BREAKING: Olympian Steve Spence hits 40 years straight of sub 5:00 in the Mile!!

"Sunken Chest" wrote: --

"As one who has fallen off the 55+ cliff, I would not put too many $ on 50 years of sub 5"

I raced against Steve in college (though I only saw the back of his jersey) and for me, age 43 is when everything fell apart, so Steve's proved that he can outlast that cliff. I would not rule out another 9 years.

"Ship Alum", please send along my congratulations to Steve -- looking forward to the 9-year countdown to his 50th.

Man on the moon wrote:

i believe the question was asked several times what race this was and to post the results.

Time trials. Hope that passes your muster.

I think Guy Arbogast was running well at the mile in his 40's or 50's.

Does anyone know what he's doing these days?

Does a time trail pass anyone's muster?

Do it in a race or it doesn't count.

Leo d c wrote:

Does a time trail pass anyone's muster?

Do it in a race or it doesn't count.

So, are you going to be the one to tell Bannister his first sub-4 didnt count?

Sunken Chest wrote:

As one who has fallen off the 55+ cliff, I would not put too many $ on 50 years of sub 5,

Tough but not impossible, Derek Turnbull has the 65+ mile record of 4:56.

Also, Spence says he's never trained/race the mile for a full out age PB, he's doing it conservatively just to break 5 mins. In otherwords, he could definitely go faster if he trained/raced harder, but doesn't want to risk injury.

Because he ran it on trails.

Bad ass! Steve spence is the man.

Not easy to find races on the track on your birthday so time trials or even paced is totally ok with me!

My 40th birthday next week and the goal is sub 5.

Last year I was 4:52 year before maybe 4:55.

I have dreams of running faster but realistically no way. Anything under 5 is pretty darn fast for me.

My new goal is sub 5 from 40-50 I will check back in 10 years!

Congrats Steve!

Barrel Chestie wrote:

Sunken Chest wrote:

As one who has fallen off the 55+ cliff, I would not put too many $ on 50 years of sub 5,

Tough but not impossible, Derek Turnbull has the 65+ mile record of 4:56.

Also, Spence says he's never trained/race the mile for a full out age PB, he's doing it conservatively just to break 5 mins. In otherwords, he could definitely go faster if he trained/raced harder, but doesn't want to risk injury.

In other words…Steve Spence has no idea what he is doing in his training with his 41 consecutive years of sub-5 minute miles. He is not really reaching his full potential.

So in other words…Steve Spence is lazy.

Thanks for clearing that up for everybody.

Leo d c wrote:

Does a time trail pass anyone's muster?

Do it in a race or it doesn't count.

Nothing is stopping you from running 41 years straight in "races" since time trials don't count. Sounds like this is Steve's thing and he isn't overly concerned about what your thoughts are. If the goal is to break 5:00 in the mile than as long as he covers the distance in the time than that's that.

bowbridge wrote:

Congratulations! It's always a pleasure to see a long time runner still hitting the mile! That's a lot of years to go Sub 5. Meanwhile, Sports Illustrated is putting Jenner on the cover. Am I the only one that things that somewhere along the line, things got screwed up?

You're absolutely right. Steve Spence should be on the cover. That'll sell magazines.

Bannister' sub 4 was in a race in a real track meet with official timers and rules.

Spence' miles are really just training runs with no official time keepers, competitors, or rules enforced.

They don't count except for a personal fitness test.

So who has the real sub 5 streak with an official sub 5 each year?

Correct. Would you accept a timed 26.219 mile training run as a marathon time? Hell no. Do it in a race or stfu.

Not real wrote:

Bannister' sub 4 was in a race in a real track meet with official timers and rules.

Spence' miles are really just training runs with no official time keepers, competitors, or rules enforced.

They don't count except for a personal fitness test.

So who has the real sub 5 streak with an official sub 5 each year?

Good enough for me. It counts.

Edit:

Great enough for me. It counts.

Not that unbelievable

A runner named Jim ONeill in the early 90s ran low 25 something for 8k at age of 53 or so. That is much better than a 454 mile. But someone that was as good as Spence was can maintain it by staying in shape speed work good diet and stay injury free

TrackCoach wrote:

I don't know how he still does that. There are a lot of guys his age who can still run a decent 5k, but most of them lost their ability to run a sub-5 mile a decade earlier. My hat is off to him, but I would be very surprised if he can still do it in the next year or two.

Spence still looks like he runs 60 miles a week too

Michiganrunner50 wrote:

A runner named Jim ONeill in the early 90s ran low 25 something for 8k at age of 53 or so. That is much better than a 454 mile. But someone that was as good as Spence was can maintain it by staying in shape speed work good diet and stay injury free

ONeill was quite an outstanding runner.

maybe you missed it. he isn't racing the mile to see how fast he can go. he's pacing for sub-5 and nothing more. he could be in 4:30 shape with some speed work for all we know.

what's impressive to me at age 56 is the streak itself - not having an injury or other break that prevented him from staying that fit. it takes so long to heal anymore, it doesn't take much to lose a year.