Benji Durden, are you still out there?
Your case would be a great addition to this list.
For those who are confused (and I won't talk TOO much, because Durden
is still on this list), I met Benji at the Bobby Crim race in 1982 (I
think, could have been 1981). Anyway, he wouldn't remember me, but
I asked him (between twists of a rubik's cube) what his fastest times
were in high school. One of his replies was a 4:40 mile - which he
caveated by saying he wasn't training anywhere near his potential at
that time. I don't know Durden's mile PR - but given his marathon
and 10K PRs - it has to be a LOT faster.
FWIW, I asked several of the other elite athletes the same question.
Rodgers commented that his fastest in high school was 4:18. His
fastest official mile was still 4:18. But in interval workouts,
he'd run miles which he thought were faster - but weren't officially
timed.
--- Patrick Hoffman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Below is my full list of mile improvements since high school.
>
> After studying it a bit, the fact that somebody has improved
> 30 seconds (and broken 4 minutes) usually means that they
> weren't training enough for the mile, or that they were
> running the wrong event.
>
> It is more interesting to look at the sub 4:10 milers and
> to see how much they improved. Since they must have worked
> pretty hard to get to that level. Of course
> the Webb factor makes the list more interesting.
>
> Here is my full list
> http://www.cs.uml.edu/~phoffman/nats/slowmilers.htm
>
> High School Improvement List
>
> Improvements from High School times to pr's
>
>
> HS all time PR Secs improve
> Roger Bannister 4:52.0 3:59.6 52.4
> Scott Strand 4:50 4:00+ 50 **
> Liam O'Neil 4:50 4:02?? 48
> John M. Landy 4:43.8 3:58.0 45.8
> Dick Beurkle 4:36 3:55 41
> Brian Culley 4:51 4:19 32
> Tom Byers 4:21 3:50 31
> Finn Pincus 4:53 4:22+ 31
> Paul McMullen 4:21.5+ 3:51.7+ 29.8
> Dave Wottle 4:22?? 3:53 29
> Mark Beeman 4:27 4:00 27
> Jamey Harris 4:19+ 3:54.90 24
> Tom Carleo 4:23+ 4:00+(3:41.9) 23+
> Steve Scott 4:10+ 3:47 23
> Paul Talbot 4:38 4:16 22
> John Jordan 4:24 4:02 22
> Mark Coogan 4:20 3:58 22
> John Schiefer 4:20 3:59+ 21
> Steve Holman 4:10+ 3:49+ 21
> Bill Burke 4:14 3:53+(3:35) 21
> Buck Jones 4:17 3:57 20
> Brian Gallagher 4:18+ 3:59 19
> Darren Shearer 4:18 3:59 19
> Marc "doc" Davis 4:13 3:54 19
> Joe Falcon 4:08 3:49 19
> Phil Lussier 4:16? 3:58+ 18
> Paul Cummings 4;10.7 3:56.4 14.3
> John Gregorek 4:05 3:51 14
> Bob Kennedy 4:06 3:56 10
> Marty Liquori 3:59.8 3:52.2 7.6
> Matt Centrowitz 4:01.27+ 3:54.9 6.4
> Jim Ryun 3:55 3:51 4
> Time Danielson 3:59.4 3:59.4 0
> Gerry Lindgren 4:01.5 4:01.5 0
> Rich Kimball 4:02.4 4:02.4? 0
>
> Alan Webb 3:53.43 ??????
>
> This is an interesting list, its not necessarily better to be on
> the top
> or the bottom.(well the very bottom is rather disappointing, but
> most high school athletes don't improve)
> I'm really only interested in people who
> have broken 4:00 minutes or the metric equivalent 3:41.45 or T&F's
> 3:42.2
> here are two great lists sub 4 milers and sub 4
> milers chronologically
>
> If you are on those lists please submit me your HS pr and I will
> add you
> to this list. Thanks
> Patrick E. Hoffman back to XC,Track and Running Analysis
>
>
> Patrick E. Hoffman, Sc.D Anvil Informatics
> http://www.cs.uml.edu/~phoffman Analysis and Visualization of
> Information
> X-Country, Running Analysis 600 Suffolk St. Lowell, MA 01854
>
> Best Web track calculator [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> All time HS lists X-Radviz and other MDMV
> Visualizations
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
=====
Dave Cameron
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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