Just noticed Dick Beardsley holds world record for most PBs in the marathon... it's 13

First you would have to run 13 marathons. Then you would have to have finished all of them. Have you ever finished a marathon? Try getting better every time out, 13 consecutive times. Not so easy Chachi.

The ghost of Pat Davey wrote:

First you would have to run 13 marathons. Then you would have to have finished all of them. Have you ever finished a marathon? Try getting better every time out, 13 consecutive times. Not so easy Chachi.

I’m glad that you called OP out as the Chachi he clearly is.

I think the record is for consecutive personal bests.

Anybody who has not run a marathon could eventually break that record by starting to "run" marathons by deliberately making the first ones really really slow.

If you look at the elite or near-elite levels then he probably does hold the record. Most elites nowadays debut with about a 2:10 and there is no way to get faster the next 12 races in a row.

Interestingly, his dual with Salazar is not in the streak. He had a step back in Europe, Stockholm maybe, losing to Bill Rodgers with a 2:16, after Grandma's 1981. And he later ran Houston as a training run for Boston, losing to Benji Durden with a 2:12.

Beardsley is a really interesting guy, different from most elite runners. He ran just an awful lot of marathons, close together, during his peak, with several seriously world-contending times in a short span. And his training wasn't the highly technical scientific approach that's come to dominate the big American programs. Still on America's top ten fastest marathoners, 25 years later.

The 13 consecutive PRs is really hard to fathom given that he was in many of those races to win them - meaning he wasn't holding himself back for the purpose of maintaining a streak of PRs. His first two marathons were the only ones in that streak that he wasn't contending for the podium.

He's also inspirational for us masters runners because despite having once been the second-fastest American ever, he continues to run and to have a good time running "slow" marathons - he was still running sub-3 marathons just a few years ago. Most of the elites burn out and stop running marathons, but he's continued, running something 100 now.

stateroftheoblivious wrote:

, his dual with Salazar .

Just like those track meets?

Don't run close to your full potential each time. Run 10 minutes under the cut off first, then drop 10 minutes (or less) each time. Each second faster counts as PB. LMAO IMMA HAVE THE (guiness) WR EASY FINNA GET DAT MONEY

stateroftheoblivious wrote:

I think the record is for consecutive personal bests.

Anybody who has not run a marathon could eventually break that record by starting to "run" marathons by deliberately making the first ones really really slow.

If you look at the elite or near-elite levels then he probably does hold the record. Most elites nowadays debut with about a 2:10 and there is no way to get faster the next 12 races in a row.

Interestingly, his dual with Salazar is not in the streak. He had a step back in Europe, Stockholm maybe, losing to Bill Rodgers with a 2:16, after Grandma's 1981. And he later ran Houston as a training run for Boston, losing to Benji Durden with a 2:12.

Jeannette Faber also ran 13 consecutive PRs

He was coached by Bill Squires.

If today's guys would only talk to people like Beardsley, Hodge, et al. instead of whoever is giving them advice, perhaps more of them could run 1980s-era times.

Rob Young did that in two weeks.