Do you oldsters remember these names?

I remember Dr. George Sheehan, who helped me with a cardiac problem.

Kostrulaba and Glasser ring bells but I can't recall why. I think they both wrote something.

Bassler was the LA County pathologist who once said that anyone who had run a marathon was immune to heart attacks. He also used to drink a six pack of beer during his long runs. Recently he came to believe that runners dying from heart attacks when they're middle aged are not drinking beer. He thinks it provides some sort of protection. I have the e-mail somewhere but it would take some real digging to find.

Young was decent marathoner, 2:25 I think, and ultra runner and later ran the National Running Data Center or something like that. He also was a multiple world record holder in events that almost no one ran, indoor marathons and the like and he developed a "Collapse Point" theory that said a runner needed to average at least 1/3 of their desired racing distance per day for 2 or 3 months before their race to have the endurance to finish.

Selye was a fairly well known physiologist who studied reactions to stress. He thought there was adaptive energy and kinetic energy, the latter renewable and the former not. Once you were out of adaptive energy you were dead but you could develop more kinetic energy by getting fit and could use it to some extent in place of adaptive energy thus delaying the day you totally ran out of it.

Osler was a multiple national road racing champion in the mid 60s, a 2:29 marathoner and good ultra runner. He wrote "conditioning of long distance runners" in 1967, a classic, and a couple bigger books shortly afterward. He was one of the early advocates of slow training. I actually wrote a profile of him that appeared in "Marathon and Beyond" a few years back. He's still running despite some heart problems that don't allow him to run hard. Recently, he loaded all of Browning Ross' "Long Distance Log" to the RRCA's website.

Sheehan was Runner's World's medical columnist who became a general columnist and later authored numerous "philosophical" books about running which sold quite well and made him into a major speaker at pre-race clinics. He was also the first person older than 50 to run a mile in under 4:50.

Gabe Mirkin was another running MD. I think he really wanted to be another Sheehan. I know he had a radio show about fitness and running on CBS for a time.

Glasser wrote "Positive Addiction," which was frequently used to explain runners.

I recall Osler, Sheehan, and Mirkin as well, but another poster already covered them.

My favorite Sheehan quote is the one when he was asked what the best exercise was. Instead of saying "running," as he was expected to, he said "the one you'll do." So right!

Dr. Thomas Bassler I believe said if you ran at least 30 minues a day you would never have a heart attack. Also had his young son run a 50 mile track race in Santa Monica at a young age.

Hans Selye I believe had a list of symptoms indicating over training.

George Sheehan ran an Erma Bombeck style commentary on running in the 70s.

Memory getting a little faint on the others....

I just heard something from Mirkin last week.

Lorenzo the Magnificent wrote:

Thaddeus Kostrubala, Thomas Bassler, William Glasser, Ken Young, Hans Selye, Tom Osler, George Sheehan, Gabe Mirkin

What do you most remember about them? What commonalities?

Oslel, Sheehab, Mirkin

There is a cool pic of Osler in an old NJ Runner Mag from the early 80s. I think it was from the Atlantic City Marathon

Only familiar with some of them, but for commonality - Did they all have the title of Dr?

Lorenzo the Magnificent wrote:

Thaddeus Kostrubala, Thomas Bassler, William Glasser, Ken Young, Hans Selye, Tom Osler, George Sheehan, Gabe Mirkin

What do you most remember about them? What commonalities?

Gabe Mirkin had radio show that I enjoyed back in the 90s. And he would often say; "the odds are overwhelming".

Hawk runner wrote:

There is a cool pic of Osler in an old NJ Runner Mag from the early 80s. I think it was from the Atlantic City Marathon

Osler is often credited with the rule of thumb that every pound lost equals two seconds per mile faster in distance events.

Yes, most of them were doctors, and most have them had an idea or theory that ranged from odd to downright goofy.

I remember Mirkins kids running all around Washington DC Summer track meets and road races. They had every age group record imaginable. Smooth running machines, but they burned out by the time they were 13 years old.

Ken Young still runs the Association of Road Racing Statisticians:

http://arrs.net/

He also created his own currency and uses it in his local community.

malmo wrote:

I remember Mirkins kids running all around Washington DC Summer track meets and road races. They had every age group record imaginable. Smooth running machines, but they burned out by the time they were 13 years old.

The name jogged my memory and I remember going to see a son who was a podiatrist about 10 years ago. He told me that some of his age group records (say, 8 years old) still stood.

Dr. Tom Osler held the American record for 10 miles back in the 60's. He wrote "The Conditioning of Distance Runners" which I read when I was 14. Of all the training literature, Osler's concepts still ring true today.

Joe vigil always used to talk about Hans Selye at his clinics. Selye wrote The Stress of Life which explores facets of stress and explains how to combat both the physical and mental stress of everyday life.

As HRE notes, Ken Young founded the National Running Data Center. His efforts were crucial in the early years of the running boom in the late '70s for getting courses accurately measured. Before him race directors often measured courses with car odometers! In 1981 when Salazar ran his "record" 2:08:13 in New York, Young found that the course had been measured along the blue line, not the tangents, and was, as I recall, roughly 200 yards short. Salazar was furious with Young, claims he ran the blue line, and still calls himself a world record setter in that race. Salazar should, of course, have been angry with the initial course measurers for not following the tangents. And he should be embarrassed for admitting he was too stupid to cut the tangents, if he indeed did not do so. I ran 2:32:30 that day at age 44, perhaps my best marathon, given my age, and I sure as hell cut all those tangents in Central Park, fighting for every second.

To me Ken Young is one of the unsung heroes of our sport.

Coach wrote:

Joe vigil always used to talk about Hans Selye at his clinics. Selye wrote The Stress of Life which explores facets of stress and explains how to combat both the physical and mental stress of everyday life.

Selye coined the concept of the General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS) which is also the basis of supercompensation theory. It wasn't just about running or sport, but had implications for survival, wildlife population dynamics, and ecology.

Lorenzo the Magnificent wrote:

Thaddeus Kostrubala, Thomas Bassler, William Glasser, Ken Young, Hans Selye, Tom Osler, George Sheehan, Gabe Mirkin

What do you most remember about them? What commonalities?

I remember them all. They all had doctorates of one kind or another. Most of them had some good ideas and probably helped a lot of people, but honestly, I get exhausted just thinking about all of the running gurus and medicine men (and women, like Joan Ullyot) of that era.