Which pro runner had the slowest high school times?

Banana Man wrote:

I always wonder about how much people can improve. Maybe I‘m just looking for some inspiration right now, but I want to know if there are pros out there that weren’t spectacular in high school.

Additionally, if people just have general stories about people improving a ton from high school to becoming All-American or that kind of thing I’d love to hear that to!

Reed Fischer's (Tinman Elite) first 5k was 23:54 as Freshman. Barely made it under 21 in his first year of running. Ended HS as 4:29/9:30 (Mile/3200)

Then, ran a 1:01 half marathon, and multiple 13 mid 5k's. He got no talent/speed, but worked harder than anyone else I've seen. Proof you don't need much talent for good performances in long-distance running.

Brian. Sell.

Kim Conley is a good example.

Of course, any time you make a "who made really unbelievable imprivements" list, it also tends to cast other suspicions on them...

Emma Coburn

LateRunnerPhil wrote:

Banana Man wrote:

I always wonder about how much people can improve. Maybe I‘m just looking for some inspiration right now, but I want to know if there are pros out there that weren’t spectacular in high school.

Additionally, if people just have general stories about people improving a ton from high school to becoming All-American or that kind of thing I’d love to hear that to!

Reed Fischer's (Tinman Elite) first 5k was 23:54 as Freshman. Barely made it under 21 in his first year of running. Ended HS as 4:29/9:30 (Mile/3200)

Then, ran a 1:01 half marathon, and multiple 13 mid 5k's. He got no talent/speed, but worked harder than anyone else I've seen. Proof you don't need much talent for good performances in long-distance running.

You don't run 1:01 without tremendous talent. There are many strong runners that don't the top-end speed to run anywhere near 4:39 pace for a half. There are always details missing from these one-off examples.

LateRunnerPhil wrote:

Banana Man wrote:

I always wonder about how much people can improve. Maybe I‘m just looking for some inspiration right now, but I want to know if there are pros out there that weren’t spectacular in high school.

Additionally, if people just have general stories about people improving a ton from high school to becoming All-American or that kind of thing I’d love to hear that to!

Reed Fischer's (Tinman Elite) first 5k was 23:54 as Freshman. Barely made it under 21 in his first year of running. Ended HS as 4:29/9:30 (Mile/3200)

Then, ran a 1:01 half marathon, and multiple 13 mid 5k's. He got no talent/speed, but worked harder than anyone else I've seen. Proof you don't need much talent for good performances in long-distance running.

I see you use the term "pro" loosely.

James Carney; ran 27:43 for the 10k; I don’t have the time to look for his high school times but I don’t think he broke 10 min in the 2 mile.

SDSU Aztec wrote:

LateRunnerPhil wrote:

Reed Fischer's (Tinman Elite) first 5k was 23:54 as Freshman. Barely made it under 21 in his first year of running. Ended HS as 4:29/9:30 (Mile/3200)

Then, ran a 1:01 half marathon, and multiple 13 mid 5k's. He got no talent/speed, but worked harder than anyone else I've seen. Proof you don't need much talent for good performances in long-distance running.

You don't run 1:01 without tremendous talent. There are many strong runners that don't the top-end speed to run anywhere near 4:39 pace for a half. There are always details missing from these one-off examples.

What type of talent? The ability to train very hard for 10+ years and put in the work? Because that's what he has been doing. He trusts his coach, has a great team surrounding him (in college, and now again in Boulder) and puts in the work, day after day.

There are kids that run 16-18 min 5k's without training, as freshman. THAT'S talent. I've met a girl who was in middle school, barely did any training and ran 18 low 5k. She barely got better since then (2 years ago), despite training, but her coach is bad. And high "baseline"/talent is no guarantee for continued success!

Most pro runners are between the super talents, and the very slow kids like Fischer. You credit Fischer "top end speed", but he never broke 2:00 in HS and college, and just recently time-trialed a 800 around that/slightly faster. He got no wheels, everyone on Tinman Elite drops him on hill reps but during tempos and thresholds he is a king and training is what gave him that ability to run 4:40-5:00 miles for a very long time in races. Salazar's top end speed was also bad (never broke 57), and look at his 10k and marathon times.

Pretty sure Bill Rodgers mile PR was 4:29 out of high school. Also, Clayton Murphy didn’t have amazing PR’s either, 4:16 mile I am pretty sure.

trackislife12 wrote:

Pretty sure Bill Rodgers mile PR was 4:29 out of high school. Also, Clayton Murphy didn’t have amazing PR’s either, 4:16 mile I am pretty sure.

I wish I ran 4:16 in highschool. That would have won state my senior year.

Courtney Frerichs comes to mind. Her track PBs in high school were 2:24 for 800m and 34'xx" in the triple jump.

A lot of these guys had talent but when they trained it finally showed. Bill, for example, was a very effortless runner and at Weslyan he trained with Amby for a while. Amby would bring him along for a lot of the runs and he could see that Bill could really be special, but he was too distracted with other parts of life. It took him to get down in life and pick up running again to come out and realize the gift he always had.

Don't look for the anomalies, just do your best to become the best version of you. With all the hard training your talent will show. Don't look for the less talented who became great, belive that you are talented.

It does in fact take talent to be a runner. Just because you work hard and do all the right things consistently does NOT mean your body will accept the training and improve.

Juice Springsteen wrote:

James Carney; ran 27:43 for the 10k; I don’t have the time to look for his high school times but I don’t think he broke 10 min in the 2 mile.

RBR, 4. Tell us about your high school running?

James Carney: My HS career was lackluster at best and I never really cared about running until my senior year when I figured out I was a better runner than wrestler. I think my junior PR in the mile was 5:15 and when I was a senior I ran 4:27. Not great numbers.

RBR, 5. What was biggest mistake you made in high school running?

James Carney: Not believing in myself and not truly committing myself to the sport until late in my HS career.

I think that sums up most of these supposed rags-to-riches stories. None of these runners being mentioned were actually bad in HS; they were just messing around. When they finally started being serious, they improved a ton.

Scott Fauble never broke 4:20 in high school.

Karissa Schweizer attended to best running school in the state and comes from a die hard running g family. She was serious about running all through high school yet improved by 90 seconds in the 3000 after graduating.

Tom Byers best mile was 4:18.3. Here is his incredible Freshman year in 1974. Winning the 800/1500 at Junior Nationals. Then winning the USA Senior Nationals in the 1500. (He was 2nd behind guest Rod Dixon of New Zealand.)

1973 High School PR 4:18.3

1974 College Freshman at Ohio State.

3:42.8 Tom Byers, 6/15/74 AAU Junior Champion

1:49.6 Tom Byers, 6/15/74 AAU Junior Champion

3:42.4h Byers 6/21/74 AAU Senior heats

3:37.9 Tom Byers 6/22/74 AAU Senior Champion

3:39.8 Tom Byers 6/28/74 vs USSR Juniors

3:45.3 Tom Byers 7/5/74 vs USSR Seniors

3:44.2 Tom Byers 7/21/74 Siena, ITA

3:37.5 Tom Byers 7/24/74 Turin, ITA

Noah Droddy barely broke 5:00 .