Who are some names of least known great distance runners?

it depends is you mean overlooked by runners or by the general public

buddy edelen

Overlooked by runners.

Who was/is buddy edelon? What did he do?

history student wrote:

Overlooked by runners.

Who was/is buddy edelon? What did he do?

That sort of makes the point, eh. Best US marathon runner in the early to mid 60s and arguably the first American marathoner to be truly world class. Originally from Minnesota, he moved to England after college because he knew he'd have to compete against the best in the world regularly to get as good as he could be. In 1963, I believe, he won the Polytechnic Marathon in 2:14:28 which was the fastest marathon ever run. He had sciatic problems at Tokyo but managed to finish 6th there.

Find a copy of Frank Murphy's "A Cold, Clear, Day."

history student wrote:

I'm curious of some of the lesser known greats out there. There's got to be some runners in the past that have done great things but somehow are overlooked historically. Who are some and what did they do that made them great?

Thanks

Who held the High School Mile record before Jim Ryun went sub-4 in 1965? Answer Tom Sullivan at 4:03 in the early 1960s.

He went to Villanova and set some world records in the NCAA (4 x880, I believe).

Last I heard he was living in Hinsdale IL and training to break the mile AR for men over the age of 60 (Held by Vic Heckler of Chicago set in 2001 and the fifth avenue mile when he ran a 4:57 at age 61).

you might enjoy this website:

http://www.runningpast.com/

i found it about 3 years ago when i was in college, and it kinda boosted my spirits during XC season. it helped me to take ownership over my running, and realized that my running was something a little bigger than just myself.

Most are known well to me, but at least on here and most other places where people talk about distance running they aren't talked about much.

Steve Jones- marathon 2:07 '85

Bob Schul- 5000 O. Games gold medalist

Derek Clayton- marathon 2:08 '69 (took around 4:00 off the WR)

Basil Heatly- 2:13 marathon '64

Jim Peters- 2:17 marathon '54)

Kenji Kimihara- 2:13 marathon '67

Gelindo Bordin- 2:08 marathon '90

John Campbell- 2:11 marathon '90 at age 41

jonathan tillman.

I agree Edelen is definitely number one. Some other Americans:

Joie Ray - Co-held the WR for the indoor mile at 4:12 in 1925, finished 4th in the 1928 Olympic Marathon.

Don Lash - Won the US XC Champs 7 straight times, broke Paavo Nurmi's WR for 2 miles with an 8:58 in 1936.

Lou Zamperini - 8th in the '36 Olympic 5000 at age 19, his NCAA mile record (4:08.3) lasted 15 years, career cut short by WW2, his biography "Devil at My Heels" is one hell of a book.

Horace Ashenfelter - Held WR for the 3000 Steeple at 8:45.4 (1952), gold medalist in the steeple at the '56 Olympics.

Dave Wottle - Co-held the WR for 800m at 1:44.3 (1972), gold medalist in the 800 at the '72 Olympics, I started running because of seeing his Olympic race - if you can find a video of it the finish is astounding.

Rick Wohlhuter - WR for 1000m (2:13.9) is still the AR 32 years later, bronze medalist in the 800 at the '76 Olympics.

Dick Beardsley - 2nd at Boston to Salazar in '82 in 2:08:54, won Grandma's in 2:09:36, won London, career cut short by dog attack followed by an agricultural accident.

Pat Porter - Won the US XC Champs 8 times, 4th at World Cross in 1984.

Steve Spence - Bronze medalist in the '91 World Champs Marathon.

Blowing Rock Master wrote:

Horace Ashenfelter - Held WR for the 3000 Steeple at 8:45.4 (1952), gold medalist in the steeple at the '56 Olympics.

Ashenfelter won the 1952 Olympics in WR time (8:45.4).

jim lightbody - yes, that was his name....

Johnny Hayes, gold medalist in the 1908 Olympics in London. Time 2:55.18.

This race is famous for Italian Dorando Pietri of Italy, who collapsed several times and ran the wrong way. Not far from the finish-line, two of the officials took him by the arms, and brought him to the line. As a consequence, after crossing the line he was disqualified. The medal went to American Johnny Hayes who was second over the line, but the glory went to Pietri. Since he himself had not been responsible for his disqualification Queen Alexandra the next day awarded him a gold cup in recognition of his achievement.

malmo wrote:

Ashenfelter won the 1952 Olympics in WR time (8:45.4).

Halfway my bad. USATF Website shows him winning in both '52 and '56. I should have caught that.

Blowing Rock Master wrote:

Halfway my bad. USATF Website shows him winning in both '52 and '56. I should have caught that.

You're right, your source should have been enough reason to double-check. ;-)

Old School: Puttemans

New(er) School: Moses Kiptanui - fast, verasatile, consistent

Good stuff. I have heard of several of these men but have absolutely NEVER heard of others. I also like the fact that you guys have listed some books that I have also never heard of.

Any women that are less known? A myth is that Joan Benoit was sort of the catalyst for starting womens running but I know that cant be the beginning of women running competitively. Who were some of the women that broke the gender barrier, etc..

Two of the very best books on this subject are:

-Peter Lovesey, "The Kings of Distance" (1968)

-Ron Clarke, "The Lonely Breed" (1967)

Both are long out of print and hard to find (especially Lovesey), but both are really worth hunting for (or getting via interlibrary loan).

* Bobbie Gib: the lady who ran Boston before Kathrine S

* Dave McKenzie: the guy who actually won Boston when Kathrine's incidence topped the front page of the newspaper.

* Bill Baillie: one of the most versatile runners of all time, Kim Stevenson is probably the only one who promote his name.

* Marty Liquori: truly one of the greatest middle distance runners the US has ever seen but never performed up to his potential at the Olympics.

* Shigeru and Takeshi Soh: never competed in the US except for the 84 Olympics. Shigeru's 2:09 was truly remarkable back in 1978--sub 15 minutes for each 5k till 25k.

* Vicki Huber: finished 6th in 3000 in 88 Olympics ahead of Mary Slaney.

* Bob Hodge: he ran 2:10 for God's sake!

* Jeff Wells: finished second to Rodgers at 77 Boston, only 2 seconds behind. Posessed great speed with 2:10 PR.

* Steve Hoag: finished second to Rodgers at 75 Boston where he set the American record.

US has done a terrible job acknowledging some of their great runners in the past. Runner's World tried it for a while but didn't last too long. If anything, perhaps letsrun has been doing a great job but not enough. I went to this local high school XC camp a month ago. Out of 40 kids, only 3 or 4 knew who Bill Rodgers was! One or two know who Jim Ryun was. About a half knew who Kristi Yamaguchi was!

Add Dick Quax too. Chris Wardlow of Australia said he was truly one of the greatest distance runners in history. It took two of the greatests, Kip Keino and Lasse Viren, to deny him from the ultimate; Commonwealth and Olympic gold medal. I'm still convinced, had he been fully healthy, he would have won gold in 10,000 at Montreal.