I bet I could do <20 minutes.

Do you train regularly or were you a track?

Under 20 is nothing to sneeze at, unless you're a former track athlete or train consistently for that speed. I used to think like you do, but there are times when I can't break twenty or even twenty-one.

My best is 21:46.10.

Well, I can name that tune in 8 notes. 4 if it's an Oingo Boingo tune.

I don't run consistently but I train for beach volleyball and am in good shape and ran some track in my younger years.

I was primarily a high jumper but I had a low twos 1/2 mile and was a good intermediate hurdler. Best mile time was only 5:52 but I never ran it competitively.

Then breaking 20 is not a foregone conclusion.

You need to run about three 6:10s to assure yourself of breaking 20. Sometimes that's not in the workings for me.

3 6:10s is pretty tight. I'll give it a try sometime and let you now how it goes.

I think you should give it a try. There's a big difference between training for beach volleyball and running hard for (<) 20 minutes.

And make sure its a 3.1 mile course. That last .1 is a killer.

There are some special athletes who can do it, but the average non-runner can't do it.

The fastest mile I've run recently is right at 5:43 (January), and I don't know if I can break 20 or even 21 right now until I can resume speed workouts. The injuries to my heel have severely limited me. By the way the 5:43 had me gagging and puking but for an old guy it's not the worst thing ever.

I've basically limited myself to seven minute miles to avoid unnecessary injury. And that places one in the 22 minute range.

I'll bet you can't even come close to 20 minutes. Especially if you don't regularly run and do speedwork. Also, don't forget the .1 at the end. It's almost half a lap and hurts the worst.

For you maybe. For me, it's the lap leading up to that last 200 odd yards. People laugh, especially my running mates, but I have the best 100 yard sprint at the end of an Ironman triathlon you've ever seen. It's the other 140.5 miles that suck to high heaven.

At the end of one 70.3 I dashed past a man running in to greet his family shedding disgrace upon him and his family. j/k.

For example when I run a mile, the third lap is what sucks, not the first, where I'm hyper, or the second when I've cooled down, but the third lap before the last one.

When I am running for time it's always the end that hurts the worst. I try and get a nice kick in, but feel like my feet are in cement. This is usually accompanied by the urge to vomit which lasts for several minutes afterward.

I've actually vomited a few times. I suppose my end sprint is there because I didn't work the other parts hard enough. The cement galoshes have been worn by me as well.

A friend of mine teased me about it. He told me, "if I'm running a certain pace, why am I going to sprint to the finish to prove I was the 322d best marathoner that day instead of hte 323d best marathoner?"

Well I ran a 5K this morning. It was pretty hilly too. I ran it in 25:03. That's 5:00 minutes better from my 5K when we had the nike challenge. I'm pretty proud of myself.

I ran a 5k Saturday morning in 19:35 which is more than a minute and a half faster than my previous PR. I was hoofin' it, but still had to wonder if the course was a little short.

It was a Boise State fundraiser and they had the football team there signing autographs afterward so I had them sign my number. Ian Johnson asked me how I did and I told him my time. He said "these people are better athletes than we are." Of course he was just being nice, but it made an old guy like me feel good.

Nice! You're in BigPiney territory there.

I ran two 5k's since Saturday.

Saturday morning I pushed my son in a stroller for 5k, and ran it around 41 minutes. This morning I ran another one, not stopping the whole time and clocked in at about 34:45. I expect to see my time continue to drop as I can build my base up, as well as work on running further distance-wise as well.

What can I say, I'm fat and out of shape, but I'm getting there.

fantastic. I'm afraid to time myself right now.