Any runner in that race could have made the same move at that time. There is nothing "ballsy" about it. It was the wrong move to make. I could run the first 400 of my next mile race in 54, that doesn't mean I have balls, it means I am foolish.
6th is nothing to be praising 28 years after the fact. You're like the college that keeps talking about the time they made the Sweet Sixteen at the NCAA basketball tournament 30 years ago. No one cares about their or Bob's mediocrity.
would be interested to read that if you had the link, as well as his kiptanui story. loved to watch that guy run. i remember a story once regarding komen and doing an entirw workout on the track with a spike bag on his head...
It's not an incredible running story - just a funny one.
The Kiptanui story Kennedy told me is a much better running with with real running lessons - I don't mind retelling even though I've posted this a few times over the years on relevant threads.
So the Kenyans of that era in particular hated running on the roads/pavement and the ones that were in Kim McDonalds group used to stay in Teddington, London. They did all their running in Bushy Park and the houses were like half a mile away from the park entrance. They would either job incredibly slowly to get there or even walk to reduce the impact from even a short run on asphalt. Kennedy told me that about a week before Weltklasse in 95 (the first sub 8), he arranged to go for a run with Moses in the park and so the headed off at a snails pace - just faster than walking. At the park gate, Moses said to him "I don't feel very good, I'm tired" so turned around and went back which wasn't that unusual as again, the top Kenyans of that era ran very much on feeling rather than keeping to a schedule. But then Kiptanui then basically slept/stayed in his house rest of the week - basically just watching war movies and only really walking to the supermarket to get food. BK said that at one point he was like "there is no chance this guy should even bother going to Zurich let alone try and run sub 8" he seemed that blown out but come Wednesday he flew to Zurich and the rest is history, goes out and drops the first sub 8 in the chase.
And of course the real takeaway (and Bob said this) was how so many Americans/Europeans etc would freak out about being low on energy a week out from an important race and actually spend even more energy worrying about it/trying to do some kind of "reassurance" workout as soon as they could. Kiptanui on the other hand wasn't plussed at all about basically not running at all for a week because he knew he was in shape, he just needed to be fit and charged up - very similar to the famous Bannister situation where he intentionally rested for 5 days because he knew he had peaked mentally and physically.
I never forgot that story - I now think about how cool it was Kennedy told it to me.
For those of us who's formative running years were the 80s and 90s, it cannot be overstated how much of an inferiority complex the western world had with regards to the: Kenyans, Ethiopians, and Moroccans. Seeing Kennedy in there mixing it up gave everyone a little hope that we could still do it and, IMO, paved the way for the running resurgence that began in earnest in the early 2000s.
Any runner in that race could have made the same move at that time. There is nothing "ballsy" about it. It was the wrong move to make. I could run the first 400 of my next mile race in 54, that doesn't mean I have balls, it means I am foolish.
6th is nothing to be praising 28 years after the fact. You're like the college that keeps talking about the time they made the Sweet Sixteen at the NCAA basketball tournament 30 years ago. No one cares about their or Bob's mediocrity.
No -any runner in that race could not have made that move then, and still finished 6th.
Watch the race, his move broke the pack apart, strung everyone out single file and the move ultimately dropped a bunch of guys.
Kennedy trained with and regularly mixed it up with a lot of the other guys in that race. He knew he did not have the finishing kick to be anywhere close to the front at the end. That move was his chance to do something unexpected.
It is always ballsy when a non-favorite takes the lead and increases the pace, especially so late in the race. It takes courage and guts to even try that.
The move by Kennedy was similar to the move Kenneth Rooks made in the steeplechase at the Olympics this year. No one thought either of those two had any business taking the lead and upping the pace so late in the race. It was really ballsy for both of them to try.
The move worked out better for Rooks than Kennedy but it was ballsy for both.
Any runner in that race could have made the same move at that time. There is nothing "ballsy" about it. It was the wrong move to make. I could run the first 400 of my next mile race in 54, that doesn't mean I have balls, it means I am foolish.
6th is nothing to be praising 28 years after the fact. You're like the college that keeps talking about the time they made the Sweet Sixteen at the NCAA basketball tournament 30 years ago. No one cares about their or Bob's mediocrity.
I can’t actually believe this post got upvotes. And Bob Kennedy was far more like Butler making it to the NCAA championship final against Duke and having a halfcourt shot at the buzzer to win, since you’re using that basketball metaphor. Everyone was rooting for them and him.
A few things about Kennedy. He was super efficient at 3k / 5k. His best 1500m was only 3:38 and 3:56 mile and took one good crack at the 10,000m in 27:37. But he ran between 7:30-7:35 like 7 or 8 times (all outdoor mid 90's). But he was also a very xc runner. And back most countries send teams to World XC every year and when it was 12k he was in the top 15 like 3 or 4 times. He was also a 2 x NCAA XC Champion.
At the time the USA had Todd Williams in the 10,000m (a top 10 World XC guy, great road racer at 10k- 1/2 marathon, ran AR 42:22 15k and 1:00:11 1/2 marathon) and Mark Croghan in the steeple (8:09 guy) with very similar results as Kennedy in Worlds and Olympics, etc. Steve Holman and Marc Davis had flashes of success, but these guys came right after fellows like Jim Spivey, Joe Falcon, etc. had been mixing it up internationally.
Here is a great video of Bob Kennedy and Todd Williams basically tying to win the Pre 2 mile:
Any runner in that race could have made the same move at that time. There is nothing "ballsy" about it. It was the wrong move to make. I could run the first 400 of my next mile race in 54, that doesn't mean I have balls, it means I am foolish.
6th is nothing to be praising 28 years after the fact. You're like the college that keeps talking about the time they made the Sweet Sixteen at the NCAA basketball tournament 30 years ago. No one cares about their or Bob's mediocrity.
Kennedy won footlocker, won ncaas, set American records at 5000, 2 miles, and 3000. Won USATF 5000 4 times, made it to the final in 6 global championships. He didn't medal in global championship, but the guys who did at that time probably weren't clean.
Youre right. NonAmerican here BK was one of the very few to have the b@lls to go at the Africans in the mid90s era when the nonAfricans were wusses and all were intimidated into nothingness. Marvelous effort in the 96OG 5k no doubt PRE was cheering him on from up there and his run was so reminiscent of PRE at the 72OG....and now Rooks has inherited the mantle for sure.
I gotta think that both PRE and BK as well as HORACE (look him up lrbf) were all-in for that moment when Rooks assailed ElB on the backstretch of the Oly chase and then again when he repulsed all tbe Kenyans in the final 100 to take that silver.
Bob Kennedy had a horrible kick compared to his competitors, so he really had no choice other than to try to kick from far out. Parker Valby took the lead in the Olympic 10000 with a mile to go for the same reason.
But ya, Bob Kennedy was incredibly ballsy. Unlike the rest of the US runners who focused on competing with each other, Kennedy genuinely believed he could beat the East Africans. He paved the way for Galen Rupp and Kara Goucher.
Kara Goucher? Kara finished with bests of 14:55 and 30:55. Kara was a mediocre world class runner if you look at if objectively.
I can’t actually believe this post got upvotes. And Bob Kennedy was far more like Butler making it to the NCAA championship final against Duke and having a halfcourt shot at the buzzer to win, since you’re using that basketball metaphor. Everyone was rooting for them and him.
As a former Indianapolis resident, I appreciate the Butler comparison. Speaking of Indy Icons, I met Bob Kennedy once at the Park Tudor high school track, when they were hosting a summer meet series in 2019. I won the 800, and he was the first to congratulate me after I crossed the line. Super nice guy.
Okay, so yeah, this thread is 28 years too late, but better late than never. I watched this race live in 1996 on television. But that was in the days before the internet and YouTube and 7 years before the birth of Letsrun. So I had forgotten what kind of balls Bob Kennedy had at the time. 2 laps to go in the race. He knows he’s a long-shot, but he was in 12:58 shape (insane in the pre super shoes era). He could have played it safe and maybe hoped to snag a bronze. But no. He says F this - I’m going for it. He was in over his head and ended up having to settle for 6th (still respectable). But that’s the kind of sh!t that inspired me at the time and is one of the reasons I kept running at the time. Still gives me the chills today. Good for you Bob - you deserve your MF thread.
Yeah the crowd pop when Kennedy takes the race on at the 4200m mark is pretty awesome. As for the post below this one (and above mine), I mean yeah - what can you say.
Yes, this was cool because the crowd responded to the homegrown guy going to the front toward the end of the race...
But it if you were rooting for "the American"... it was also pretty sobering how easily the rest of the leaders covered his move.
Any runner in that race could have made the same move at that time. There is nothing "ballsy" about it. It was the wrong move to make. I could run the first 400 of my next mile race in 54, that doesn't mean I have balls, it means I am foolish.
6th is nothing to be praising 28 years after the fact. You're like the college that keeps talking about the time they made the Sweet Sixteen at the NCAA basketball tournament 30 years ago. No one cares about their or Bob's mediocrity.
Unless you got better than 6th at any Olympic Games, then STFU.
Yes, because going out too fast for the first lap of a mile (like every single high school runner who is inexperienced) is really comparable to trying to string an Olympic field out with two laps to go in a 12.5 lap race in a bid to win a medal. He may have misjudged it, but he went for it, and there’s absolutely no shame in that.
Kennedy was an inspiration to a generation of runners, including myself. He gave us hope that a Caucasian kid from America could compete at an elite level in events dominated by East Africans.
We are probably close to the same age. I graduated in 2001, so with Webb, but before him it was all Kennedy. We all had the shoes. He was the man.
But that race in particular was shameful. It was a bonehead move.
Also, speak for yourself about the whole "Caucasians vs. East Africans" thing. Bob Kennedy wasn't a racist. That was just your vile world view.
Armchair track racing is all fine and good, but I wonder if any of the peeps disparaging BK have ever broken 14 - even 15 - and I'd bet none have made a state HS final, an NCAA D1, D2, D3 final let alone a USOT fianl or obviously an Oly final. Just my take on the needless criticism...
Whatever we might think about the big move at 800 to go, it sure is awesome to hear an American track audience go berserk for a distance runner. Hopefully our guys and gals will give the LA28 fans plenty of reasons to do likewise. I'm just imagining how our crowd might have sounded when Hocker won.
I thought at the time that he deserved credit for going for the long stretch, which was his only hope of a medal (slim as it was), but also for fighting on after the train went by. He finished 6th, and a step from 5th, when a lot of other runners in that spot would have been demoralized and faded to 8th or 10th or whatever.
You must be new here. SS is definitely legit. Excellent synopsis and comments on quite a few threads that would corroborate this, especially regarding the happenings of the mid 90's.