Happened across some old Falmouth pics, one with Curp hammering away from Murphy and Leek. With minimal leg speed, he certainly had a stellar road career with 28 flat track credentials, while holding the AR half marathon record til RHall broke it.
Any information on his training (self coached I believe) is much appreciated.
He lacked fast leg turnover so he skipped the track workouts to improve his speed which was his weakness, he instead chose to become the strongest strenght runner possible. Everything built up his strength, the ability to maintain a brutal pace for the whole race knowing that if anybody was with him the last 200/400m, he would not be able to outkick.
Most runs were unstructured efforts, very very few 20times 400m and such. Steady hard effort 10-12 milers at least twice a week and moderatley long run once a week.
Did not worship the clock, just ran by effort.
Oh and he ate right, allowed rest days and never ever partook in the devils alcohol.
You could count on Mark keeping the pace honest.
3 main workouts each week:
Long 15-18 miles, 2nd half hard
10 miles hard
11 mile fartlek, typically 4x5min hard
Other days easy distance, occasional track workout.
Sounds like Curp was similar to Rob de Castella in terms of lacking great 5k/10K speed but had freakish strength. I still remember Deek running away from Carlos Lopes in the Rotterdam Marathon.
As I understand it, he did all the training here in the hot humid midwest... no altitude... unless you consider 900 feet altitude.
Adam C wrote:
Sounds like Curp was similar to Rob de Castella in terms of lacking great 5k/10K speed but had freakish strength. I still remember Deek running away from Carlos Lopes in the Rotterdam Marathon.
I think that was Lopes' first marathon, and it's been said that he purposely did not win, in order to keep a low profile for the next year, 1984. I think it didn't make any difference, as he won easily at Los Angeles.
Lopes then ran a 2:07:12 WR at Rotterdam in 1985 at age 38.
Curp lacked the long runs needed to run a full marathon. Had he not ate it the last 3 miles of CHI, we would have seen 2:05/6.
Curp had the AR in the 15k for a while at around 43:00. He was the prototype road racer at 10k-25k. The best in the game for a while.
It might be true about his marathon preparation that he didn't have enough long runs. He could hammer all out for longer than most.
His training sounds a lot like Nenow's, another former AR holder. Hard, steady running without specific track-oriented work. Nenow probably put in more miles, but I'm not sure about that.
Mark Curp interview of his halfmarathon WR.
The last time I competed in a race with Curp he was a master, must have been 2001 at Parkersburg. I recall about a half mile into the race he jokingly made a cast towards Eddy Hellybuck like he was trying to reel him back in. Eddy was still running 2:12 marathons at that age and Curp lost his edge back in the early 90's.
I think he had the course record at one point at that race. He was a balls to the wall runner that ran out of time but when he was on he was like a truck. Can't run that way in a marathon. And he didn't have the speed to compete at the top nationally on the track. On the roads at that time certain guys could win that way up until half-marathon or 25k.
He had his era timed perfect. And made some good cabbage. Doesn't work these days for guys like him. Or John Sinclair. You have to either be a 27:30/13:10 on the track or make the marathon your money. He was a similar guy like myself. No speed, but the ability to hang on for a long time at an effort that was close to max. The marathon takes years to learn for most and who knows if he had the inherent capacity to pull that off.
What does he have for a marathon best? I seem to recall that he managed one or two decent ones but maybe I'm confusing him with someone else.
Curp ran 2:11:45 at Twin Cities, which I believe was his fastest marathon.
I recall 2:10:30 for some reason. The 1988 trials where Mark Conover came from no where to win Curp was in a big battle late in the race with Paul Gompers to hang close to that 3rd spot.
At least 2:11.
Thanks. That sounds right.
No it doesn't sound right. Curp ran 2:15 - 2:16. Obviosly not doing the work required for the marathon hurt his chances.
No, Malmo, Curp ran 2:11:45 at Twin Cities.
I'll trust you on that Malmo. I thought Curp was first or second at Chicago one year around there.
Why would I start setting a precedent by being wrong about something?
TY. I was going off of memory.