't work that way. Read this article by David Epstein, or better yet, read his book Sports Gene.

http://www.slate.com/articles/sports/sports_nut/2013/08/the_sports_gene_want_to_improve_your_aerobic_capacity_better_hope_you_have.html

By anyone, I mean more like 95% of people.

Anyway, I'm not sure what you mean? All I asked for was stories about how people changed as runners, in order to understand a bit better.

Age 23 - 4:09 marathon on 10-20 mpw in preceding 3 months.

Age 27 - 3:02 on 50-60 mpw.

Age 31 - 2:39 on 60-80 mpw.

Age 33 - 2:29 on 80-100 mpw.

Age 34 - 2:30 on 80-100 mpw.

I ran HS XC for 3 years and never broke 20 minutes. My senior year, I started training more and ran 18'30.

I caught the running bug that fall and began training more seriously with the hopes of running in college. I ran Division 3 and improved my PRs to 14'45 and 30'22 for 5k and 10k.

After graduating, I moved up to longer road races and found great success in the half and full marathon. I now have a deal with HOKA ONE ONE and have run 63'38 and 2'16'59 to qualify for the US Olympic Trials.

There are only a handful of other D3 graduates who have qualified for the trials and most were much better than me in college. I'm an example of someone who took a very long time to develop physically and didn't respond well to "typical" US track training that I received in college. Once I found training that worked for me and my body began to reach maturity, I've been able to stay healthy and continue improving each year.

I think there are probably many more people like me out there, but most don't have the support to encourage them to keep going, especially after college.

Started running age 16. Ran 13:10 first 3200 got lapped by everyone and made fun of..

Senior yr ran 11:10 my best time. Ran 9:45 3k that summer.

Walked on to college team. Struggled for 2 yrs running 5ks started to get burned out..

Got a new coach who let me try new events after finding out I didn't really like running high mileage and was injury prone.

Switched to the 800m. Ran 1:57 my first one and 1:51 by end of season.

Senior yr ran 1:47 made nationals

Ran 1:46 as a post collegiate before starting coaching. Was one hell of a ride

My first season of running was as an out of shape Sophomore on the track team. Struggled to break 2:30 800 and 6:00 for the mile. By Senior year got to 2:10, 4:50, and 17:50 in XC.

HS- 5:20 1600m, 11:01 3200m.

33 year old- 4:42 road mile

16:45 5K

2:42:17 marathon. Boston 2000.

after my first year of xc i never even broke 20 in the three mile. my pr was 20:06 i went from being one of the slowest on the team to running sub 17:30 while injured the next year after i worked my butt off during track/summer

1600/Mile PR's by year

Frosh(hs): 7:02

Soph: 5:59

Jr: Injured/didn't run

Sr: 4:42

Frosh (college - but not on team): 4:48

Soph: 4:34

Jr: 4:23 (on team)

Sr: Injured/didn't run

Post College:

Yr 1 - 4:29 (main focus on 800/1000m - ran 1:56/2:30)

Yr 2 - We shall see. Getting fit and shooting for 4:15.

Injuries are my downfall. I've spent a ton of time hurt. I actually think I'm pretty talented based on the times I've been able to run on the training (or lack thereof) that I do.

I was gonna mention you but was not 100 percent on back story, Keep it up!

Didn't run on any teams during middle/high school years. Finished 3rd in a PE class mile though. Gym teacher thought I should be out for XC. After high school grew a little more (close to 6'4") Started running for fun. Ran my first XC race when I was 21. Couldn't believe how fast everyone went out, ran catch the whole time to finish in top 25. Went to a big state school, math/physics double major, but kept running. When I was 23 ran 35:** on a fairly hilly 10K XC

course. Moved to NYC for grad school (math.) Entered road races in NYC's Central Park. Started seeing 33's for 10Ks in the Park. Eventually started hitting 32's and an occasional 31:** My only regret from all those years of running on my own was that I wish I had the chance to run some track 5k/10Ks when I was young and I had that fitness. Took up the triathlon over 15 years ago after learning how to swim. Earned USAT All-American status in 2007 (mainly due to my cycling/running speed.) Nowadays enter just about anything: road race, tris., open-water swims, mountain trail races, even indoor ergometer (rowing) races. At 60, the main thing is to keep training and competing.

As a freshman ran XC; first 2 1/2 mile race was in 24 minutes plus; by junior year ran 12:29; coaches were asking me questions about training in those days...

I consistently ran 21-23 minutes in the 5k as a freshman in HS. Trained my a$$ off and by the sophomore year ran 17:59 and now run in college!

Hey man,

Didn't start running until my freshman year in high school about 2-3 years ago. I started off getting forced to run because my siblings were very fast and loved the sport. At first I truly hated it, would come home complain and just be so fed up with it every day. Was a chubby little kid and then turned into someone I didn't even expect out of myself. Ended up quitting the sport I loved for running and now hold PR's such as 15:40 in the 5k this season. Started off my freshman year with a 24 minute 5k. Running made me into a completely different person for some reason and to be honest I have no clue why, I guess I just love the constant improvement and competition.