Those are the same thing, i.e. vastly overrating one's own prior abilities. Uncle Rico was never good enough to do those things (but in his head he was).

On this thread, the folks talking about what they could do could actually do those things.....

I haven't read the whole thread, but the idea that a 4:45 mile is fast for a high-school kid is ridiculous. Last spring alone, there were 8,459 different high-school kids that ran 4:45 or better in the 1600 in the United States. It simply is not that rare to run into someone that ran sub 4:45 in high-school.

http://www.athletic.net/...ender=M&Event=52

My point was only that there are a hell of a lot of people out that were 4:45 milers in highschool

I'm not the least bit surprised when I run into someone who has completed an Ironman. And I am sure that over the last 30 years there have been a lot more people that ran a 4:45 mile at some point than there are that have completed an Ironman.

I just think the OP is a little overly skeptical. Does he question everyone he runs into that claims to be an Ironman?

For the umpteenth time, see threads above of why this thread is NOT a post about '4:45 is fast for a high school runner'.

If you're one of the many who feel compelled to repeat '4:45 is not fast for a high school runner', find a different thread to chest-thump on - it's really old already and off-topic!

I was at Oktoberfest in Munich last year and started talking with a group of guys in their late 40's/early 50's - our group was late 20's/early 30's. I was chatting to one of the guys about Ironman and the first thing he says is "Oh yeah I've done the one in Hawaii before". I was immediately skeptical because he didn't say Kona and just came right out with it right off the bat. Being a delusional KQ hopeful I started grilling him, partly to see if he was full of shit but also because if he was telling the truth I genuinely wanted to talk more with him. I asked him where he qualified, and was shocked when he said Lake Placid. Ok, maybe he's legit. Next question - what was your time? "Uh, I can't remember exactly". Next question - what's your name and what year did you do it, I'll look you up. At that moment he checked his phone and wandered off like he had something important to do. But it didn't stop there, I knew he had to come back to his table.

Five minutes or so later he emerged and headed right back to his table and avoided me. I pulled out my phone, went to the Ironman website and asked him what his name was because I wanted to look up his splits. He said "What's your problem? I already told you I did Lake Placid" to which I responded "you are so full of shit. You qualified for Kona and can't even tell me your time?". He just stood their shaking his head like I was the asshole, being as confrontational as I was being. My friends, smartly came over and escorted me back to my table when they saw it start to escalate. I kept staring him down but he wouldn't look over at me again.

Clearly it was Oktoberfest, and we were all drunk, but it pissed me off that this guy was going around casually saying he qualified for "Hawaii" when he clearly hadn't. I know how hard people work who qualify and it just really struck a nerve. I'm trying to get there myself and would never say I qualified if I didn't and he shouldn't have either.

Sorry, but your first post was definitely about 4:45 being a crazy fast time that very few people could accomplish. Fact is that a large number of high school runners can run sub 4:45. You don't need to know anything about training techniques to run that fast as a 17yr old, you just need some talent and a group of guys that worked hard.

My question is how did you know their age was exactly 35-42?

Watown wrote:

I haven't read the whole thread, but the idea that a 4:45 mile is fast for a high-school kid is ridiculous. Last spring alone, there were 8,459 different high-school kids that ran 4:45 or better in the 1600 in the United States. It simply is not that rare to run into someone that ran sub 4:45 in high-school.

http://www.athletic.net/...ender=M&Event=52

I haven't read the whole thread, but the idea that a 4:45 mile is fast for a high-school kid is ridiculous. Last spring alone, there were 8,459 different high-school kids that ran 4:45 or better in the 1600 in the United States. It simply is not that rare to run into someone that ran sub 4:45 in high-school.

http://www.athletic.net/...ender=M&Event=52