Most comical positive split you've ever seen?

Letsbang wrote:

Saw a guy go 50.6/73 for a 2:03 800 at a college meet earlier this spring.

At the 2015 Nationals Duane Solomon went out in 49, was still moving at 600, and then...he finished in 3:08.74. 49/2:19

In high school there was a kid from another school who would take every 1600 or 3200 out in 60-65 and then slow to 80-90 sec. laps. Then he would blast the last lap in whatever time was necessary. He won state opening with about a 62 and then closing in about 59, running 9:55ish.

My senior year of high school I was running the 3200 at Regionals. Had already ran the 4x8 and the 1600. Went out in 4:52 and after the mile had the blow up of all blowups. Ran 11:23. So second mile was 6:31. Coach clocked my last lap in 1:59. Totally a mental breakdown, and definitely the worst positive split of my career

vlt. wrote:

Duane Solomon at US trials?

Agree - and partly because he made such the big deal about going out fast before the race

All you distance guys. Sprinter in college tried the 4x400 for the first time at a December meet. 23/60. Finished his split with a 1:23. He left to play baseball after that.

800metresrunner wrote:

i once did something similar, 121 for the first 600, 37 for the last 200

Me too. Identical splits even.

Must be something many people go through when they and/or their coach aggressively try to pursue PRs or trials standards..

Lelisa Desisa in the Breaking 2 attempt!

Seems like every year you get a kid who races the 400, but has never raced the 800. He thinks he can keep it up for another lap without falling off pace too badly. Nope!

a guy at my hs was winning the state meet until 80 meters to go. he opened up with 60/61 in the 1600m and then came through 204 and then 209, but he was thrashed and got 5th with 4:29 :) he got beat by 4 people in the last 80, and his last 110 meters was 8 flat mile pace. He won the next year like a man tho.

Ha! I have one of my own to share. It was at our XC conference meet, the first I had run in over a month and only after about 2 weeks of light training. Before the injury I was doing pretty well, and ran a PR of 16:40. Split about a 5:10, which was normal for me, and experienced pure hell over the next 2.1 miles, and finished the race in 19:45 for almost 200th place. After that race I honestly had no fear, because I knew I would probably never be in more pain while running than I had been in during the race.

I saw two guys get the baton dead even on the anchor leg of the 4x800 in a county meet in upstate NY in the late 1990's. It was an epic race. Both teams finished in about 7:45 or thereabouts, which is very good for high school. Anyway, one of the anchors went out in 50, immediately putting a ton of distance on the other, who went out in 57. The 50 came back in 64, and the 57 came back in 57 (both ran 1:54) with the 57-57 outleaning the 50-64 for the win.

Doubtful Pre Doubtful wrote:

I saw a kid run the first 400 in 50 and came home in 65 to win a state 800 title.

He was almost 80 yards ahead at the 400 mark! He won by a few inches.

At an all comers local meet 5-6 years back, some dude took the 3200 out in 59-60, next alp about 2 minutes and then dropped out

Ultramarathon 50 mile.

First 25 miles 3:58

Second 25 miles 5:22

Good news is I was still 18th overall out of 200 and only 4-5 people passed me in the second half! HOT day.

1:33/1:55 in a marathon. it. hurt. bad. lol

Did not think one could really positive split on a 300m race until I saw this 16 years old guy running 11.xx for the first 100, passing throught 200m in 24, and while pushing until the end crossing the line in 68s! 11-13-44!!!

Me. 1979 San Blas Half Marathon. It was hot and humid as hell that day. Myrus Yifter won it in 1:04:52

My First 10k: 35:15

Completed the 21k in 1:38:53

Do the math!!

Joshua Cheptegei at World xC:

Ran 9K at 2:50/km

Ran the last K in 4:15

Embarrassing!!!

One of my teammates ran in an indoor 3200 (16 laps) in a slow heat as a freshman. He lost track of laps so he stopped with one lap to go even though the winner has not finished yet and did not get lapped (I think that he was trailing the leader by about 100m and was in 6th-7th place in his heat). Anyway, he stopped for like 5 seconds then realized his mistake and just jogged it in thinking, "f**k it." I recall his 3000m split as a 10:38 and he finished in 11:43 meaning that he ran about 5:40 pace (respectable for a mid-distance freshman runner without proper training) for the first 15 laps but the last lap at 8:40 PACE!! He's only done one 3200 since that moment last year haunted by his mistake. The funny thing is that he ran 10:38 in his next and only other attempt.

I remember a Kenyan at Boston in the early 90's opening in about 1:05, and finishing in 3 hours. I remember commenting afterward that it was pretty studly of him to suck it up and finish when virtually all other elites would have just DNF'd.