I was at a little 5k in Waycross, GA in 1987 and this guy shows up with no legs and no arms. He pulled hilself with his tongue to a 13:32. This was a certified course and a hot day. I looked at the results and his name was something like Rexom or Wexing?? I forget.
Well it is not RUNNING but it is Track & Filed and it's a good story....
I was at a hum drum all-comers weekday ( 6 pm ) meet in early 60's, at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, New York City. There was a businessman ( banker) in town that day from Los Angeles. He heard there was this little meet up in the Bronx and he had some time before his flight back to LA so he showed up. Someone loaned him some track clothes and he used a borrowed SHOT PUT.
None other than Parry O'Brien ! I was lucky enough to be there that day. He casually threw about 61' .
Running a 5K behind Courtney Babcock -- I can think of less enjoyable ways to spend 15 or so minutes.
check out 5th place. she was in NH in connection with a local church. she was incredibly gracious and generous with her time - spent the weekend doing things like hosting a runners clinic at the high school, attending a BBQ and speaking in church that Sunday. Memorable experience.
I usually see the Hanson guys at almost every race I go to.
In '03 Jon Brown had recently moved to Victoria and showed up to The Saanich 8K, a dinky little icebreaker in January. We were all pissing ourselves. He ran low 23s and it looked like he was jogging.
Flagpole Willy wrote:
RunDaddy wrote:And how fast did he/she run????
I can't remember this guy's name, but about 10 years ago I was living in California and went to run a very small 10K (about 300 people tops) and some guy who must have weighed about 120 lbs turned up and ran 29 flat and seemed like he was hardly working. I think the guy who came second ran 33:50 or something. I think the guy who won was a very well known runner at the time, but I can't remember his name and it's bugging the shit out of me....oh well.
Funny thing was he was very gracious and stuck around afterwards and picked up his plaque or whatever stupid thing the race director gave him.
Brian Abshire?
The Merced Track Club did bring Abshire in one year to help promote a 10k, the Bearcreek 10k maybe. The race director had made acquaintances with him somehow and thought it would be cool to have a big name at the race. It was funny to see the results in RW or RT with the big disperity between first and second place.
At a tiny (105 runners) local race a couple towns over from me, who shows up but Khalid Khannouchi? He apparently lives in the area...I think he ran with his wife (?) most of the way and finished in 18:04, but I got an autographed copy of the runner's world when he broke the marathon record bc I was the only person there who knew his record time.
Grantsburg WI Syttende Mai, early 1980s. A fairly big local race for NW Wisconsin/Minnesota at the time. Weird distance of 16.3 miles; was supposed to be 17 miles (to honor May 17, the Norwegian national day), but they advertised at as "17 Norwegian Miles" because some Norwegian guys measured it to be 17.
As rumor held at the time, there was a local legend who was getting pretty cocky at how fast he was running (I can't even remember who it was). Got to the line of the Syttende Mai, and Garry Bjorklund is there, and this is when Garry was in his prime and fairly well known.
Bjorklund spanked the field and won by a good 5 minutes.
I went to do a solo time trial once, and this guy showed up and smoked me by 2 minutes over 5K. Never did get his name, even though he stayed and signed autographs after. This was in 1874, by the way, so don't go asking me to post a link to results.
A few years ago, at my *very* local "town day" 5 miler--a race hotly contested among "local champions" (but no others)--was smoked, SMOKED I tell you, by a mystery woman (yes, a woman!).
Cassandra Henkiel, a ranked triathlete, was in town for a wedding and decided to just show up for the local race, winning with a 5:29 pace, finishing about 30 seconds ahead of the #2 runner... and looking MIGHTY FINE in the process. Lotta bruised (male) egos that day!
Also, at this year's Run Your Hangover Off race on Jan 1 (another *very* local affair), Casey Moulton (a newly qualified olympic-trial hopeful with a 2:20 'thon) slummed his way to a win with something like a 5:01 pace...
ha wrote:
A few years ago, at my *very* local "town day" 5 miler--a race hotly contested among "local champions" (but no others)--was smoked, SMOKED I tell you, by a mystery woman (yes, a woman!).
Cassandra Henkiel, a ranked triathlete, was in town for a wedding and decided to just show up for the local race, winning with a 5:29 pace, finishing about 30 seconds ahead of the #2 runner... and looking MIGHTY FINE in the process. Lotta bruised (male) egos that day!
Also, at this year's Run Your Hangover Off race on Jan 1 (another *very* local affair), Casey Moulton (a newly qualified olympic-trial hopeful with a 2:20 'thon) slummed his way to a win with something like a 5:01 pace...
Casey Moulton is the king of obscure road races.
I raced at Fresh Pond one day (local race done in Cambridge Mass every Sat for the past 25 years), expecting to just do an easy workout for the win, and Steve Jones showed up on the line... Nice guy, he ran some incredible time, then did another few loops with us.
My dad tells me that this thing use to happen all the time when Boston was the hotbed for Distance. You would be on the line of a local 10k with Rodgers, Randy Thomas, Greg Meyer and a young Salazar.
I ran an extremely small half marathon 3 years ago, and the winner was some Kenyan guy who did a 1:05 with second place coming in at 1:20.
http://calumetmemorialparkdistrict.com/miniresults1003.htm
Kind of comical.
better yet check out #9 in your link: a 12 year old runs 42:00 !!!
I went to a local 10K and Matt Centrowitz showed up. He was there with a local who went to Manhattan College (this was back when M. Centrowitz was running well). So, everyone was pretty excited to have him in the race. The race starts and this recent graduate from Yale (don't remember his name) took the lead and Matt goes with him. At about a mile, the course goes up an extremely steep hill. It was on this hill that Centrowitz got destroyed. He wound up in 54th place and gave bragging rights to the 53 runners that finished ahead of him.
Rick Fuller, Passmore Furusa, Former South Alabama NCAA XC champ who died of heart condition a few years ago (famous but can't recall his name) and Kevin Castille.
Will
You are thinking of David Kimani. He competed for South Alabama for 1 year, and then transfered to Alabama. Rumor was his transfer was a result of South not building a new track for him to compete on (their track at this time has been condemned by the NCAA, they said meets could not be held there. Honestly, it was the worst collegiate track I have ever seen, with what I can only describe as potholes all over it). Anyway, he transfers, and South builds a very nice Mondo track the next year.
I showed up at a 10K back in 1986 - a small 10K in San Mateo, CA. Rod Dixon showed up - actually finished second in just over 31 minutes behind Jeff Adkins (if I remember right).
I ran a PR of 32:52 that day, after running my first sub-5 minute mile ever (including track races!) trying to stay close to him the first mile.
Not really a ringer, but I was at a small 10K in Cotati, California once waiting in line at a port-a-john (this was around 1985) and the door opens and out steps Robin Williams. I beat his time by quite a few minutes, but I recall he went a respectable sub 40 minute time. I still have the results somewhere.