Bell Lapper wrote:
Most runners who can do a 3 hour marathon dont just suddenly appear on the scene, run 3 hours and then never run again. If his claimed 3 hour marathon cant be found, perhaps other races are available such as a half marathon. Using predictive calculators such as the McMillan Calculator, it would be simple to extrapolate times from those races in order to see if a 3 hour marathon was within the realm of possibility, around that same time.
http://www.mcmillanrunning.com/index.php/calcUsage/calculate
Actually, not always so. I was a rugby player in college in the late seventies, early eighties and on my second marathon ran 3:03+. I've tried to retrieve the results a couple times to prove to a friend I was faster but I had no luck.
I had no idea how to train, thinking that starting 6-8 weeks before the race was a long time.
I ran four marathons in two years, the last in 1985 and did not run one again until 17 years later and ended up running in the mid-two fifties at age 47.
That 3:03 by the way, was hundreds of places from the front in a field of probably only about 1000 in 1983.
That same time in that same race would today land you in the top forty.