It’s surprising how many people knock time off their PBs, even from unremarkable to unremarkable (“oh yeh, my marathon PB is 3:26 when it’s actually 3:56). I quite enjoy “fact checking” such claims, if only to get a little more insight into the human condition! I don’t do it to be mean, and never mention it to them or others, just gives me a little chuckle.
Agree a 6km event would raise an eyebrow, but a 23 min one doesn’t as such. Quite a few women in my old run club could comfortably achieve such a time and I presume a good cyclist would/could be a good runner?
Couple of the “odder” running distances, that were also hugely popular in Sydney, were the JP Morgan event (worldwide thing) at 5.7km and the City2Surf (city centre to Bondi Beach) which was 14km. Only city in the world in which everybody knows their 14km time!
I enjoyed Marathon Investigation and some of the LetsRun forum posts about cheats. I was able to follow the Marathon Man (Rob Young) implosion one in real-time from the day accusations were first made. Brilliant! I was refreshing my browser multiple times a day.