Slowest person you know who’s life revolves around running ?

My fastest 10k pr was a minute faster than my second fastest time. I had 4-5 10k's around that second fastest time. What was the difference? I had a friend who paced me for the fast time. Why don't you offer to pace this guy? You could set out at 6:20 which would build a little buffer. I would be willing to bet that if this guy has been training hard and is close to 20, a little help from you could get him under.

Nikeman

Never seen a prompt like this before...

I recall a friend of mine from my days as a track and field athlete. She would sort of hang around all the elite guys, made friends with us, and quite abruptly decided her life was going to be about running. I'll also mention she almost certainly had an eating disorder (my guess is a form of bulimia, where high volume running served as a form of purging).

She trained every day, sometimes twice, and I would estimate, put in ~50-60 miles/week. I almost feel guilty saying this, but she had almost ZERO athletic talent... her only strength was that she had long legs, and a high hip height relative to her torso. Nevertheless, not built for speed or stamina.

Here are the PRs I was able to find:

400m: 1:14

800m: 2:36

1500m: 5:25

5k: 19:06

10k: 41:51

Half: 1:48

Probably not the champion of 'worst serious runner' on this thread, but still a contender.

I see lots of very slow people on strava who consistently run 50-60+ miles per week. They also seem to have the most followers, so maybe they have interests other than running fast.

PhDoping wrote:

Here are the PRs I was able to find:

400m: 1:14

800m: 2:36

1500m: 5:25

5k: 19:06

10k: 41:51

Half: 1:48

Probably not the champion of 'worst serious runner' on this thread, but still a contender.

These are decent times except for the half. Many women could never run 2:36 800m even if they were trained by professional coaches for years. Her endurance is serious suspect. But if she was running only 50-60 mpw, then running more mileage could have improved her half time.

instascam wrote:

Most runners on Instagram.

You'd think they were pros how much time and energy they put into running, strength training, and talking about it and then you see their PR is over 4 hours for the marathon....

You'd think they were pros if you were gullible enough to believe their staged photos and videos purporting to show how much time and energy they put into running.

There, I fixed it for you.

I knew someone who had tons of nutritional supplements (beet powder, whey protein, caffeine gum, gels, electrolyte tablets, etc... just about everything), every accessory to go along with running (handheld water bottles, trail pack, recovery socks, rollers, etc), training books, various running books, always posting pictures and motivational workout/run BS on Instagram, obsessing about a "BQ", etc. She does these "runcations" where she travels around the country to run marathons. She was honestly an exhausting person to be around because everything was always about running.

She can't break 4 in the marathon and half PR is like 1:55. There was ALWAYS an excuse about how the first half of the race went so great and she felt amazing, but for some reason fell apart in the last half. Instagram was always some stupid selfie and utter excitement whenever she strung together 2+ sub-8:30 miles along with motivational quotes, tagging professional runners, and 50+ hashtags.

It was nauseating.

3hr-marathoner wrote:

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

Or 14:00 guys about 16:00. Don’t think you are anything close to special sonny.

Anyone know if 13-flat guys about feel this way about those running 13:30? Cuz that's where the split between being able to run as a job or not happens.

This is true. And unless you are under 14:30 and / or some kind of age group phenom you are like one of those guys passing around a football prior to watching the real game. Most of us are right there with you having fun making personal gains, having a local rivalry or two, maybe placing in a local race, and enjoying the training that creates a release from life. So, you have to enjoy it for what it means to you because even 16:30 is pathetically slow for a male in his prime.

I agree. I am a fourth-something female and my half pr is about 1:45. I couldn't come close to touching those other times. I'm thrilled if I can do a loop around the track in under 1:45. I'm typically closer to 1:50-1:55 for a 400 meter. She just needed to work on her endurance/base.

I run about 60 mpw. Sometimes double. Yes, I am slow AF.

3hr-marathoner wrote:

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

Or 14:00 guys about 16:00. Don’t think you are anything close to special sonny.

Anyone know if 13-flat guys about feel this way about those running 13:30? Cuz that's where the split between being able to run as a job or not happens.

I figured out in my early 20s I was not that guy and time to move on with a career. I still enjoy running but there was always a limit to how far I was willing to go. That said, a 16:30 guy pontificating about a 20:00 guy seems silly. Besides a lttle more effort might result in a somewhat respectable time.

I started running in the 4th grade. Ran a 39:xx 10k in the 5th grade on about 15mpw. Ran 5:06 and 29:xx 5mile in 6th grade. Injured most of 7th grade. Ran 27:xx 5mile in 8th never going above 20mpw. Injured rest of 8th and most of 9th, 10th grades and quit. I started running again 7 years ago, injured on and off, but up to about 30npw now. In my late 40s now, bests are 26:30ish, 58, 2:08. No real health problems. Not over weight.. I am fairly sure I cant break 8 in a mile right now.

robert678 wrote:

I remember reading a thread where someone mentioned that research shows someone with average trainability (responsive to training) and average talent, when doing optimal training in their prime (mid 20s), would run: ~20:00 5k for men and 23:00 5k for women.

The simple truth is that most of us are a lot more talented than we think we are. The guy from the park probably has truly average talent. And there's nothing wrong with that, its totally out of his control.

Yeah, I agree with this. I used to be that guy. I wasn't genetically gifted in comparison to the people I ran with in high school. I did the same training but ended up about 2/3rd's of the way back on the team. Most of the people slower than me were not working as hard. I assumed that meant I was average genetically. Then as I grew older and started mostly running for fun I moved into a different circle of runners. People who's goal pace was slower than the first 5k I ever ran in 6th grade off of no training.

The thing is some of them I know are happier than some of the old hardcore runners I know. The one guy plods along at 10 minute miles and is loving it. He loves running for running. Meanwhile some of the old hardcore runners I knew stopped running because they can never match their old times.

Common theme.

Too many training miles don't make you any faster.

(Assuming that this guy was well under 50 years of age.)

I did 1:28 with 45 miles at most and I am considering myself pretty slow. More an ultra kind of guy.

Let me just answer your question directly: he needs faster training partners so as to get the speed to run sub 20. He knows the proper workouts but isn't able to push himself to his true capacities.

That or he's old.

People have hobbies. Golf, fishing, wood work, bowling.. whatever... they usually spend a lot of time and often a lot of money doing those activities. The math rarely ever works, but they enjoy themselves and enjoy the company and the activity. The same applies to running and racing.

Everyone's goals are 100% personal. Some folks want to break 40 min in a 10k, other want to run 50k... whatever to each his own.

I would never criticize someone for running, or running slowly. I would save my criticism for those that chose to wear Vibrams (when that was a thing) and I'll confess that it bugs me when I see people over dress and over accessorize ( they look like they went into the local running store and just said Give me one of EVERYTHING!)

You are not a hot shot. Settle down. He is doing something he enjoys. Better than doing drugs or setting in front of the TV. He is slow in your mind. In my mind you are a jerk.

great thinking, mate wrote:

[quote]Sid22 wrote:

Other guy, if you're on here: sub 20 is an awesome goal. It's not slow at all; only by LetsRun standards is it even close. In fact, if you're a guy with this much dedication and you're within a minute of your lifetime goal, I'd love to see a thread that you update with your training for sub-20 and how the quest is going.

Average high school freshmen are running sub-20... it's slow.

Can I nominate myself?

I ran like 2.34 miles the other day at like 9:33 pace.

Let’s get to real issue here. Why are you only running 16.30? Do you have a permanent disability other than your disregard for other people’s personal targets.