OT: Mile time

[tykurez]

I was 12 in 6th grade. I didn't do Junior Olympics for track and field but went all over the country for Junior Olympics in cross country. I was first in CT and second in New England for multiple years there. Won Windham and all the other big races in the state and set a bunch of course records. I was finished running by freshman year of high school.

So you ended up not doing XC in high school? What year? 5:00 in 6th grade is wild.

Ran in high school … absolutely loathed it but did it to keep occupied for the other sports. Was never close to elite (pretty much topped out in the high 5s for the 5k) but always placed middle of the pack at states and our team would routinely get to regionals. Quit long distance running immediately when I got to UConn.

 

[superjohn]

So you ended up not doing XC in high school? What year? 5:00 in 6th grade is wild.

Ran in high school … absolutely loathed it but did it to keep occupied for the other sports. Was never close to elite (pretty much topped out in the high 5s for the 5k) but always placed middle of the pack at states and our team would routinely get to regionals. Quit long distance running immediately when I got to UConn.

A long time ago, it would've been '92 when I was in 6th grade.

There was another boy in CT. who was a couple years older who was the fastest kid in the country. He showed up to one of the major races in the state with his runner friends and they convinced him to run, he ran in basketball sneakers and won the race. He then won New England junior Olympics and finished second nationally right at the tape to the kid he beat in New Englands. He also quit running. There was also a girl in CT at the time named Liz Mueller who was the best runner in the country. She ended up becoming a professional boxer.

I quit by freshman year because I didn't like it and wanted to play soccer.

 

[tzznandrew]

Last time I timed myself I was about 6:50. This was last year. I've put on some weight now though.

In high school I was a 5:05. No doubt many better than me here, but I was pretty proud of that, even though two of my best friends were running a 4:20 and a 4:40 so I never finished above 3rd...

 

[nomar]

I struggled to do a 10 minute mile in 7th grade, when I was skinny, biked everywhere, endlessly and could do all sorts of things on gymnastics rings. Seems I had (have) something called exercise induced asthma. Somewhere around 1/8 of a mile, I can't breathe unless I slow to a walk. Didn't know what it was until recently. I have tried becoming a runner several times, got better at one point, could make it 1/4 mile, then horrific plantar fasciitis in both feet shut me down. Weirdly, because you don't run non-stop in sports, even soccer and basketball, I never had a problem playing those...just dedicated running.

Sort of a non sequitur, but I'm not really built for running fast for long distance either. Likewise, I swam in HS, and I was always a sprinter; no matter how in shape I was, I was gassed by the end of a 200. We had a conference meet at the end of every season that gave everyone who hadn't qualified for states one last chance to make the cutoff time. In my senior year, I'd qualified in my regular events so I swam the 500 (20 lengths) for a laugh. Holy hell it destroyed me. Afterwards, I was outside in the snow in a speedo, heaving for air until my heartrate got below 500 bpm. I qualified, though!

 

[QDOG5]

I ran some in my youth but 5 miles was my max. I'm guessing I ran about a 7:30 back then. When my wife started running marathons in her mid 30's I decided to pick it up again. I'm 60 now, I ran a 10k on Thanksgiving morning in 1:01 which is 9:50 pace. I've run a lot of races over the years including 14 half marathons. My wife says she's going to run a final marathon and I might try to join her. Also, I'm from Torrington and I've never run the Litchfield Hills Road Race. Maybe in 2023.

 

[david]

I ran track at UConn back in the day ran a 3:59 1500m which converts to about a 4:18 mile. I am very fat now but can still surprisingly run a sub 7 minute mile.

 

[Husky25]

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

I was an ~ok~ high school cross country runnner and my best ever mile was 5:27. In competition (5k or 3.1 mi) I would average 6:15 or so.

I’m 35 now and do a good deal of weight training but absolutely despise cardio outside of walks with the dog and family. If I tried to run a mile today I’d be lucky to break 10 min

 

[jake14mw]

The only time I officially ran a mile was in fourth grade for the national presidential fitness test. I had a time of 7:17.

Side bar: I went to a small private school that year and they had a down year so I when I did my fifth and final event (the shuttle run) I think they rounded down my time slightly to make sure they had at least one student get to the presidential fitness level.

Ha, the Presidential fitness test, brings back memories! I remember that meaning so much to me and being so proud of it! I think the hardest part for me was the pull-ups. If I remember correctly you had to do 6 pullups and I barely eaked it out. In my day, I don't think it was a mile run, I think it was a 600 yard dash.

 

[Kolumbo]

I don't think I ever broke 6 minutes. Ran the museum mile once, from the Metropolitan Museum down 5th to the GM Building. Soccer and sprinting were my bag and forced to do the 400 too.

I really got into running while living down in NYC. There was always a 5k, 10k, or 1/2 going on. Even got a NYC Marathon under my belt. I still run 4-5 days a week and take in a soccer game. Just ran 34 min - 3.67 - 9:17. Not bad for someone in my vicinity, I think. I can kick it up a notch for a road race.

USA!!!

 

[SCNCHuskie]

Yes, I’m bragging, but you need to put in the work. The marathon required 60 miles per week for 6 months, with speed work and weekly 20 milers at 7 minutes per mile.
To run fast on the track required many intense speed workouts like 400M repeats under a minute. All that was tough on the knees, multiple surgeries etc.

I ran my first marathon one day when I was having a bad weekend and needed something to do, after never having run more than 5 miles in my life at one time. When I got to the starting line and everyone was comparing notes about how they trained, I interjected that I’ve never run more than 5 miles in my life and almost never run other than an occasional jog through the neighborhood. They called the ambulance driver over and told him to keep an eye on me. I said, “I’m going to put 1 foot in front of the other and when I can’t go any farther I’m gonna stop.” When I entered the stadium, where you had to run one lap to complete the 26.2 miles I heard people saying, “That’s the guy, holy cow he didn’t die!” It definitely was not a blazing fast marathon time, but under the circumstances I was happy with the 4:12, which would’ve been slightly faster if I didn’t cramp up on that final lap and watched the clock quickly ticking away. I ran two more after that, one that I, “trained” for, (in the vein of Babe Ruth, Ken Stabler or Allen Iverson -practice? Practice?). There’s also kind of a funny story to the one I trained for, but I won’t bore you with that one.

 

[huskyharry]

4:39 was my PR, ran freshman year at UConn but not good enough to contribute.
After 34 years in the Navy too many orthopedic injuries and hardware to run anymore