Henry Rono's incredible 1978 season by the numbers

To all you Boys out there....., because that's what all of you and I were to Rono. Henry was the best distance runner of that era period. Why did he run so bad in the D1 XC Champs in Wisconsin? Either he was a) played out by racing too much leading up to the meet, or b) he and his teammates (as they all mailed it in that day) were pissed at Chaplin for some reason. We may never know but I'm guessing b).

That's the only time I beat Rono, but I can't really even count that as fair or real. Get my drift here? He was clearly a man among boys.

Bump out of respect

Running on Empathy wrote:

Les wrote:

I saw his 5k in person. It was an unbelievable performance. Even more unbelievable is why Chaplin ran him in a 5k prelim.

Great season, maybe the best ever, but he was never the same again. I wonder if those 50+ races ruined him. Yes, he was an alcoholic but he was drinking even DURING that fabulous season. Great runner, but burning the candle at both ends ruined him.

After Ovett schooled him in that famous two mile at Crystal Palace, Rono was never the same again, much like Prefontaine after he got schooled in Munich. He realized right there and then that no matter how many surges and slowdowns he could muster, he could never beat the top kickers.

Not correct. He ran 27:48 10k in NZ in January of 1978.

In 1980 he ran 27:31 10k in NZ in January.

After seeing that result I thought to myself more world records and Olympic golds. Then came the Carter boycott.

After that boycott he was never the same, except for two weeks in late August early September of 1981.

So Henry flew over to England for a 3k between PAC 8 and NCAA Track champs. ! Must have been a good paycheck?

The volume of races is staggering. Especially looking at it from modern day standards. I had heard about Chaplin using and abusing his prized runners. But at the same time, I remember reading a list of all of Prefontaine's races in one year. I think it was 73' or 74'. That list seemed insanely long too. Does anyone have insight as to why they would run so many races. At a certain point, what is to gain for the runner? Or even what is to gain for the coach or anyone promoting the runner?

rono was the real deal.

this kind of thing (exploitation of the runners) still happens today. Small school coach with good runners a few seasons ago had his state champion girls running 4 races per meet (4x800, 1600, 800 and 3200) just to get points to try and win the stupid invitational meets because they think track is like football or basketball where the goal is to win every week at all cost. Before anyone starts thinking this is actually good for them consider this nugget: due to some bad weather and rescheduled meets these girls ran 4 meet in 12 days (MOnday, Friday, next Tues, Friday) 16 total races!

Because the idea is to win.

Really, if the pendulum is swinging, we might sometimes see runners doing too many races for whatever reason. And we might, NOW for example, see these pansy-asses run two races a year because they're pansy-asses. Myself, I wish I'd run more when I was fast, instead of less because I just didn't. It's called regrets. Works both ways.

good god

oldold runner wrote:

Running on Empathy wrote:

After Ovett schooled him in that famous two mile at Crystal Palace, Rono was never the same again, much like Prefontaine after he got schooled in Munich. He realized right there and then that no matter how many surges and slowdowns he could muster, he could never beat the top kickers.

Not correct. He ran 27:48 10k in NZ in January of 1978.

In 1980 he ran 27:31 10k in NZ in January.

After seeing that result I thought to myself more world records and Olympic golds. Then came the Carter boycott.

After that boycott he was never the same, except for two weeks in late August early September of 1981.

Rono missed TWO Olympics due to boycott. In my estimation he would have been at Montreal as well.

His range was amazing too.

older than dirt wrote:

older than dirt wrote:

WSU needs to update their record book. At the link below on page 8 the Mooberry Track record is listed as 13:38.2 by Joel Cheruiyot in 1978.

http://www.wsucougars.com/pdf9/2560909.pdf?SPSID=749754&SPID=126818&DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=30400

Funny to see Ducks Cruz (800) and Hill (1500) with Mooberry Track records. That must have irked Chaplin.

Mystery solved. Rono's 13:22.7 was run at Spokane Community College, not Pullman.

http://athletics.spokane.edu/TRACK___FIELD/History_Records/SCC_Stadium_Records.aspx

I was looking for that race.

I was there. He ran solo, with white socks on his hands to keep the cold away. I ran the sprints there that day. He was awesome. Not as awesome as the steeple record where I was there too.

I thought he ran 13:20, but I wasn't paying much attention tot eh time. He was lapping like it was training. Which it was.

Ujay wrote:

I am bumping this thread so that clown in the other thread can see that Henry might have been a bit tired in that 2 mile against Ovett.

Ovett was also tired and wasn't even trained to race two miles then.

Rono was versatile and very good but he wasn't the greatest distance runner of that era.

Also he really was a man among boys during his collegiate career. 26?

SJS wrote:

Running on Empathy wrote:

After Ovett schooled him in that famous two mile at Crystal Palace, Rono was never the same again, much like Prefontaine after he got schooled in Munich. He realized right there and then that no matter how many surges and slowdowns he could muster, he could never beat the top kickers.

Rono broke his 5000m record again in 1981. Ovett beating him in one race had nothing to do with his demise. It was the bottle that brought him down.

Plus 2 miles was closer to Ovetts best distance than Rono

How so?

That is all wrote:

Ujay wrote:

I am bumping this thread so that clown in the other thread can see that Henry might have been a bit tired in that 2 mile against Ovett.

Ovett was also tired and wasn't even trained to race two miles then.

Rono was versatile and very good but he wasn't the greatest distance runner of that era.

Also he really was a man among boys during his collegiate career. 26?

Who was the best from 78 to 80? Cova? Rose? Virgin? Yifter?

They were all great but did not run faster. He was the fastest of that era.

Elevation profiler wrote:

That is all wrote:

Ovett was also tired and wasn't even trained to race two miles then.

Rono was versatile and very good but he wasn't the greatest distance runner of that era.

Also he really was a man among boys during his collegiate career. 26?

Who was the best from 78 to 80? Cova? Rose? Virgin? Yifter?

They were all great but did not run faster. He was the fastest of that era.

78-80 is not an "era".

The greatest runner of that time period was Carlos Lopes. Faster than Rono and medals to boot.

Also 2 miles was not closer to Ovett's best distance than Rono's. Pretty equal ground for both of them.

Malmo, I was just with Henry in Santa Fe for a coaches conference. I'd post a pic, but don't know how here. He looks great, sounds great!

Oh I did it! With help of My Beauty, of course.