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Is Mark Zuckerberg faster than you?

The Facebook founder ran a 5K over the weekend. His time might surprise you

Mark Zuckerberg Photo by: Mark Zuckerberg/Facebook

Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook parent company Meta, is doing some post-race flexing on his social media platform after sharing the results of a 5K race he and a group of friends ran over the weekend.

Mark Zuckerberg pre- and post-5K, April 30, 2023
Mark Zuckerberg/Facebook

The 38-year-old Zuckerberg has posted photos of himself and three friends before and after running the Stanford Medicine MyHeart Counts 5K in Stanford, Calif., on April 30. The race is an annual fundraiser to benefit the Stanford Center for Inherited Cardiovascular Disease, which is located just a few kilometres south of Meta’s corporate headquarters in Menlo Park.

“Good 5K with friends,” Zuckerberg posted on his personal account after the race.

Along with the pre- and post-race group photos, Zuckerberg posted a shot of a Garmin watch, revealing a time for the 5K: 19:34.8.

“Whole crew hit our sub-20 min goal,” Zuckerberg continued, “but that before and after photo shows we had to push!”

Results posted at raceroster.com confirm 19:34 as Zuckerberg’s official time for the 5K.

Mark Zuckerberg's Garmin showing 5K time
Mark Zuckerberg/Facebook

Judging by Zuckerberg’s follow-up comments to his original Facebook post, his performance marks a return to form for the multi-billionaire. Responding to a congratulatory comment from one of his followers, Zuckerberg replies: “Thanks! I don’t think I’ve done a sub-20 min 5K since high school.”

Elsewhere in the comments, Zuckerberg writes that he had been on a hiatus from running, but that his recent mixed-martial-arts training had resulted in fitness gains that helped him get his running game back on track.

“I actually stopped [running] for a while and got stronger from MMA. Then I ran for about a month before this race and realized I was faster than before.”

One follower asked Zuckerberg whether his return to running might be the nudge he needs to lead his company into the running-tech market.

“Way to go! Meta needs to start making its own wearables under Oculus haha!” Oculus is the virtual-reality headset brand Facebook purchased in 2014.

“Maybe one day!” Zuckerberg replied.

Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Zuckerberg/Facebook

This isn’t the first time Zuckerberg has posted about his running exploits on Facebook. In 2016 he posted a gallery of his favourite personal running photos to celebrate hitting his distance goal for that year—365 miles (587 kilometres)—which he reached on July 14. Zuckerberg wrote that he ran his fastest mile (1,609m) of 2016 in 5:58, or roughly 3:42/km pace.

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