"Sabuten"

There was one word I had no idea it was on my dad's blog a few weeks ago. It's a record called "Sabuten" in his ultra-marathon. There even was a comment that "Sabuten" is a great accomplishment. "Sabuten"??? Sounds like "Saboten" ('cactus' in Japanese), but I can tell it obviously isn't!

After I came back, when he talked about the race, he told me he broke the record of 10 hours in 10 km race. "Sabuten" was "Sub-Ten." And it seems to be a technical, yet common term among the runners. "Sub" is used to mean "below" here - like a "subway" running below the roads, or a "submarine" goes under water. But somehow this just didn't feel right to me. There're many "sub-" words that just aren't about "below." "Substandard" is lower than standard, and "suburban" is outside of urban areas, and the "subs" at school is substitute teachers; somehow, "sub-s" feel "subordinate" and "subjunctive," like assisting or reaching a higher level, and didn't feel quite right as the name for a glorious record of going below 10 hours.

Then I came up with a hypothesis, maybe this was a Japanese-invented English. So I tried googling in Japanese "Sabuten" and there were numerous entries, but when I tried googling in English "Sub Ten" the entries in the meaning of "Below ten" was not many. The first entry was about a record, but "below ten seconds" in a much shorter run. Maybe???

I also wanted to see if I can find support for my perceived undesirable connotation. So I went to the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary and looked up "sub-." There were four entries, and and they were 1. "below" like in 'sub-zero temperatures,' 2. "under, below, from below, lower in rank" as in 'subtropical', 'subnormal', and 'subterranean,' 3. "not equal" as in 'a sublieutenant' and 'a subordinate,' and 4. "smaller" as in ' a subcontinent,' 'a subcommittee meeting' and 'to subdivide.' So I guess "Sub Ten" is the first usage, but the usages 2 and 3 are the ones that came to me.

Hmm. This is interesting (to me!). So, is "Sub Ten" a name of an ultra-marathon record worldwide or not? I don't know yet. If you know, please let me know!