An out of shape, past his prime, guy goes to the local track and runs a 400M. I actually did this. What time?

Thin and alone wrote:

It took me 59.2 seconds. Oh yeah!

I don't believe it.

Because the name you posted under is not registered, anyone can post using that name. In fact, I'm using it for this post.

Guys, here is a factual report of what happened.

There was some wind, temp was 40s, cloudy. I was kind of nervous about pulling a muscle or hurting myself. I have not done any "fast" running in many years. Any basketball with my kids would be just shooting around playing PIG etc. Randomly, one of the kids and I would "race" to the mailbox but I am not sure I would call that fast running.

Back in college I would consider myself more of an endurance runner vs. a speed runner. I ran a 53 400M as part of a rely and my 800M was 1:57. I also ran CC and the 5000M sometimes.

For those of you asking if the track was 400M, it was. I went to the line and hit my Timex (Ironman) stop watch. I was going to just run and not look at the 200M split. There was nobody at the track...so no High School kids to laugh at me!

I started out conservatively (again nervous of getting hurt). On the back stretch I started to pick it up, actually feeling pretty good.

At 200M - I DROPPED THE HAMMER!!! and started to push myself. Around the final turn I was on my toes. The feeling of being back in college the 30 years and 30 pounds ago was returning.

On the homestretch, I was driving my arms hard. I felt the old familiar feeling of my lungs and chest starting to burn as I hungered for oxygen. My legs started to become heavy, but I drove myself to the finish. I lunged for glory at the line and my face contorted with anguish.

I hit my stop watch as my lungs where searing. I rested my hands on my knees and gulped for air. Started to feel a little dizzy so I cupped my hands behind my neck and forced myself to walk as my chest heaved.

Once I regained my senses I eagerly looked at my watch and.....

85 seconds!!!

WTF?!? I thought I would be somewhere in the 70s like maybe 75. Embarrassed, I looked around to make sure nobody saw me (no - nobody still there). So I did my hobby jog back to the YMCA and got my old balding broken body back to my car and went home.

It was way harder then I thought, I will try this again some other time in the future when the weather is a little nicer and maybe I can wear some racing flats in the hopes of crushing the magical 80 sec mark.

So, is that time slow enough to motivate you to run more?

I believe 59 seconds makes sense. Anyone who is a good athlete should be able to run sub 60 seconds for a quarter, even with minimal or perhaps no distance running training. Too many uncoordinated distance running geeks don't understand athletic ability, and thus struggle to break 70 for a quarter after they take a week off. Too much time pvssying around on their I phone as a kid and not enough outside play time gaining coordination and athletic ability for the geeks.

I was going to say 84! Damn!

Your account of the run made me laugh. Your mentioning of the "being back in college 30 years and 30 pounds ago" is something that I think we all experience as we age. I was a decent runner in high school (4:20 1600m), and now 10 years later I find myself occasionally on a run where I have that feeling of being a young man again. Then of course I look down and see my 8:00 mile and jog my out-of-shape butt back home.

Real$$$swag wrote:

I believe 59 seconds makes sense. Anyone who is a good athlete should be able to run sub 60 seconds for a quarter, even with minimal or perhaps no distance running training.

Incorrect.

50+ with 30 years of no stretching will leave you with a tiny stride length.

50+ with 30 years of no sprinting will leave you with no turnover.

50+ with 30 years of no endurance work will leave you gasping after 15 seconds of sprinting. (Look at weightlifters around you, they get exhausted trying to jump rope for a minute.)

That's actually really good, most people your age probably couldn't jog a 400 esp considering u have just been living normally for the last 30 yr

Thanks for the lengthy and honest post. Really enjoyed it.

Thin and alone wrote:

Once I regained my senses I eagerly looked at my watch and.....

85 seconds!!!

THIN AND ALONE IS BACK BABY!!!!!!

Very believable. That was going to be my guess - something near 80 or 90 seconds.

I'm in the same boat. Except for the part about trying again. Once you are past 40 running fast aint gonna happen without some pretty serious commitment. And my serious commitments are to things other than running these days.

47 secons

Sorry I believe 47 seconds was possible for world class ex Olympic sprinters at 52, but it appears that they aren't running.

50-54 51.39 Fred Sowerby 1948-Dec-11 50 Orlando, Florida 1999-Aug-27 USATF Masters Championships

55-59 52.24 Charles Allie 1947-Aug-20 55 Carolina, Puerto Rico 2003-Jul-12 World Masters Athletics Championships

60-64 54.29 Charles Allie 1947-Aug-20 61 Raleigh, North Carolina 2009-May-02 Southeastern Masters Meet

65-69 56.09 Charles Allie 1947-Aug-20 65 Raleigh, North Carolina 2013-May-18 USATF Southeast Region Championships

Speed Endurance:

"I believe MOST athletes run within 4 seconds from open to M40, then it’s 2 seconds ATTRITION every 5 years.

Yes, we are looking at an absolute loss of 0.35 to 0.40 seconds EVERY YEAR for the 400m. Sad, but true.

So, if a World class runner (i.e. Sunder Nix, Elvis Forde) ran 44 sec @open, then he would run 48 sec @M40, and 52 @M50. (Sunder Nix ran 49.91 in Eugene 2003)"

I did the same thing (come back from a long stretch) when I was 28 and ran a 74 and was really proud of myself at the time - wow did that feel fast. My guess was going to be low 80s.

I just want to let everyone know that the real answer is 85 seconds. The post below does indeed come from the same computer as the first post in this thread.

so you went home DEVASTATED!

Thank you Rojo

awesome post- Hope we can see more stuff like this on LR.