who is the worst runner ever?

udderfella wrote:

glad you think its funny to make such public fun of some ones illness. You and your fat pygmy brother should know better.

Oh I see, Andy has an opinion so that's automatically my opinion too.

I do think its pretty rich of you to go on to Andy about getting personal and then bringing me into it and firing bizarre insults (unless you got me mixed up with somebody else??).

You obviously have a grudge with me, not sure what it could be about or who you might be as I have never had a grudge with anybody (except a bit of friendly banter with JonnyO).

Come and introduce yourself at the Inter Counties. Whatever it is I'm sure we can sort it out there and then.

Cheers

Dave

no grudge at all. i don't even know who you are other than that you have a brother and that you both run.

I just reacted to Andy's poorly constructed humour in a way I thought would piss him off.

His comments weren't funny and they weren't nice. It was not appropriate and completely unneccesary to name and embarrass Tommy like that. Don't you agreee?

maybe a kid on our team. comes out the first day - head coach runs a 400m time trial. kid runs 1:46 - for 400! and then pukes his guts out like he just ran a 1:46 800. when asked if he was sick or something "no, i've just never run that hard before."

i should point out, however, that he's sticking with it. he throws, but he runs every day after practice, so props to him for that - and for leaving that stuff in lane 8 for the soccer moms to dodge during their power walks.

The worst runners were football players at my high school who went out for track and quit because "It was boring" and they will "lift and home."

Most would bitch and moan and say how much a sacrifice they were making to go to "Captain's Practice," which was a "voluntary" conditioning period in August prior to the fall football season. THis was when we were training 365 days a year with the exception of June when we rested after the spring seaason.

For sprinters at least

Summer and Fall were for conditioning ie drills, distance, stretching and lots of weightlifting for power.

We started training in July for the first indoor meet in December....and we not only did not complain..we loved it.

The few guys who played football I trained with were devestating on the football field as they were faster...stronger and quicker than guys mcuh bigger than them.

My friend and training partner played I-AA ball at 240 up against 280 plus guys because of the speed, strength and quickness he gained from trainin as a track guy

track Rules

Go Big Red and Byram Hills

duaneallman2 wrote:

...on the straightaway of the first turn.....

??? what's your track shaped like?

Dennis Commissar of Halifax Harriers is one of the worst. He used to turn up at Leeds open meetings (now defunct) in the early nineties and run just about every event in a similar manner to the Tommy bloke referred to by Andy, who I have to admit is bloody hilarious to watch at the Stretford meetings. However Mr Commissar did not suffer from any apparent mental illness, which made him all the more hilarious!

Naah, there is this one lady, not sure who she runs for. Anyway, she turns up at these high class BMC meets (in England). She dons a leotard and sun glasses. She has a really tones body so when she's on the start line everyone is thinking "wow, who's this stud". BUT, then the gun goes off and OH MY GOD have I ever seen anyone run so slowly in a BMC 5K or what???She totally lied about her PB, she said it was 17mins, she actually ended up running 25 mins. The race was one in 15.50, so I imagine that she might have just been lapped. she'll be at the races this summer too i'm sure. What a laugh!

Oh yeh and how's it going Andy? You know who it is right? You're old girlfriend from OSU, wink wink.

I knew a guy once who never started running. Worst runner I ever saw!

Charlie, are you afraid to admit we are engaged? I remember that romantic night. You, me, 20 pints of beer, and a plastic ring.Gotta say I don't remember the sunglasses lady but the thought of sunglasses and a leotard does ring a bell. Hope you are well. Take care.Andy

caffeine wrote:

Oh yeh and how's it going Andy? You know who it is right? You're old girlfriend from OSU, wink wink.

It is an impossible question to answer. You could say who is the worse professional runner ever. I guess that could be a 1500meter runners who turns up at the trials and runs a 4:15. Even the worse professional is better than just about any amatuer. If you run a 3:55 1500 in high school you are great, but that time at the olympic level is crap.

A better question would be who is the most disappointing distance runner ever. This could be somebody that showed promise and then bombed out.

Question:

What is the slowest time posted in the Olympic trials for the 1500meters in the last 20 years.

stormin wrote:

There is a guy that runs for Sale Harriers called Thomas Malone ('Tommy'). Anyone thats ran at Stretford in a BMC meet will know him. He is a bit messed up in the head. His pb for 800 is about 3:30 and he always sprints the last 100 and everyone cheers (or laughs). He trys to run every event if they will let him but they ussually don't. They used to put him in with the worst runners but he gets in their way with his sprint start so he now gets seeeded in some of the quicker races. Such a clown!

Oh, yeah? That's nuthin'! What about this guy? .....

I remember a cross country race where there was this kid with a severely deformed head (it looked like it had been crushed by a falling steel girder, in fact), no legs, and multiple sclerosis. You should've seen it! What a hoot! This useless lump was out there flopping along hopelessly like some giant beached tadpole, dragging himself through the sticks and the mud, sweating profusely with this enormous strain etched on his Halloween mask of a face, while all the onlookers were pointing at him, laughing until you thought their ribs would split at any moment and yelling stuff like, "Aw, why don't you just shoot yourself, you pathetic waste of protoplasm?" One spectator had pulled out a calendar and was yelling, "Sunday! Monday! Tuesday! ..." as the hapless blob wormed miserably by.

Man, it was freakin' hilarious! I'm laffin' my ass off right now just thinking about that kid!

***Disclaimer: The above is only a made-up story designed to point out how "stormin's" post might be construed as cruel and unfair***

For F**** sake I am not laughing at the person's illness. I am laughing at his antics. Sprinting the first and last 50m for an applause and occasionally pushing someone over in a race or getting in the way of other runners. He once tripped this girl from Blackpool up and she had to be restrained from hitting him. It was hilarious! Maybe you have to be there. Everyone laughs at this guy at the meet. Not just me. Its not as if I walk down the streets of Manchester laughing at every abnormality I come accross. But this guy makes us laugh. He is a terrible runner, but he loves running and the attention he gets from it and thats great for him.

Now think about it and tell me you have never laughed at someone elses misfortune. You have probably all laughed at Maria Mutola for looking like a man or Paula Radcliffe bobbing her head. They can't help it just like Tommy but we still find it funny.

Maybe not the worst runner ever, but certainly one of the most bothersome:

There was an old geezer who used to come out to some local club track workouts and jump in for about 200 to 400 meters at a time (even if the distances on the repeats were 1,000s or 1,600s), taking several minutes rest before hopping back in for another short distance. He would start the workout with the fastest group and, after being left 20 meters in arrears by the end of the first 200 of a 1,000, would gradually work his way down to the slowest recreational group, where (after plenty of rest and psyching himself up for the effort to come) he would jump in for their final 200 and blow them away - well, barely struggle home in front, anyway. He would probably amass about 800 to 1,600 meters worth of running for the day, while everyone else was getting in 5 or more miles worth of repeats.

This wouldn't be so bad if you thought the guy was just a slow but otherwise fairly serious runner who was out there doing the best he could. But he never really did any running apart from the once per week he'd show up at the track. He didn't know anything about the sport and would spend most of his "workout" time annoying people with stories about giving his truck an oil change or about the benefits of investing in pork bellies.

He was probably capable of a 29-something 5k and could sprint a wicked-fast 35 for 200 if really pressed, yet once, following a workout, he told the whole group (in reference to a sub-15:00 5k guy who was standing right there), "Yeah, he might be way in front of me in some of these races, but he knows I'll whup him if I'm there with 200 to go." Then he looked at the sub-15:00 guy and nodded as if in some fraternal bond of comrades in sweat.

What a character.

Sounds like the Howard Stern show.

Andy,

don't sweat on it. I think we all know that you are not some heartless twat who would just go around slagging off the mentally/pysically handicapped. Hope there are no more posts on that arguement.

I came up to Stretford at the end of last season with a couple of the lads and saw the fella in quesion running around in the number '118'. He was indeed running far too many events and putting the timetable way beyond what was printed, but he still got a cheer. Good on him for competing, wish he stuck to one event though.

Wendy Morant is the leotard & shades lady!

I dont think that she is mentally 100% either. She races quite a lot around our way for some reason.

I once saw her lead Tara Kwikie for the first 400m in the Midland 5k champs.......then started jogging.

You must have seen her at the National, pink lycra leggings, black 'birchfield' leotard & shades. She was 3rd scorer of 4 for Birchfield Senior Ladies team.

Phil Hinch must know her.....hmmmm, maybe not.

Flagpole Willy wrote:

smartass,

I'll vote for MYSELF. Didn't expect that now did you.

Here's why:

I won pretty much everything and anything from my freshman year of high school on through college except for when it got down to state or nationals (I mean, I wasn't champion of either of those).

I had this talent right from the beginning and just didn't train enough to see the potential. Mostly it wasn't my fault as in the mid 80s most high school coaches were having the students do very little running.

Anyway, if you define a bad runner as someone who didn't get anywhere near his potential, then I would have to vote for myself.

See, pretty humble don't you think? (Note - please don't fall for this).

What a surprise. Willy somehow manages to turn this topic around and point out how naturally gifted he was.

i don't understand why people would want to answer this...i think that as runners we all know how hard it is and how much of a mental challenge running can be, if anything, the people who run from the back of the pack know this best, and are even more admiral for sticking with running despite the fact that they aren't as good as others, its people like you who answer this that will make them want to stop running, and thats the biggest defeat, worse than any time they could get in a race