Posts Tagged ‘5k’

Friday Five: Reasons Biggest Loser Daris’s 5k Time Is (Mostly) Legit

For those of you who don’t watch The Biggest Loser, last Tuesday’s episode featured the contestants running a 5k with some local citizens in and around the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas.

One of the contestants, 25-year-old Daris George (pictured at left at his original weight), was shown completing the 5k in 21:04, an astonishing 6:46 pace, especially considering he still weighs 214 pounds after losing 132 pounds.

His finishing time was so good, in fact, that it triggered a response from the online running community, who remembered the Dane Patterson marathon scandal.

Quite a few forums questioned whether Daris’s time was possible (see here, here and here), but after some thorough research, I think it’s clear that Daris’s speed is almost entirely legitimate. Here are five reasons:

1) The Biggest Loser producers are not that stupid. They got hammered for the marathon fiasco. It’s hard to believe they would falsify Daris’s results to no good purpose.

2) His age and training regimen. Despite his original unhealthy condition, Daris is 25 years old and has been working out all day, every day, for about 4 months. When I went to Air Force officer training school at age 23, I was underweight and unfit. I ended up averaging 33 miles a week and completed the required 1.5 mile run in 9:10. And our physical training wasn’t nearly as intense as that on The Biggest Loser. So while his pace is still amazing, it’s not out of the question.

3) He ran back along the course after finishing. An eyewitness account by blogger Thin in 2010 contains quite a bit of behind-the-scenes information that isn’t all that flattering to the program’s “reality” (“Since this is ‘filming,’ the director had us do the ‘START’ three times;” and “I was smiling during my interview and I now know WHY the contestants always cry on the show! That man [a producer] was trying to get me to cry!”), but it does confirm that Daris finished the race fast enough that he was able to travel back along the course and meet up with other runners.

4) He ran a 21:43 5k road race the following month. Daris ran in the Arbuckles 2 Ardmore Race for Mercy 5k in Oklahoma on March 28. He finished 6th with a time of 21:43. That’s independent verification of his speed (unless you believe this is some sort of huge Biggest Loser conspiracy), but it is slower, even though he presumably was even more fit in March than he was in February. The answer to that appears to be…

5) The Biggest Loser producers measured a short course. We don’t know what the show’s standards were for measuring the 5k course, but it’s unlikely they went to the trouble of using a Jones Counter, which is the approved device for certification, or that they used tangents to measure. While this is only anecdotal, The Running Woman has a post claiming the course was short:

“Daris’s time would be pretty darn great for a 5k.  And OK, let’s give him the benefit of the doubt and say that the Garmins of my DRC [Dallas Running Club] buddies that clocked 2.8 miles were right – he still finished with a respectable pace of 7:30/mile.  But it annoyed me that they kept calling it a 5k when it wasn’t a 5k!  Grrr.”

Mystery solved, I think. Daris’s adjusted 5k time would be 23:21 – still impressive but much more believable, and it fits better with his 21:43 the next month.

Sacramento Zoo Zoom 5k Race Report

They forecast heavy rain, 20 mph winds and general mayhem for race time this morning, but it all held off until this afternoon, so we ran in pristine conditions.

My training has been going well, so while I’m not in top form I knew my time would be respectable. The only downside was no timing mat at the start, so gun time is your only time. I started my Garmin at the line, so these splits are chip time equivalents. My Garmin is also set on auto-pause, so it stops whenever I come to a full stop (which came in handy, as you’ll see).

Mile 1 – 7:41

Mile 2 – 7:47

Mile 3 – 7:53

.1 – 0:45

Finish – 24:06

My official time was 24:31.5, the difference being due to the 30 seconds or so I (and several others) spent checking on the young woman lying face down in the grass about a mile and three-quarters into the race. Fortunately there was a police officer nearby and the ambulance was immediately dispatched. So congratulations to those who PR’ed while running past her prone body. Good job!

I finished 139th in a field of 1,350, and 11th of 56 in the 50-59 age group.

This was my first race since last October and it was good to get back at it. And we got a free entry to the zoo, which is a nice treat.

I won’t be racing again until Memorial Day, and I’ll spend the interim increasing distance at target marathon pace (8:12) and getting some longer long runs in.

Race for the Arts 5k

This was my first time running the Race for the Arts 5k. I have avoided it in the past because it’s held in the late afternoon, in late August, and I hate being late. But I wanted to see if I could improve my ranking in the Buzz Oates Run Sac Race Series and this was the last short race on the schedule that I could do.

It was 93 degrees at start time – I cut my usual 10 minute warmup short because I was drenched in sweat after a quarter-mile. I tried not to let the weather psych me out, but I wasn’t expecting anything special. There was a pretty good crowd (481 finishers) but that is far short of what you usually see at a 5k around here.

There was a starting mat, so I was comfortably ensconced in the first third of the pack when the horn went off. And of course, since I was already warm, I started off like a maniac, passing a lot of runners right off the bat. Even while I was doing it, I began to worry about the last half-mile. Nonetheless, I maintained the pace I was on.

Mile 1 – 7:21

That’s an awesome first mile split for me, and it usually predicts disaster for the latter stages. I settled into a steady pace behind two young guys and one white-haired old-timer who matched them stride for stride. I distracted myself by watching how they were doing.

Mile 2 – 7:26

I slowed a little, but I couldn’t hear anyone behind me and the three guys in front of me were starting to flag. I heard the old-timer say to one of the young guys, “Let’s pull each other along.” Their fatigue encouraged me a lot, and I took the opportunity to pick up the pace and pass with authority. I spent the rest of the next mile trying to ensure they didn’t come back on me. Strangely enough, I hardly noticed the heat.

Mile 3 – 7:21

A PR was out of the question now, but I was determined to come in sub-23. There were two older runners just in front of me at the final turn (where the hell do they get the speed?) and I put the pedal down and managed to nose them out at the finish.

Mile 3.1 – 0:42

Finish – 22:50
91st out of 481
7th out of 27 in 50-54 age group

That time is 22 seconds off my PR, but it constitutes a 2 minute improvement in 3 months, and a 46 second improvement in a month. I absolutely credit the track work. I’m kicking myself for waiting all these years to find a track for such crucial workouts.

This was a real confidence boost and now I’m looking forward to the longer races this fall.

Memory 5k Race Report

Another gorgeous day for running in Northern California. The Alzheimer’s Aid Society Memorial 5k meanders in and around a cemetery and an upscale neighborhood with lots of shade, and the temperatures were moderate. Sacramento mayor and former NBA great Kevin Johnson was in the field, as well as former state assemblyman Lloyd Levine, but the real celebrity today was Austin Ramos of Fair Oaks, who won the race in 14:56. I can’t remember anyone else ever going sub-15 in a 5k around here. The second-place finisher was more than a minute-and-a-half behind him.

I ran an excellent and steady race, finishing with a strong kick uphill over the last 200 meters. But it did illustrate how ill-advised my Funny/Viper Challenge was two months ago. Even healthy and with some solid speedwork under my belt, I didn’t approach that whippersnapper’s 5k time.

Mile 1 – 7:41

Mile 2 – 7:35

Mile 3 – 7:34

Mile 3.1 – 0:46

Finish – 23:36
146th out of 953
14th out of 35 in 50-54 age group

I’ve only got one more 5k this year, at the end of next month. I might shave a little more off that time, but distance and endurance take center stage for the rest of the year. I’ve got a 14-miler tomorrow.

Your Kung Fu Is Better Than Mine

Despite my best efforts, Viper crushed my 5k time yesterday. It was much like the old evil kung fu master being defeated by the young guy’s combination of tiger and crane styles:

So to Viper I bow, and say, “Your kung fu is superior.”

Tantalizing

My final workout before Monday’s Great Funny/Viper Challenge could not have gone better. Viper cleverly has gone dark about his final two workouts, leaving me to wonder what I’ll really need to overtake him. I’m closing fast, but I’m out of time.

This morning I ran a 5k in 24:56, covering the last two miles in 7:42 and 7:46.

Win or lose, the challenge – contrary to my original misgivings – turned out to be a smart move. My ankle feels great, I got back up to speed in three weeks, and I’m on track for my real goal: a BQ in December. In fact, it will be a relief to run some long slow distance after all this speedwork.

At Least Now It’s a Race

Today’s 5k time = 25:35.

In four days I carved almost three minutes off my 5k time. I’ll rest tomorrow, then comes the really tough part. With two weeks left until the race, I’ve still got to slice another 40 seconds per mile to have a chance against Viper.

Better yet, even if I don’t improve a single second more, I’ve worked my way out of the possibility of a “disgraceful trouncing” to manage a “distant second.” The next stages will be:

Respectable

Close

Barn-burner

Nail-biter

Squeaker

Photo finish

Win.