Who had the better career: Alan Culpepper or Linda Somers-Smith?

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Alan Culpepper or who?

Linda Somers:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linda_Somers

After reading that wiki page, I'm changing my vote to Linda. Geez, I did not do my homework before posting. Still, I can understand a vote for Alan. Great debate, just a great debate.

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A. Culpepper made it into Daniel's Running Formula!

While Linda Somers-Smith ran some ridiculous times in her late 40's and 50's, it's Culpepper. Two Olympic teams, a NCAA title, and was a lot closer to the best in the world.

But.... Linda did win the Chicago Marathon.

B.U.M.P.

Linda had impressive longevity but Culpepper actually had national titles.

Wossamotta wrote:

Linda had impressive longevity but Culpepper actually had national titles.

So did Linda.

Linda had the more impressive career- won some major and minor marathons (Chicago, Grandma's, CIM), Olympian, Multiple-time National Champion, 7 Olympic Trials. She wasn't exceptionally fast, but she competed at a high level for a really long time.

/thread

Is Culpepper officially retired? What is he up to these days? Any more kids with Shayne or whatever her name is?

I did my own research:

Culpepper married American distance runner Shayne Culpepper (formerly Shayne Wille), also a University of Colorado graduate, in 1997. They have three sons, Cruz(b. 2002), Levi (b. June 2006), and Rocco (b. May 2008). Shayne also represented the United States in the 2000 Sydney and 2004 Athens Olympic Games.

And Wikipedia has a "Recent News" section on the Culpepper page that is current as of 2008 stating that Alan opened a running store called Solepepper in Louisville, CO.

A Solepepper shop opened in Denver two years ago maybe. Haven't been there so not sure if it is still around.

Occasionally Alan will pop up on the local news - he does some sort of work for Competitor, so before the Denver Half he'll do a small bit on a local morning show.

There was a time when it looked like Culpepper would be the next great American marathoner. He debuted with a 2:09 something to tie Alberto's american debut record. Then he won the 2004 Olympic Marathon trials (Meb was 2nd). In the Athens Games he even finished 12th but that was understandedly overshadowed by Meb and Deena's medals. I think he ran a couple more marathons in the 2:11-2:13 range and went on the DNF the 2008 trials in Central Park. It would be interesting to speculate on what would have happened if he had moved up to the marathon distance earlier in his career.

He did have that Last Hurrah moment winning the USATF XC title in Boulder the year that Ritz and Goucher went out too hard and faded.

It seems that elite women are more likely to continue running competitively into their Masters years. Even if they aren't competing for the overall title, you'll see more elite women running decent times for their age.

I can't imagine a guy like Culpepper running Boston at age 45 in 2:21 or whatever.

Seems like the elite men who do races in the later years do them more like "fun runs" for an appearance fee. I can remember Rodgers trying to run 2:50 or so for a marathon sometime about 5-10 years ago. Compare that to Joan Benoit, she is training pretty hard to hit that same time in her 50's.

Can women physically handle higher level training over a long period or do the men just not care to?

I recall seeing (a link) on here a while ago that Alan had moved to San Diego to work full-time for Competitor Group.

Rumor has Culp is planning on a comeback.

Maybe this is a stupid question, but why are we comparing the careers of Alan Culpepper and Linda Somers? Is there some sort of connection between them that I don't know about? It just seems like a really random pairing.

Moe Fasa wrote:

Maybe this is a stupid question, but why are we comparing the careers of Alan Culpepper and Linda Somers? Is there some sort of connection between them that I don't know about? It just seems like a really random pairing.

They were both once tops on their gender for the marathon in the USA. This is a natural BATTLE OF THE SEXES.

Looks to be an even split thus far.