Salazar still fastest American at NYC 43 years later

Don't have any specific drug names but someone I know who did a good bit of training with Salazar when he was running with Greater Boston thought he, Salazar, was on something he shouldn't have been. I'm taking no position on this except to say that History Buff isn't just making stuff up.

Did you miss the post from longjackss who claims to have been training with Al Sal saying that he was too busy and not bright enough to be trying anything but hard work.

Different things work for different people, but IMO too many men are training/racing primarily for the marathon, rather than for a wide range of distances/races.

Look, I get it: People have to support themselves, and sponsors call a lot of the shots. But the guys BITD ('70s, '80s) who were competitive at high/international levels were doing a lot of racing, at various distances, and handling all those distances including the marathon with training that I think was probably closer to what we'd think of as 10k-focused.

We know that he was using DMSO. It was widely reported (and certainly legal).

Didn't they change the last ca. 10KM of the NYC Marathon course in the last 10 years or so? Something about how you traverse the length of Central Park no longer being a long, slight incline but more flat?

DMSO or as my coach called " D'moso" I think helped with the pain/ swelling in my knees but didn’t improve performance. Probably bad for my liver too as you could taste it in your mouth almost right away, oysters. Straight through the skin and into your bloodstream.

That's not true. Only on letsrun. geez.

I remember seeing a picture of Salazar in Sports Illustrated in the late 70’s where he was wearing some sort of oxygen control machine on a training run. He was always trying different things to get an edge on his competition.

Al Sal didn't go to the Olympics in 1981?

If a 1500m race was discovered to be 1450m, it wouldn't count just like Salazar's race shouldn't count. However, this is the cesspool that is LetsRun.com so idiot posters will continue to argue against it.

Incredible.

In fact I did miss that post. But had I seen it I still would know someone who trained with Salazar and said he, and other guys from GBTC, were suspicious of him even back then.

yes, was introduced to dmso at that time. which i used sparingly to this day. it is kind of a miracle substance. i dont trust anything that works like a miracle, but use it once in say 10 years, for an injury that wont heal on its own.

regarding training with Sal, yes and no, i was in the B group, on the track with the A group of Sal Mcchesney, Chappa, Borleau, Martin, where the A group would do things like 6x1 mile at 420 plus minus, and the B group did 430 plus minus.

regarding what PEDs were in play, a guy like Malmo would most probably have the higher quality info on Oregon distance PED use.

i simply was ob the ground. and the A group were in their own little group, paralel world, though knew affable mcchesney, borleau, david mack was a nice guy, but with a dangerous aura.

there was Athletic West , never knew the inside of that, that group did not smell of PEDs, though everyone would be small time dabbling with dmso and other stuff.

Guys like Malmo on the inside, they have the best info.

The 1981 NYC Marathon course was remeasured and verified as 150 meters short.

1. There were no Olympics in 1981.

2. The U.S. boycotted the 1980 summer Olympics.

3. The answer to your question is "no," for the reasons above.

Nope, it was measured after 1982 after the lines were all repainted and the pavement was redone all through Central Park. The Tavern on the Green finish line was also moved forward about 12 meters.

I wonder if he ran that with sticky fingers.

Honestly, Bill Rodgers' 2:11 solo as a training run - literally training through - to win in 1977 on his way to the win at Fukuoka in December is nearly as impressive as the Salazar time. He ran 110 miles that week leading up to New York. Rodgers' race was 47 years ago.

You have quite the imagination. I was no insider on information re: Oregon or Athletics West PED use. I was at AW the 1st year 77-78 and there were no PEDs that year... except for the weight guys who admitted as much. I suspect the runners started in 79, but purely conjecture.. but I know that at least three of them were using by 1980, because they told me so.

You are correct. To further compound the fact that Salazar has the fastest American time on the NYC course, there are two changes to the course these days that make it faster (which is why I think disallowing Salazar's '81 time is bull):

1) the area of long island city is a little faster with the gentrification of the roads there and the smoothing of the corners after you cross the bridge from Greenpoint and

2) and this is a big change: the entrance into Central Park used to be before the Guggenheim and included a small, sharp, painful hill right at the entrance (96th street-ish), along with a dip and another uphill before you got to the reservoir entrance (90th street). Those were taken away and you have a much smoother, and faster, entrance right at 90th now.

I love how hard Mantz runs, its impossible not to like him as the top American marathoner, but Salazar's run is superior. For everything that happened after, and there are a ton of reasons to dislike him (if you wish) over the last 20 years, it is important to admit that, in 1981, he was the at his peak, one of the two best distance runners in the world, period.