No name to National Champion

As an Irish runner, I think it's worth checking out the current crop of leading Irish male marathon runners - Kevin Seaward, Mick Clohisey, Paul Pollock, Sean Hehir and others. They were all good-but-not-amazing as juniors (overshadowed by the brilliant likes of Martin Fagan), and not-quite-elite as u23s, but have progressed steadily over their careers, and are now running regular 2:14-2:17 times (4 under 2:16 at recent berlin marathon) with a lot more to come.

This is testament to (1) their perseverence, and hard training over the course of a decade, and (2) the long-term vision of a number of excellent coaches - e.g. Jerry Kiernan, Dick Hooper, and Andy Hobdell come to mind. Pollock in particular has gone from mid-pack in university to a sub 8 3k, 62 minute half, and top 30 in world champs marathon.

Not amazing by top-end US marathon standards, but for a country with a population more in line with a single US state (1/60th or so the size of the total US), it's impressive long-term talent development.

Leewitw wrote:

Who do you know that went from just that "in shape dude in high school/college" to a monster. Obviously not a National Champ, but some one who was running 1:59s, 4:20s and 15:50s who a couple years later was in the 1:4xs, 3:5xs and 14:xxs. Just curious if you guys had any personal stories.

I know a guy that went from 4:3X 1600 as a Jr in High School to a walk on (barely) at a Power 5 team. Never got a sniff from D1 college recruiters. Ran 14:4X 5000 as a frosh. Just finished top 30 at XC Regionals (at a strong Regional, not South, South Central, etc.).

Ran about 25 - 45 mpw in HS. Upped to 75 - 85 mpw as a Frosh, then 85 - 105 mpw as a Soph. Also did real strength training for the first time in his life. He is also training with guys that are fast, which helps a lot.

He's not a MD guy, so don't know what he'd run for 800 / 1500, but given his strong XC improvement, he should run 8:2X/14:2X/sub 30 +/- in 3K/5K/10K this year. We'll see.

So, to you HS guys that are on the bubble, it can be done. You just gotta put in the work.

Leewitw wrote:

Who do you know that went from just that "in shape dude in high school/college" to a monster. Obviously not a National Champ, but some one who was running 1:59s, 4:20s and 15:50s who a couple years later was in the 1:4xs, 3:5xs and 14:xxs. Just curious if you guys had any personal stories.

Most of the top guys in the seventies and eighties had relatively humble high school careers. At the top of that list is Bill Rodgers. He ran, I think, 4:3x and 9:3x in hs. Even in college his big goal was to break 9 minutes for two miles. He ended up being the best marathoner in the world for most of a five year period. Famously on here, Brian Sell was rather ordinary in high school. There's tons of guys (and women) who went from average to world beaters.

His name is Sebastian Coe.

Ran 1:59.9, 4:05.9 aged 16.

Chris Stadler was a Boston-area 4:45 miler in high school. Went to Haverford and Tom Donnelly turned him into an 8x All-American and 2x D-III champ in the 5,000m. Just ran 1:06 in the Philly Half.

Me thinks yer lookin fer this list.

Great list.

Benji Durden. I just assumed he was faster in high school. That's awesome.

Abby D arrived at Dartmouth without breaking 5:00, finished up with multiple NCAA titles.

Ricky Flynn was a decent runner in hs, but quickly rose to prominence in D3. He won xc nats and went on to place in the top 20 at the last oly marathon trials. Known for sitting back in the field and kicking like a cat out of hell.