My new goal: beat Bryan Clay's Olympic Decathlon gold medal winning time in the 1500 (Read 932 times)

Too lazy to look it up. What was it?

5:09 or something? I'd make sure that when you break it you look like you're out for an easy Sunday run like he did. Good luck, dude! That's too fast for me at this point.

5:06.59. Fastest 1500m decathlon time was 4:26.77.

I know someone who could do that drunk!

5:06.59 That's about equivalent to a 5:31 mile. I just found it really surprising that an Olympic caliber athlete (gold medalist, no less) would have run a time that is achievable by mere mortals.

But for him... he wasn't really running hard. He had the gold wrapped up and could have run backwards and still won (that's a bit of sarcasm). Still, I think it's a good goal. One that I may shoot for in the next 12-18 months, after I decide that marathons are stupid.

Ya know, I thought the EXACT same thing. He looked like he was just jogging and I thought 'heck I can run a 5:31 mile (maybe, heh heh)'. But did you see him fall to the track laying on his back afterwards? His chest was heaving and it didn't look like he had an easy time running that 1500m. I assume that was due to exhaustion from doing the 10 events leading up to the 1500m. Regardless, World's Greatest Athlete.

I had the same thoughts. I've never done a decathlon, I'm guessing that all those events probably took their toll on him. And the pace may have looked pedestrian but compared to me the dude was flying.

The 1500 in the decathlon has always been more of a test of survival than a measure of speed. It does come at the end of two days of fairly grueling events (especially if there are preliminary heats in the shorter running events), so the athletes are already pretty tired. Beyond that, by the time you add up all the time training for the jumps (which do require a lot more technical training that distance running), all the weight training for the throwing events, and all the speedwork required for the sprints they do, there just isn't much time left to do the kind of distance training needed to get in a good 1500 time.

There were some grueling circumstances in the decathlon this yr. 1st day: Events ended at 10pm due to rain delays. 2nd day: Events began at 9am and the temps hit 100 degrees on the track. According to Clay, he got only 4 hrs of sleep between day 1 and 2. I don't think he was pushing as hard as he could, but my guess was it was nearer a full effort than a slow jog.

Good points. I was all set to say that I didn't say he wasn't running hard, when I looked up above and saw that I said just that. I guess what I meant to say was: "I'm really freaking jealous that even though he's running his ass off he looks like I do when I run 10:00 miles." Fair?

Good points. I was all set to say that I didn't say he wasn't running hard, when I looked up above and saw that I said just that. I guess what I meant to say was: "I'm really freaking jealous that even though he's running his ass off he looks like I do when I run 10:00 miles." Fair?

absolutely. the decathlon 1500 seems to always have the highway effect. you watch the graceful 1500/5k/10k machines and the decathletes look sluggish, no matter what the final clock says.