<p>I’m not lying, I ran a 4:33 mile in 8th grade. </p>
<p>For all you runners out there, who know the kind of work involved to run that fast: I really did work hard for it. 50 mile weeks anyone? Endless hill repeats until your legs burn? Quarters at race pace until exhaustion? </p>
<p>Once I started to do well, I pushed harder and harder until I burnt out. Yeah, my mom, a great runner herself, said I’d run a 4 minute mile in high school. If I seem flippant about possibly being in the same category as Jim Ryun and Marty Liquori, I’m sorry, I just went too hard too fast.</p>