I don’t remember. It was early evening, late afternoon, so lunch was a few hours behind me. I don’t remember if I had a snack.
Sad ending to his final race:
Sic transit gloria mundi I guess.
That little nugget of information absolutely blows my mind.
Sucks for Bolt, though. Fortunately, I doubt many will remember how his career ended, given the incredible feats he has accomplished.
I just took a look at the US Masters swimming records for 75-79. The top 6-7 50 meter long course, swims would beat most swimmers. They would get me by a couple of seconds and I’m an above average swimmer. I’d think that any average person who tried to race any one like Bolt, even in his 70s would just think, WTF was that as they get left in the dust.
Am I the only one who thought they did it a bit half-assed? Like they caught him at the end of a training session, gave him a pair of shoes and a standing start and asked him to give it a bash, then held up his time as if it meant anything? I didn’t get the impression of a perfect run anyway.
I know it was only a bit of fun but it would have been more interesting had he practised a bit under the conditions and posted a proper time.
As someone who started running later in life (relatively anyway - in my late 20’s), I’m always amazed at the muscle memory of the really talented runners that trained & raced in high school and college.
If I took 2 months off without running, it would be a slow slog back to fitness. Someone with abilities like Bolt’s On the other hand, I bet he could take about 7 years off, and still crank out a 100 meter run on the first try that wouldn’t win a championship, but would totally destroy your average 25 year old.
I think people are also vastly underestimating how slow your average person is. Until the day he dies, Bolt will be faster than 99.999999% of the human population, the only people that would start to beat him would be college track stars and Olympians.
I think this is it, too. The average high school wide receiver could probably outrun 98% of Americans in a sprint.
Reach world class requires your genetics to be world class to begin with. His untrained state is at a level that few athletes can reach even with training.
True. Bolt could have done zero training, eaten nothing but nuggets and thick shakes his entire life, and (assuming he kept his weight reasonable), could have walked onto a track for the first time at age 22 and run sub-12. Assuming he didn’t destroy his hamstrings on Day 1, in 3 days he would have been running sub-11.