44 year old slob goes down to local track and runs 6:17 mile

OP is a jealous jerk that sucks at running and has an eating disorder.

Dude, why post on here? Don't you know that everyone on here runs around 4 for the mile? You are lucky I am in a good mood or else I would have called you an idiot and told you that my kids all broke 6 when they were 8 years old. That is very true, but I'm in a good mood today so forget this last part and be happy for your hobby jogger fatty. Next time skip the hobby jogger part and say he is a two pack a day smoker and then you might get someone's attention.

You got schnookered! He set you up and knocked you down.

He was a former high mileage college runner...who knows how fast?

I had a college 400m teammate who ran low 46's in his early 20's.

When he was 35 and overweight, some hot-shot marathoner in our town, not knowing his background, bet him $100 that he couldn't break 3:00 for 800m.

The guy cruised a 2:09 laughing all the way.

4:30.

No he doesn't

Oh yes I agree, I was talking *potential*. The guy obviously has talent (assuming not a troll post). I forgot the part where he is 44, so I'll adjust to 4:41 with dedicated training, under 10% BF, etc.. Which conveniently puts him one second over my masters' PR ;)

the mollusk wrote:

4:30.

No he doesn't

Yeah, running can be very humbling. In 2007, after 5-6 years of not running, I started training again. Got to the point that I was feeling decent about running again and entered into a few races. One of the races was just a local 5k. I got got beaten by an old fat (for a runner) guy that looked like Rod Stewart on crack. The race was in New Orleans and come to find out that this guy was a Rod Stewart look-a-like named Desmond O'Connor. Some may know Desmond. He was one of University of Arkansas first imported distance runners. https://www.athlinks.com/athletes/99816970

7:15 minute mile. would be about average. He's got some past running experience from his younger years which helps

Your answer is in your own post. He has a serious running background. One of my college running buddies is 6'2 and a big guy. He ran about 15:20 5k in college and weighed 190 then. Now, at 45, he weighs 240, but can still run in the 19:00 range on 10-15mi/wk. In his mind, 6:00 miles is no big deal and his body has gone through those motions so many times it is still possible even out of shape. Background is more important than current physical appearance.

Stunned wrote:

He said he only runs "quality" every day. In high school and college he says was a good runner and ran high mileage.

Stunned wrote:

I said AVERAGE male. The guy never runs more than 2 miles per day. HE HAS A BELLY. WTF?

Find out how good he was in college and which college he competed for. And post that information here for us to decipher. He may be a natural talent and the miles in college burnt him out.

Just because he has a beer belly doesn't mean he doesn't have sound running form.

Fat has-beens are a lose-lose: They are a shadow of their former selves and have to be bummed about that, and yet make less-talented, harder working people they beat feel like crap.

Just life I guess.

post-race urine test?

But did he have a belly?

I'm impressed, I'm 6'1 191-2, around 15-16% BF and am not really any faster at 43

6:03 was my best mile this year [in a set of mile repeats, I was going pretty hard tho], about a 21 flat 5K is all I got also.

no excuses, I'm just slow lol. Maybe 15-20 mpw or so

working wrote:

Some people have natural talent.

+1

Dat's it!

not that surprised wrote:

thus, this is why 6-packs don't matter

Stunned wrote:

I said AVERAGE male. The guy never runs more than 2 miles per day. HE HAS A BELLY. WTF?

But 6" girth, at least, matters A LOT-- don't kid yourself.

Green Doc wrote:

Am I the only one who's impressed? Clearly he has some talent, and if he shed 30-50 lbs in a safe and gradual way that included a healthy diet with lots of high mileage intermixed with speed work, I would venture to say he would be quite good.

If I were you, I would pep talk and encourage your friend to take up running more seriously. Lose the gut, lift weights, run high mileage, do track speed work.

Next time, test his sprints to have a fuller picture of his abilities.

Other than for health reasons - man diet is way more important than mileage for losing weight - why would he want to do this? Why would he want to spend all that time on high mileage? So he could run a 4:40 (or whatever)? Who cares?

"and" diet, not "man" diet. That's something else completely...

I have a really, really difficult problem with this type of logic. Throughout my life, I have always been judged on something about my looks and so bringing appearance into running is about as petty as one can be.First of all, let me be one of the many who is not sympathetic to your tears of woe for being shown up since those tears are about as crocodile as you can get since your depth of character is about as shallow as the everglades.You seriously judged someone purely by their looks and then purported to establish their ability by those looks?In 2001, When I was 5'8" and weighed about 183, which is similar in BMI to your guy, I was assisting in a track and field class and took the group out in what would amount to a 6:15 mile at a true 400m track at a high school campus.Furthermore, as I am still at a BMI around 27, I was able to put a 5:57 first mile split into a 5K race at the age of 41 in 2015. That race resulted in a 19:35, a time of which I am very proud. I am not skinny. I am not slender. I currently weigh 168 pounds on a 5'8" frame. When I raced the 19:35, I weighed 5 pounds more than that.If running needs to be reduced to a shallow pithy judgment sport by you, then you are don't need to do this sport. I hope, for the love of god, that this will be the last time you -ever- judge someone's running ability by their looks.I really have nothing else to say to you. I wish you nothing.Mike

Man,

I'm just getting over Desmond OConner!

If you would have told me that guy could smoke me, I'd have lost a large amount.

I wonder if he can swim at all, because I'd love to hire him as a ringer and go thrash some rich Triathletes.

Can't you imagine him showing up with a beer and smoking a cig, then busting off 5:40 miles!