Notable/Celebrity mile times

[bambam1729]

Gregory and Sparks have both been shown to have had real performances. Not sure sure about Gladwell.

David Epstein told me that Gladwell was something like Ontario Prep School champion - he was apparently pretty good. Epstein himself was decent in high school and also ran in college.

[bambam1729]

color me elitist (which I most definitely am), but I don't consider a 3:55 (aka 4:15 miler) collegian to be an athlete of any particular note.

I can identify with that. A few years ago Dick Pound and I had a conversation about some IOC member who he said was an excellent golfer, nothing he was a 3 handicap. I said I didn't consider that to be an excellent golfer, but just a better than average club player. He didn't like that, but he would have the same comment on a 100 metre freestyler who swam in his country's nationals but never made the Olympic team - Pound finished 6th in the 1960 Olympic 100 freestyle.

[gh]

shows how little I know about golf! I'd consider a 3-handicap to be about a 3:55 mile! (even though my father was a scratch player)

[bambam1729]

shows how little I know about golf! I'd consider a 3-handicap to be about a 3:55 mile! (even though my father was a scratch player)

A 3-handicap golfer is more like a 4:35 miler - useful, but not competitive beyond golf club play, or local road races.

[AyZiggy]

David Epstein told me that Gladwell was something like Ontario Prep School champion - he was apparently pretty good. Epstein himself was decent in high school and also ran in college.

I remember hearing Gladwell interviewed on RadioLab and him saying that he beat Dave Reid when they were both teenagers. Co-host Robert Krulwich pooh-poohed that until Gladwell said what I already knew, that Reid turned out to be the best Canadian miler of his generation.

I liked what Gladwell said about the situation, that in their late teen years Reid was still maniacal about training at a point when Gladwell thought to himself "I don't want to do this any more, I want to be a writer" and that NOT hitting that point of asking yourself "why in the hell am I doing this?" is one of the requirements for being a world-class athlete.

[Chicago]

I watched an episode of the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson over the weekend from 1972. Bruce Dern was a guest and the conversation turned to Dern's running. Johnny asked Dern, who was 36 at the time, how fast he could run a mile and Bruce said 4:40. He also noted that he was running 5 to 10 miles a day; had taken Jack Nicholson out for a run while filming a recent movie; and with training Johnny could run a mile in 6:30.

[tandfman]

Previous Bruce Dern threads:

http://trackandfieldnews.com/discussion/showthread.php?141580

http://trackandfieldnews.com/discussion/showthread.php?138529

http://trackandfieldnews.com/discussion/showthread.php?120906

[DoubleRBar]

My first marathon (1965) was a Southern California marathon and Bruce Dern finished just ahead of me. I had no idea who he was at the time and I believe that might have been his first marathon, too.

[Chicago]

My first marathon (1965) was a Southern California marathon and Bruce Dern finished just ahead of me. I had no idea who he was at the time and I believe that might have been his first marathon, too.

What was the finishing time?

[DoubleRBar]

We both (Bruce and I) ran just over 3 hours. About 3:10, I believe. That was the toughest run of my life.

[BBTMmedia]

I thought it would be cool to start a documented non-track celebrity mile list.

I will start this off: Michael Jordan ran a 5:22 mile back in 1986.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/si_onl ... an/861117/

Fellow legend Larry Bird claimed: My best time in the Mile was 5:08, going into my senior year at Indiana State.

http://bringbackthemile.com/news/detail/a_few_words_about_running_from_the_great_larry_bird

[bambam1729]

When Krzyzewski started at Duke in the early 80s he used to make the team run a mile in early October to gauge their fitness. Guards were supposed to do it in under 5 minutes, and the bigger men in under 6. Rumor has it that Johnny Dawkins (would have been 83-86) ran it in 4:22 one year - he was always in supreme condition.

[DoubleRBar]

I remember our college basketball coach (I did not play basketball) had the basketball team do the same thing as Krzyzewski at Duke except that they ran on the grass infield around the football goal posts and not on the track. Of course their mile times were pretty fast. We (cross country team) called that the basketball mile.

[Chicago]

When Krzyzewski started at Duke in the early 80s he used to make the team run a mile in early October to gauge their fitness. Guards were supposed to do it in under 5 minutes, and the bigger men in under 6. Rumor has it that Johnny Dawkins (would have been 83-86) ran it in 4:22 one year - he was always in supreme condition.

It is hard to believe that Dawkins (or most other non-track athletes) could run a mile in 4:22 without the proper training. I remember reading an article in Sports Illustrated about Jim Ryun during his break from running (around 1970) and he said at the time that he would not be able to run a mile in 4:30 (but could probably do 5:00).