Do your non-runner family members know your PR?

Here is a recent dinner table conservation in Jerry house:

Jerry: Nobody ever cares about me.
Wife: That's not true. Give us an example.
Jerry: I bet you don't know my marathon PR.
Daughter(9 years old): Oh, I know I know, 1:21.
Wife: That seems a little too fast. How do you know?
Daughter: I saw the time at the finish of Daddy's last race.
Wife: Isn't that a half marathon?
Daughter: Yeah. I think 2:21 then.
Jerry: 2:21? Who do you think your daddy is?
Wife: 3:23.
Jerry: That's not even enough for BQ.
Wife: Who cares. You are not going to run Beijing anyway.

Momma was off by about 10 seconds. Not too bad. "Three oh eight.... something"

Then: "At least I was there for both finishes" (in reference to my dad missing the first one because he was wandering around and thought I'd finish in 3:40, not 3:30... Derp)

EDIT: She's still justifying this... "You know what, though, when you crossed, it was 3:08 on the big clock... Wasn't it?" It was, Momma. It was.

My wife is closer than anyone, but still thinks I finish in "about 2 hours".

The actual time numbers? No way. They just know and remind me that I'm "slower than Dave, slower than Schuey..."

My parents, Britt and close friends know low 2:30's, and definitely know that I'm still shy of the 1:09 and 2:29 benchmarks.

My mom does have a propensity to overestimate my speed though. When I was a senior in high school and being recruited to play in college, she told a group of her friends that my 40 yard time was 4.2. She swore to it. They guys in the group familiar with 40 times thought that a 6'2" WR with a 40 time of 4.2 would be getting looks from the major D-1 schools, which I wasn't. Eh, she was only .6 seconds off....4.2, 4.8, no big difference, right?

Then last week she bet the Doc she works for - an avid athlete - that my racing shoes were less than an ounce. She lost.

I doubt my wife knows the exact time but she knows it's not as fast as I want to go. She knows enough to have told me a few weeks ago that she knew how to make my life much simpler - "Go for a four hour marathon." Beyond her, no one knows my PR time.

Well I just asked my husband and he said "isn't it like 4:12" so pretty close, 4:11:13...

My mom knows my marathon PR but not the other distances. Dad is knows that I marathon PR is under 2:50 but he knows my 5k PR time. My normally comes to all my marathons outside of not going to Boston this past year. Dad has been to a couple of Chicago Marathons but he does track me every year and will always look up my short race times. The rest of the family has no clue.

Lisa knows but she is a runner.

So I asked my wife here is her response

She said
Marathon - 3:50 actual 3:27
HM - 1:20 actual 1:36
10k - 24:00 actual 45:(old)
5 mile 20:00 actual 35:13
5k - 16:00 actual 20:23


scary. I asked if she knows who I am!

Non-running family is clearly a no!

Hell, my mom keeps asking how many miles the last marathon was and if the next one is longer.

Jerry's wife obviously got my marathon PR mixed up as his.



That's all I got to say about that.

Dave-O wrote:My parents, Britt and close friends know low 2:30's, and definitely know that I'm still shy of the 1:09 and 2:29 benchmarks.

My mom does have a propensity to overestimate my speed though. When I was a senior in high school and being recruited to play in college, she told a group of her friends that my 40 yard time was 4.2. She swore to it. They guys in the group familiar with 40 times thought that a 6'2" WR with a 40 time of 4.2 would be getting looks from the major D-1 schools, which I wasn't. Eh, she was only .6 seconds off....4.2, 4.8, no big difference, right?

Then last week she bet the Doc she works for - an avid athlete - that my racing shoes were less than an ounce. She lost.

Nice support for your wife, buddy! You should have said you ran barefoot and had her take you out to dinner with the winnings(even if it was just TB or McD's).



I'm not speedy, but I know my 40 time was better than 4.8. What gives? A foot of snow? Head wind? I bet if you ran a 40 now, you'd smoke that time because you're lighter and still quick.

Instead of asking your family to know your PR, put them in the car and drive the course with you. They'll either respect you more or think you're even crazier. Both work for me.

jimd wrote:Instead of asking your family to know your PR, put them in the car and drive the course with you. They'll either respect you more or think you're even crazier. Both work for me.

Not sure any respect it I think insane is the word they use which I take it for respect.

My family respects my insanity. They have to, considering it's genetic!

mul21 wrote:My family respects my insanity. They have to, considering it's genetic!

+1....same here!

They did not care in college or high school, they do not care now...LOL...Not even wife cares. She states, just get it done....

My husband and Mom both know that I ran a sub-3, and my Mom knows I ran 3:03 in Boston because it was on her 53rd birthday and we had a "3" party that day. I think my husband knows that my 10K PR is around 37 min and my Mom knows that I used to run consistently in the 38-39 min range for a 10K.

As for my daughter or anyone else, doubt they have any idea.

In addition, although my Mom will brag about my running, she will still tell me that my sister is(was) faster. Of course, my sister never even ran as fast as I did in high school and has not run a step since 1982.

jimd wrote:
I'm not speedy, but I know my 40 time was better than 4.8. What gives? A foot of snow? Head wind? I bet if you ran a 40 now, you'd smoke that time because you're lighter and still quick.

That was my clocked time before senior year of high school, so I was stuck with it. I worked down to 4.6 flat (couldn't get that goddamn 4.59!) by senior year of college, but top end speed wasn't my thing. I was never the teams deep threat; I was the 205 pound over-the-middle possession receiver. Now? I actually don't think I'd break 5. My first few steps are so damn slow its ridiculous. My fast twitch muscles said hasta la vista.

Jerry wrote:Here is a recent dinner table conservation in Jerry house:

Jerry: Nobody ever cares about me.
Wife: That's not true. Give us an example.
Jerry: I bet you don't know my marathon PR.
Daughter(9 years old): Oh, I know I know, 1:21.
Wife: That seems a little too fast. How do you know?
Daughter: I saw the time at the finish of Daddy's last race.
Wife: Isn't that a half marathon?
Daughter: Yeah. I think 2:21 then.
Jerry: 2:21? Who do you think your daddy is?
Wife: 3:23.
Jerry: That's not even enough for BQ.
Wife: Who cares. You are not going to run Beijing anyway.

It's nice to know that Jerry starts a dinner conversation with "nobody ever cares about me".

Dave-O wrote:

jimd wrote:
I'm not speedy, but I know my 40 time was better than 4.8. What gives? A foot of snow? Head wind? I bet if you ran a 40 now, you'd smoke that time because you're lighter and still quick.

That was my clocked time before senior year of high school, so I was stuck with it. I worked down to 4.6 flat (couldn't get that goddamn 4.59!) by senior year of college, but top end speed wasn't my thing. I was never the teams deep threat; I was the 205 pound over-the-middle possession receiver. Now? I actually don't think I'd break 5. My first few steps are so damn slow its ridiculous. My fast twitch muscles said hasta la vista.

What if I put a case of Dogfish Head IPA in front of you(and Soldier Field Artificial Turf)?

Kevin L wrote:

Jerry wrote:Here is a recent dinner table conservation in Jerry house:

Jerry: Nobody ever cares about me.
Wife: That's not true. Give us an example.
Jerry: I bet you don't know my marathon PR.
Daughter(9 years old): Oh, I know I know, 1:21.
Wife: That seems a little too fast. How do you know?
Daughter: I saw the time at the finish of Daddy's last race.
Wife: Isn't that a half marathon?
Daughter: Yeah. I think 2:21 then.
Jerry: 2:21? Who do you think your daddy is?
Wife: 3:23.
Jerry: That's not even enough for BQ.
Wife: Who cares. You are not going to run Beijing anyway.

It's nice to know that Jerry starts a dinner conversation with "nobody ever cares about me".

Haha I went back and read the conversation after posting my response and, yeah, pretty damn funny way to start a conversation.

Mike MacLellan wrote:

Kevin L wrote:

Jerry wrote:Here is a recent dinner table conservation in Jerry house:

Jerry: Nobody ever cares about me.
Wife: That's not true. Give us an example.
Jerry: I bet you don't know my marathon PR.
Daughter(9 years old): Oh, I know I know, 1:21.
Wife: That seems a little too fast. How do you know?
Daughter: I saw the time at the finish of Daddy's last race.
Wife: Isn't that a half marathon?
Daughter: Yeah. I think 2:21 then.
Jerry: 2:21? Who do you think your daddy is?
Wife: 3:23.
Jerry: That's not even enough for BQ.
Wife: Who cares. You are not going to run Beijing anyway.

It's nice to know that Jerry starts a dinner conversation with "nobody ever cares about me".

Haha I went back and read the conversation after posting my response and, yeah, pretty damn funny way to start a conversation.

There were talks before that, but they were in Chinese and not running related.

You did make me laugh pretty hard, Jerry.

So, I'm sitting here reading these responses and I think....oh, Gene will definitely have some idea about the half since I just PR'd in May. As far as a marathon, he was support at so many disappointing fulls that he'll have a pretty good idea.

I lean over into the room that has the TV blaring some really awful movie and ask him:

me: Hey, Gene....do you know what my marathon and half marathon PRs are.
Gene: No

me: Well, do you know the half marathon, the one from the Indy Mini?

Gene: No

me: I mean, do you have an idea. You don't have to have the exact number but a range?

Gene: No.

me: What about the marathon...just approximately.

Gene: Well, I might be able to guess but if I'm off, that'd be embarrassing.

Sheesh! Not a clue. How could he not know some sort of idea?? He sits at the computer and tracks me in so many races. I tape a pacing band to the computer keyboard so he has an idea of goals. 10 years of racing....nothing.

Wow!