Former Tar Heel cross country/track star Shalane Flanagan won bronze in the Olympic 10,000 meters and also broke the American record with a time of 30:22.22. Just for some perspective on that, my personal best while running cross country at UNC Greensboro 15 years ago was 27:40 for 8000 meters. Granted that was a fairly pedestrian time among runners at the D1 level but still a decent clip. On the pace Flanagan was running in this race she crossed the 8000 meters mark in a little over 24 minutes and still had another 1.2 miles to run. That is impressive.
Then again would you expect anything less from a Tar Heel?
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Only the second American female to EVER medal in the event. Great stuff!
Congratulations to Shalane. I think she’s also running in the 5,000. Now let’s take care of business in women’s soccer also. Go Heels! P.S. Congrats also to Cullen Jones and Becca Ward.
Hey THF, that’s not bad for five miles. I ran my best 10K when I was 35 — many years ago — in 39:08. At the time, I couldn’t imagine being able to run any faster. Now Shalane totally blows my personal best completely away. Not bad for a girl, huh? My congrats go out to her and I wish her the best in the 5000.
Hey THF, does it bother you just a little bit that in your prime you were smoked by a chick?
There is absolutely no shame in getting smoked by a girl if she is running that fast.
I was a runner in college as well. 31:29 was my best track 10K. Set on the beautiful blue Finley track in 1982
A small percentage of male college runners come close to breaking 31 minutes for the 10K, much less breaking 30 minutes (which means a 6 mile of right around 29 minutes). The female records for the 10K were in the range of 35 minutes until the late 80’s.
THF, you times are very good, the elite female athletes of today have benefitted from the addition of weight training since the 80’s……..