Did Dave Bedford really drink 3-4 pints every night?

Carbonated wrote:

“I ran 200 miles a week and drank three to four pints every night, and that was the same for every runner I knew.”

http://allaboutbeer.com/article/the-thirstiness-of-the-long-distance-runner/

Is this an exaggeration? That's at least 6 standard drinks per night (2.2 per pint).

We all drank a couple of pints. It was the culture of the day. Pile in the miles , drink a few at night.

If this British guy is anything to go by, this must have been easy stuff for the bloke. http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=8616002&page=2#

Didn't Frank Shorter knock down 2 liters of beer the night before his Olympic gold run in Munich?

As a college guy in the 70s, I still remember plenty of beers, have to wonder whether the PRs might have been a bit faster without all the suds?

Trex wrote:

Exaggerated like everything else from the 70's & 80's. In reality, Beford probably ran 200 miles in a week once in his lifeon a dodgily measured route and drank a few beers a few nights a week but those guys were tough as nails in their own imagination.

Bedford did not run in the '80s, but he sure ran in the '70s. He was "tough as nails" in everyone's imagination, except apparently yours. He did not routinely run 200 mpw, but he did run high mileage be anyone's estimation.

HE was top-10 all-time in 1970 with this:

28:06.2 David Bedford GBR 30.12.49 1 Warszawa 12.09.1970

HE was 2nd-fastest all-time in world history in 1971 with this:

27:47.0 David Bedford GBR 30.12.49 1 Portsmouth 10.07.1971

28:04.33 David Bedford GBR 30.12.49 6 Helsinki 10.08.1971

Then he ran some quality times in 1972:

27:52.44 David Bedford GBR 30.12.49 1 London 15.07.1972

27:53.64 David Bedford GBR 30.12.49 2h1 München 31.08.1972

28:05.44 David Bedford GBR 30.12.49 6 München 03.09.1972

Then he set the WR and was the first to run 27:30 in 1973 (previous fastest was 27:38 in '72):

27:30.80 David Bedford GBR 30.12.49 1 London 13.07.1973

So I would believe him about something regarding himself before I would believe you about anything. When you are 2nd and 1st all-time in an Olympic event I will hear what you have to say.

Dave Bedford is my role model lol. I want to run 200 mpw and drink tons of beer everyday with other running buddies when I grow up.

No, they all exaggerate. It has nothing to do with his achievements or anything else but they all do it. I take all these claims with the same grain of salt that I take with all the 70 and 80's guys and their sketchy PRs.

Trex wrote:

No, they all exaggerate. It has nothing to do with his achievements or anything else but they all do it. I take all these claims with the same grain of salt that I take with all the 70 and 80's guys and their sketchy PRs.

Could you elaborate? You sound crazy?

The Overexplainer wrote:

Trex wrote:

No, they all exaggerate. It has nothing to do with his achievements or anything else but they all do it. I take all these claims with the same grain of salt that I take with all the 70 and 80's guys and their sketchy PRs.

Could you elaborate? You sound crazy?

I'm not sure how you describe those thoughts as crazy. Before any gps or accurate measurements, short courses were noturious during those time periods (The New York marathon was even short at one time but you can garuntee some guy is out there flaunting it as his PR). Not even New York but other small races were a lot more likely to be short and you see old guys with 70 minute half prs and 15.30 5k prs claiming to have a sub 30 10k. Stuff like that.

It's not out of the ordinary at all, talk to runners of that generation and a lot will tell you courses were short but many others claim prs from those races. Poor measurement of training routes and such along with tails of mileage they never done. Everyone exaggerated their training mileage, you hear runners saying they ran 150 miles when they might have done it once in their life and more realistically were doing 130. Those guys were tough no doubt but my comment about tough in their imagination was that they make themselves out to be tougher over the years. Nostalgia has hazed reality for many.

It happens all the time and isn't just something runners are guilty off, it just that stories have a way of evolving over time.

Don't know what any of that has to do with Dave Bedford running 200 mpw or drinking a lot? But thank you for filling me in.

GPS doesn't measure courses now, and it never has. The only marks I take as "certified" are track marks whether they were in 1965 or 2018. All road marks are approximate, indoor tracks also. I don't expect everyone to feel the same.

Even track marks are not created equal. The Chinese WRs were never witnessed by anyone outside of China and they were not ever duplicated outside of China. Even the Women's 10K outdoor WR didn't have a curb in place during the race.

BTW, inflating your ability is definitely not limited to the runners from the '70s and '80s. It is actually done much more now that bragging on social media is so important to people. IF you grew up in the '80s you would know that.

This kind of thing sounds crazy:

"Poor measurement of training routes and such along with tails of mileage they never done. "

I never said gps did measure courses, I meant that courses were notoriously short in that era and no one said nothing because they never had anything to give a reflection. How can you not connect the dots of exaggeration and short training routes and bedford? Many people went out on routes in the day that they thought were 10 miles but in reality weren't, they didn't know.

I don't even want to get into Chinese 10000m WR's. That is the proverbial rabbit hole of a site like letsrun where all the evidence points to it actually happening but no one listening to the facts. I swear my iq drops a few deviations everytime I try to have a debate on this site.

Woodsman wrote:

800 dude wrote:

Also English ale is typically very low alcohol.

It isn't really. Typical English ales have ABV's of around 4%, compared with 4.5-5% for many american lagers.

Crucially though, although the biggest selling beer today is Carling, a lager, the English ales I assume he would have been drinking in the 1970s would have been less fizzy, which would work better with running.

).

A lot of real ales have ABV of 3 or 3.5%. Even drinking 4% vs 5% is a big difference in terms of how it effects a person (specifically me). But drinking 3% beers? Try it. It’s almost impossible to drink enough 3% beer to feel drunk. I’ve spent many an afternoon in pubs in England drinking real ale, not getting drunk and having no ill effects on my morning run.

Certainly they happened!!

The top-SIX 3000m times in world history all occurred 25 years ago and since then the closest anyone has come to the WR is 14.5 seconds back (such a small amount in a 3000m!!). None of them ever repeated the ability to run 8:06, 8:12, or 8:20 ever again, BEFORE or SINCE. Nobody has run under 8:20!!

Only THREE Chinese women in world history (outside of Ma's Army and outside of 1993) ever cracked the top 1100 times in the event and they did it all in 2000. Seems legitimate?

Look over this All-Time List and you will be convinced!!

1 8:06.11 Wang Junxia CHN 09.01.73 1 Beijing 13.09.1993

2 8:12.18 Qu Yunxia CHN 25.12.72 2 Beijing 13.09.1993

3 8:12.19 Wang Junxia CHN 09.01.73 1h2 Beijing 12.09.1993

4 8:12.27 Qu Yunxia CHN 25.12.72 2h2 Beijing 12.09.1993

5 8:16.50 Zhang Linli CHN 06.03.73 3 Beijing 13.09.1993

6 8:19.78 Ma Liyan CHN 03.11.68 3h2 Beijing 12.09.1993

7 8:20.68 Helen Obiri KEN 13.12.89 1 Ad-Dawhah 09.05.2014

8 8:21.14 Mercy Cherono KEN 07.05.91 2 Ad-Dawhah 09.05.2014

9 8:21.26 Ma Liyan CHN 03.11.68 4 Beijing 13.09.1993

10 8:21.42 Gabriela Szabo ROU 14.11.75 1 Monaco 19.07.2002

11 8:21.64 Sonia O'Sullivan IRL 28.11.69 1 London 15.07.1994

12 8:21.84 Zhang Lirong CHN 03.03.73 5 Beijing 13.09.1993

13 8:22.06 Zhang Linli CHN 06.03.73 1h1 Beijing 12.09.1993

14 8:22.20 Paula Radcliffe GBR 17.12.73 2 Monaco 19.07.2002

15 8:22.22 Almaz Ayana ETH 21.11.91 1 Rabat 14.06.2015

16 8:22.34 Almaz Ayana ETH 21.11.91 1 Zürich 03.09.2015

17 8:22.44 Zhang Lirong CHN 03.03.73 2h1 Beijing 12.09.1993

18 8:22.62 Tatyana Kazankina RUS 17.12.51 1 Leningrad 26.08.1984

19 8:23.11 Almaz Ayana ETH 21.11.91 1 Ad-Dawhah 06.05.2016

20 8:23.14 Helen Obiri KEN 13.12.89 1 Monaco 21.07.2017

Omg, why do I do this. Firstly for a man/woman who likes their stats and quotes them everywhere, you are wrong about 8:20. Genzebe Dibaba ran 8.16 two years ago indoor. You don't know this because you focus so much of those little lists of yours.

Secondly, everyone knows that they were pumped full of Epo and steroids and tortured in training. All those times were run in the Chinese national championships in their home country under a state funded doping program. They were not tested for anything. Everyone knows this and knows the times are not legitimate.

There was no short track or 24 lap race, they actually ran those times but were on a big concoction of drugs. Simple!

Here, feel free to share your stupidity in that thread. I'm not listening to anything more from you.

Courses are not measured now by GPS

They are measured with a wheel the same as they were back then

You would have some courses which were not accurately measured. They would have titles like the the Barnsley '6'. Some were long some were short none would count as a pb.

Most of the pb's from the 70's and 80's are from track as there is not much data from that period.

7/10 of these top 10 all ranked UK 10,000m times are from the 1970's and 1980's. On average they were faster and ran faster on both track and road

It does though make me laugh nowadays with people grassing themselves up from their GPS time . Getting the course re-measured as 50m short then complaining that their 2 hour half doesn't not count anymore.

Why does everyone on here turn small molehills in the point into mountains and disregard the main point? I know courses are not measured with gps now and never were, I never said they were and I know gps doesn't accurately measure courses run either but it does have some validity on courses which are 400 metres short and the 70s and 80s were notorious for short courses never measured by jones counter.

I also know they were faster and ran more mileage in that era but it takes nothing away from the fact that most of them exaggerate the facts and that many people from that era claim prs on known short courses. The nostalgia is strong in them which is why I take all these claims with a pinch of salt.

WHICH courses from the 70s and 80s were short and how do you know? You mention New York and it was short for a while. We all knew that the Springbank 12 in London, ON. was really 11.6 so even though we called it 12 miles no one would give their time from the race as a 12 mile PR. There was a marathon in Auckland one year, I think it was the Choysea Marathon, that everyone knew was short immediately because the winner ran 2:03. That was the end of that race. I don't doubt there were local races that were short. I got a huge five mile "PR" in a mid week race where almost everyone else did the same and again, we knew right away the course was short.

But there were also long courses. I remember a "10" mile race that was later remeasured to be 10.6. The London Marathon started as the Highgate Marathon, that was the founding club, and it was 29 miles in its first year. So yes, inaccurate courses did happen now and again, they still do. But in "significant" races, and marathons were almost always significant to anyone running one, there was tremendous pressure to have an accurate course. Runner's World used to give an annual listing of marathon courses that were known to be short and it was common for marathons to get their courses certified as accurate and advertise them as such.

On the business of training mileage and beer drinking, there's no way to say what numbers are bang on and what ones aren't. Some guys were meticulous about measuring their training miles, others were okay with reasonably accurate estimates. Maybe Bedfod really "only" ran 191 miles when he thought he'd run 200. Or maybe he ran 205, or 200 on the nose. He ran a lot either way. And 3-4 pints of beer a night was not unusual. I usually had 4-5 sixteen oz cans every night.

Trex wrote:

Exaggerated like everything else from the 70's & 80's. In reality, Beford probably ran 200 miles in a week once in his lifeon a dodgily measured route and drank a few beers a few nights a week but those guys were tough as nails in their own imagination.

Ron Hill forgot his shoes once, so he taped socks to his feet, ran and won. Then had 13 pints, 4 ciggies and 5 whiskey chasers then banged 3 hookers. Woke up in the morning, did a tempo 20 miler. Those were the days.