Gerry Lindgren is absolutely full of $hit

Someone who knew Lindgren and attended WSU with him, Garry Hill of Track and Field News said you have to take anything Gerry says with a grain of salt. Even before his "breakdown" he was a constant joker and leg-puller. I suspect he knows all to well his stories are outrageous. His real feats are incredible enough.

I read Gerry's book so he's a little animated but that doesn't diminish my respect for the man. When I was in

high school it was Lindgren's achievements and training

schematics that inspired me. Hands down.

Bubble Up, you like it. It likes you?

These same threads happen every time Gerry's stories are retold. Most people are too stupid to see what he has been doing all these years is trying to make others believe they can do the impossible like he did in college and high school.

While you may not believe some of the stories and they may not be true, what is true is that almost 50 YEARS AGO, as a high school runner, he ran 8:40 for 2 miles indoor and that time has never been beaten.

I decided to mapmyrun when he said he used to run to Lewiston 17 miles and back from Washington State. Lewiston is 45 miles away but there was another small town that was 15.5 miles away and that was probably the town he ran to and back. Sure enough, there was a pretty steep hill 3 miles long about 10 miles from Pullman. So, instead of a 34 mile run, he only did 31. How many of you losers denigrating him have done a recent 31 mile training run or have even come close to running a little over 4 minute pace for even one mile?

Maybe if you look in the mirror, you'll see you might have your own problems to deal with before trying to fix somebody elses. Despite espn and yahoo, the world doesn't revolve around bashing everybody that doesn't exactly conform to your expectations.

I've always felt it's an advantage as a distance runner to be at least a little bit crazy.

Dan

Yeah France wrote:

It is probably for the best to delete it. After doing research on him, I would guess that he has something in the Autism Spectrum Disorder. It would be unfair to let this go on.

Can you list the etiology and symptoms?

Bill Huntington wrote:

Someone who knew Lindgren and attended WSU with him, Garry Hill of Track and Field News said you have to take anything Gerry says with a grain of salt. Even before his "breakdown" he was a constant joker and leg-puller. I suspect he knows all to well his stories are outrageous. His real feats are incredible enough.

Ding ding, we have a winner. Has no one else ever seen his posts on letsrun as GerryTheJogger? Some of them are hilarious.

GerrytheJogger wrote:

.....and HOW did they get "more durable." Was it something that is genetic? Did they drink the right milk? YOU BUILD DURABLE, sweetie! They are more durable because they run 100+ miles a week, NOT the other way around. You are putting the hart before the corse.

(It's subtle.)

I'm confused by the car incident (prior to the Olympic Trials). In this interview he makes it sound like he got hit by the car, but the story I've always heard is that he ran into a parked car on a training run. Which is true?

Today's Huck Finn wrote:

Obviously he was whacked out of his skull, but he was undeniably a beast of a runner. 13:44 in high school almost 50 years ago is insane. Dathan Ritzenhein didn't even run that in multiple attempts. Galen Rupp had to get in a fast race in Europe in the summer (after several attempts) to get just over 6 seconds faster (13:37.91 vs 13:44.0). Look what those two have done.

Some of his workouts may be exaggerated, but he did log some intense mileage. I knew him in another life and there is no doubt that he got in some 200+weeks - just maybe not as many as has been reported. What most of you don't know about though are some of his legendary volume interval sessions (100x400m@.70). He would do 50reps, take a 15-20 minute break, and finish the final 50. Legendary indeed.

I don't know. I only run on Earth.

I ran against Lindgren in a few collegiate 10,000m. He was so superior to most of us that he could act quite goofy and still kick the last lap or two to win. We could hear him in his room one night at NCAAs, laughing til quite late at night. He still won the 5/10 double, though the 5,000 was very tough. I think his eccentricity worked for him, and believe that as he got older and his skills waned, he started to go wacko. Leaving wife and kids (and denying it),was certainly inexcusable, but there is no denying that he was a remarkable talent. There is, as some have pointed out, always a grain or two of truth in his stories. He had to have run incredible mileage to achieve what he did, and he certainly was fearless in his approach to racing. I think that he has a certain place in U.S. track history; one of the greats who couldn't quite put it together at the right times. He seems to be enjoying life now, and I wish him the best.

old school steve wrote:

Leaving wife and kids (and denying it),was certainly inexcusable..

Not necessarily. We don't know the details. He could have been secretly commanded to leave his family by the President for all we know. Don't judge until he gives his side of the story.

I actually had a 31 mile long run recently, but I can't come close to running the kind of times he ran. Regardless of starting the thread and saying he's full of $hit, I still have mad respect for the times he did run.

"Gerry Lindgren is absolutely full of shit"

We know.

dkap wrote:

I've always felt it's an advantage as a distance runner to be at least a little bit crazy.

Dan

One of the greatest quotes I ever read that tapped into the psychology of distance running was by Bill Rodgers. More or less, when you have to decide to win a race "you have to go crazy".

Lindgren I would bet is as least as stable as your average 65 year old. I think when he gets a chance for attention he likes to give a good story. No doubt he was running big miles in high school. Might have been 100-130 miles a week. The valuable point he makes is important. Think big and don't put limits.

The mega-mileage does work for those who can handle it. There is a confidence it gives you and its a wierd state to live in. All you want to do is run. I would love to be able to live like that again. And I only did 120-150 mile weeks for about 3 months. Maybe I'm as crazy as Gerry but that was awesome. In retrospect I wish I could go back and train like that from age 18.

just grow up some wrote:

While you may not believe some of the stories and they may not be true, what is true is that almost 50 YEARS AGO, as a high school runner, he ran 8:40 for 2 miles indoor and that time has never been beaten.

.

Lukas V. got within fractions of a second to it, and if we use the German 1 mile indoor record trick to say the modern time is superior to the hand time due to being more precise, then Lukas broke it. That aside, Lukas' time was just part of his amazing triple. Unfortunately, the curse of the 2 Mile highschool record got Lukas as it has everyone who has held it, indoors or out.

GL interviews have always been "for entertainment purposes only".

lkjkljjksjdhjj wrote:

just grow up some wrote:

While you may not believe some of the stories and they may not be true, what is true is that almost 50 YEARS AGO, as a high school runner, he ran 8:40 for 2 miles indoor and that time has never been beaten.

.

Lukas V. got within fractions of a second to it, and if we use the German 1 mile indoor record trick to say the modern time is superior to the hand time due to being more precise, then Lukas broke it. That aside, Lukas' time was just part of his amazing triple. Unfortunately, the curse of the 2 Mile highschool record got Lukas as it has everyone who has held it, indoors or out.

I would certainly hope modern day HS distance runners could equal if not better Lindgren's records with all of the advantages they now have. Lindgren ran an 8:40 2 mile as a 17yo HS kid in leather "cleats" on a crappy board track with none of the training and nutrition knowledge available to athletes today. Pretty focking amazing if you ask me.

prove it wrote:

He also claimed to run 4 miles in 16:08 on the Mt. Sac cross country course. Riiight Gerry. Sure you went through 5k in 12:32 then just kept going for almost another mile. Sure you did.

I think in this situation, the course was just measured wrong. It was like 1965ish lol Have you ever tried to wheel a bumpy cross country course for 4 miles? I've measured a 5k course at 3.8 because I couldn't keep the wheel straight. A teammate picked it up right after me, and measured it at 3.2. It's easy to do, and I bet Lindgren ran something like 3.5 at 4:2X pace.

"I have a dog, Peku. She’s a cross breed between a Tasmanian Devil and a Jack Russell Terrier – some type of genetic research project that they were going to put down so I took her home and she is the cutest little thing you ever could imagine."

Gerry Lindgren

I can't stop laughing at this one