I too did take to Marathonguide.com - It does appear that at the age of 54 that Leger ran numerous sub 3's all in the same year. That is some serious skill for an old man honestly, especially considering that he was working as a CEO at the same time and one of them was a 2:53 in NYC.. I have personally run NYC and that was one of the slowest times i ever posted in a thon.
He has to cut that hair. At some point, long hair on a guy makes him look like a homeless hobo's lapdog.
Whose jealous is what?
He did not run 4:06 in HS or college.
I ran against him while he was at UMASS, not really against him, way ahead of him. He was on their JV team, big team of OK guys, probably high 25 for 5 miles, maybe low 26's for him. Mike Quinn was on the UMASS team while he was there, he had one top 20 NCAA finish in XC, he was good but way ahead of the rest.
Wow.
If you want to complain about politics, just make your own thread rather than trying twice to derail a completely different thread.
Avocado's Number wrote:
When Legere was a senior in high school -- presumably when Harvard "recruited" him -- Harvard actually had some very good runners who were coming back the next year. If Legere was too slow to make any of those three lists that I linked to -- and it's certainly possible that he was merely overlooked -- I don't believe that he would have been a very attractive candidate for Harvard to recruit for cross-country or track. They didn't need 4:28 milers and 9:45 two-milers for their team.
I wasn't aware that UMass/Amherst was especially good when Legere decided to attend. I don't believe that Randy Thomas was still there. UMass/Lowell (which was then called the University of Lowell) had Bob Hodge and Vin Fleming. Northeastern had John Flora (a future U.S. record holder on the roads), his brother Bob (a little slower, but still very good), and Bruce Bickford (who later was ranked No.1 in the world by Track & Field News). The best collection of college runners in New England back in those days were actually at Providence College, which had, among others, future 2-time world cross champion John Treacy, his brother Ray, Mick O'Shea, future 2-time Boston Marathon winner Geoff Smith, Gerry Deegan, and Dan Dillon.
I understand that these kinds of inaccuracies and distortions can arise as information gets passed from one person to another, and perhaps that happened here, but I do wonder why some people in high places feel the need to embellish about this stuff. (I thought tht Paul Ryan's fabrication, on a nationally broadcast radio show in the heat of a presidential election, was especially bizarre.)
A couple of notes here.
1) Harvard made nationals perhaps once in 10 years.
2) Yes, UMass had a reputaion as the best in New England until 1974, when UMass last defeated Providence for the IC4A title. But UMass drew on 18 year old American kids, not grown men from the UK. While the UMass program pretty much died after 1976, they certainly would have been the biggest blip on Legere's radar during his high school years.
Northeastern? You're kidding me. Like Harvard, I don't recall them ever doing anything at NCAAs?
3) I'm not sure how you could conclude that Legere himself had misrepresented any facts, but since you are compelled to divert the thread towards politics and stolen valor, how do you feel about John Kerry's bizarro Boston Marathon fabrication?
UMass had solid teams in mid 80s. They were competitive with Dartmouth, Brown and PC teams. I think they made NCAAs one or twice.
NU had solid teams during Bickford and after. They made NCAA meet around 1989 with mostly 1500m types including future usatf xc champ Schlapak.
Harvard had individuals during this time like Ed Sheehan, Adam Dixon , Paul Gompers.
Both Kerry and Paul Ryan have eligibility left and may walk on at Georgetown or GWU.
Legere graduated from high school in 1976. What happened a decade after could not have influenced his athletic ambition.
John Legere is a great guy. Gave me a new phone and a free year of service . This random guy wanted to run with me in Central Park. Did a 6 miler. Turned out to be John Legere. Still talk to him pretty frequently. Dude is a legit track nut. Loves the sport. Knows of this site, too. Has never actually said he visits the boards, but I wouldn't doubt if he was on here.
I was just pointing out that both NU and UMass had ok teams after 1974.
Pfft. This is nothing.
I founded Trulia, am a billionaire, an Ironman AG world champion and am planning to cure Type II diabetes.
I am also not ugly like John LeHair.
Hahaha this is great. When I was a high school senior, we had a kid change schools and join the track team and he claimed that he ran 4:07 for the mile the year before (he was also a senior). Obviously this was false because I’d never heard of him. First race of outdoors he runs a 2:32 800. Nice guy though!
malmo wrote:
A couple of notes here.
1) Harvard made nationals perhaps once in 10 years.
2) Yes, UMass had a reputaion as the best in New England until 1974, when UMass last defeated Providence for the IC4A title. But UMass drew on 18 year old American kids, not grown men from the UK. While the UMass program pretty much died after 1976, they certainly would have been the biggest blip on Legere's radar during his high school years.
Northeastern? You're kidding me. Like Harvard, I don't recall them ever doing anything at NCAAs?
3) I'm not sure how you could conclude that Legere himself had misrepresented any facts, but since you are compelled to divert the thread towards politics and stolen valor, how do you feel about John Kerry's bizarro Boston Marathon fabrication?
1) I didn't say that Harvard had a national-class team. I said that they had some very good runners (although not, perhaps, by your standards), that they didn't need any 4:28 milers or 9:45 two-milers, and that I don't believe that a high school runner with those times would have been a very attractive recruiting candidate for Harvard. It is, of course, certainly possible that the coach at Harvard, Bill McCurdy, send Legere a letter or talked to him about applying to and running at Harvard, and that Legere then either chose not to apply to Harvard or selected UMass/Amherst over Harvard.
2) As I said, I wasn't aware that UMass/Amherst would have been especially good when Legere decided to go there, but it's certainly possible that he believed that it was still where the best runners went. Northeastern's top three runners -- the Flora brothers and Bickford -- dominated collegiate distance running in the greater Boston area back then, and also had an excellent middle-distance runner, Mark Lech. As you suggested, Providence had a different recruiting pipeline, generally well-established runners from Ireland, and they didn't necessarily stay there very long.
3) I didn't conclude that Legere misrepresented any facts, and specifically said that "I understand that these kinds of inaccuracies and distortions can arise as information gets passed from one person to another, and perhaps that happened here." One can question whether it was misleading for him to say that he was a "very successful athlete" who "wanted to go to the Olympics as a runner," and someone else wrote that he said that he ran about a 4:15 mile and a nine-minute two-mile, but I never heard that. He's obviously very dedicated to the sport and has given much to it, and he has run some very good marathons for his age and in light of his business and other obligations.
When you said that I was "compelled to divert the thread towards politics and stolen valor," I assume that you're talking about my reference to the case of Paul Ryan. (I'm not aware of Legere's political views.) I didn't mention Ryan for any political reasons, would have preferred to refer to someone who was not associated with politics, and was hoping that no one (especially you) would see it as some political dig. But it wasn't. It was simply a case that I was very familiar with, and was especially striking to me because Ryan's statements were made in such a public forum and at a time when he was probably under more scrutiny than almost anyone else in the country.
In Kerry's case, I'm familiar with his statement that he once ran the Boston marathon. I'm also aware that people have questioned his claim and have talked about his lack of any qualifying race times or a finishing time in the Boston marathon itself. But hordes of people, including many college kids, used to "bandit" that race, and -- although fussy runners like me thought that they were wrong in doing so -- it didn't seem to carry any stigma in the broader community; they were expected to start behind the official entrants and not interfere witih the race. I don't believe that many of them cared about their finishing time, and I don't even recall if the timers at the finish line were still operating when the mass of unofficial participants got there in those days. So it didn't strike me as an implausible claim, but perhaps there were some circumstances that I am not aware of and that raised legitimate doubts.
By the way, I hope that I never refer to false claims about marathon times as cases of "stolen valor," although I understand the analogy.
Moo Goo wrote:
He has to cut that hair. At some point, long hair on a guy makes him look like a homeless hobo's lapdog.
He is CEO of an international company and uber rich. Why would he cut his hair just to fit in with a bunch of business guys that sit in cubicles all day?
do your own thing wrote:
Moo Goo wrote:
He has to cut that hair. At some point, long hair on a guy makes him look like a homeless hobo's lapdog.
He is CEO of an international company and uber rich. Why would he cut his hair just to fit in with a bunch of business guys that sit in cubicles all day?
Wait a second.
You are co-owner of an international company, Ivy League, and uber rich.
You sit in your room and post at the LRC forum all day and all night.
It is just a coincidence.
Mike Quinn was the best guy at UMass when "Jay" Legere ran. Quinn 16th, Stetson Arnold 17th (transfer from Providence) in the '77 NCAA XC champs Div. 1.
UMASS was IC4A XC team champ in '77 with Quinn, Arnold and others. Not sure if Jay ran that race?
I think Providence or Northeastern had won New Englands the week before, so coach Ken O'Brien was BEAMING when the Minutemen won the IC4A title.
Quinn ran about 14:00 5k at Penn relays as a soph '77, after going through 3 miles in 13:26, He was a pace-pusher, not a kicker.
The same Penn Relays, senior John McGrail ran a 28:47 a couple steps behind Randy Thomas '75 (Randy later 2:11:51 BAA marathon).
We had a miler named Chris Farmer, '77, who ran 4:06 two or three times. Another kid, Rick Walls, was 3:49 1500 around then. Faster milers came later.
I remember "Jay" as a stand-out freshman on the XC team.
I was a mid-D indoor and outdoor track guy. Jay, he was brash, hilarious, with a winning personality if not a bit full of himself. But honestly, I can't remember his PRs. I can barely remember mine, after all if was ZOO MASS in the 70s! Playboy's party school of the year.
Avocado, perhaps if Harvard had a real coach they could have used those 4:28/9:45 guys? If Legere was only a 4:16 runner in high school, he would have had a better time then 95% of my college teammates.
I'm not sure why you insist on doubling down on Northeastern? They werent even good enough to go to nationals. Two cards short of a full deck you might say. U MASS went to natoonals. U MASS were IC4A champions. Northeastern were not. U MASS beat Providence. Northeastern did not.
I don't believe UMASS beat Providence ever, unless Providence did not run their full team. John Treacy was the top guy for the friars followed by a bunch of Irish imports and Dan Dillon.
He must be the only person to ever post on letsrun because everyone here ran under 4:10 in high school and makes over $500,000 per year.