Arkansas Runners- McDonnell Era

Dewayne,

The weights we did were essentially circuit training. We rotated through approximately 10-15 stations? I remember that we did pullups, dips, bench press, shoulder press, situps, etc. I don't have any list, but it was pretty much your standard machine lifting. There were generally 2 groups of guys that I recall during my 3 years there. The ones who wanted to get stronger, and they guys who wanted to loaf through and just get to the run. I recall it was essentially the equivalent of 2x20 with low weights, with a rest in between before rotating to another station (as you reference above). I didn't particularly enjoy the 8 milers after the Tues/Thurs weight sessions as that hill getting to the trails was not fun.

Well, I just had to chime in on your link. I have met a lot of runners while running in my first year in the Arkansas Grand Prix road racing series but the most interesting is Tom Aspel, current Women's Cross Country coach at Arkansas Tech University

http://athletics.atu.edu/cc.htm

I'm not exaggerating when I say this man is a legendary runner along with the guys he ran with BUT not just in his college years! Check out this guys times after college.

He was still running the Chili Pepper Cross Country 10k and finishing in mid 32s or 33 flat up into his 40s I think. You can check out some of the old archives at:

http://www.arkansasrunner.com/archives/results1998/cp10k98.htm

but it is missing a lot of the earlier years which would show these faster times. I can remember him telling me that the college kids would look at him line up beside them and wonder why this old guy was in their race. They were quickly schooled on the "why" shortly after the gun went off. After that they kept wondering when this guy was gonna quit making all the "KIDS" look bad. I think he started running the open 10k race only after he turned 40 but before that he ran the college race.

I think his fastest mile was 4:04 which he did in a few different relay legs in college. I'm pretty sure he is in at least one current record still held for a relay. His fastest 5k was 14:01 at a track meet in Knoxville, TN after college and I believe his fastest Marathon was at the Arkansas Marathon with a time of 2:26.

Some road racing records for Tom Aspel are:

*8K meter Arkansan State Best time of 25:38 ran in Union Life Little Rock, AR May 28, 1988

*2 mile Masters (40+)record with a time of 9:56.70 in the Arkansas 2 Mile race in Bryant 3/22/97

*10K (sub masters 30-39) Arkansan State Best with a time of 31:20 at the Spa 10K Hot Springs, AR November 16, 1985

**10K (masters 40-49) Arkansan State Best with a time of 32:47 at the Mountain Valley race in Hot Springs, AR November 18, 1995

*12K (sub masters 30-39)Arkansan State Best 39:22 at The Pru race in Conway 09-09-95

**12K (masters 40-49)39:22 The Pru Conway 09-09-95

(Tom said one of these races is obviously wrong. He said his masters time is faster than sub so the dates and times are wrong on one of these.)

*20K (sub masters)Arkansan State Best 1:06:51 Arkansas 20K Benton 10-22-88

*Half Marathon Arkansan State Best 1:08:57 Natural Light Race in North Little Rock 10-03-81

*Marathon record for Arkansan State Best with a time of 2:26:52 at the Arkansas Marathon Booneville 03-05-83

Those results are found at:

http://www.arkansasrunner.com/records/staterecords.htm

I tried to do a lot of research on Aspel's college days and unfortunately, a lot of those stats are not online. You can find some of his after college road running stuff in the Grand Prix Series though.

Won 1st Overall Male Runner in the Grand Prix Road Racing Series in the years: 83,88,91,93,97

2nd Overall years were: 82, 89,94, 95

3rd Overall years were: 84, 85, 96

Won 1st place Masters Runner in the years:02,04

2nd place Masters years: 01, 03

Won 1st Place Grandmasters: 04, 06 and had a 3rd place

finish in 05.

Voted Overall Male Runner of the Year: 83,88,97

2nd Overall 82, 5/ 3rd Overall 84,85

Voted Masters Male Runner of the Year: 95, 96

Voted Race Director of the Year this past year in 2010.

Tom directs about 5 races a year.

I can remember a lot of those stories you want but I hear them while we're running. The bad thing about that is that I'm panting trying to keep up and he's talking a mile a minute seemingly unaffected by our training pace! LOL

Thanks Sheef. Sometimes we need a little help with jogging the memory. I do recall that most of the lifting was done on the standard machine weights, which allowed us to not need somebody to spot while we lifted. I remember the ab machine being pretty intense. I never looked forward to that station, but I knew it was good for me. I also remember Eric Henry could throw up a decent amount of weight on the incline bench press machine. Dan Gabor could throw up some fairly heavy weight as well! Seems like you were a bit of a beast in the weight room as well.

schiefer wrote:

Doug, you seemed to get a little sensitive earlier about someone talking about you? Was that talking about your running, or talking about your trying to be an elder statesman?

Hey Schief, I asked around and word is that you are the prime suspect as to the one talking rubbish about consig using anonymous names.

This post by you under your real name would seem to back that up. Why else would you post this?

Is this true?

as a huge fan of hog track and field, it would be great if any following accusations between razorbacks, etc would be done with your personal emails. it just looks bad, in my opinion. i'm really enjoying the stories and workouts, however.

I agree, hey, O'mara, give me a call or ping me on facebook chat.

Let these guys take the gloves off. This is the exact reason why it was always interesting at Arkansas. You have a ton of charachters who clash like Balboa and Creed.

It is crazy to see that these Hogs are still battling each other to see who was better or who could spin the best story 20 years later. We should all be in business to make each other feel good rather than the opposite.

To quote Consiglio in response to a thread on 1/28

"One thing though. If you want anybody to respect or put in perspective as to what you have to say, grow a pair and use your real name. I always found at Arkansas that the guys who talked the most shit, were never the ones towing the line. Put your real name out here, otherwise we will just assume you are some non sub 4 transfer guy..."

===========================

What I'd like to do, is call out that on 1/28, Doug made it clear he thought he was responding to me (Posting anonymously)of course, which he wasn't.

However, the reason he thought it was me, read the last 4 words:

"non sub 4 transfer guy"

Doug has always reminded me of my not breaking 4 minutes for the mile, unless of course, he's talking about Chip Smith, who also transferred and didn't break 4.

If anyone questions the great consiglio, they are met with harsh criticism, which is disguised, passive aggressively as humor.

Keep searching, you'll soon find the person posting "rubbish" about Consiglio, but keep in mind, he's been throwing this "rubbish" my way for 13 years, so sometimes the medicine doesn't taste to good eh?

[quote]schiefer wrote:

So we walk about criticizing people, and namely Falcon, but I'm not sure that stating the truth about someone's career is criticizing them. Some people feel Joe had more potential in him than a 3:49. This isn't chemistry or Math where there is one correct answer. The reason we all ran is to see how good we could be, and to say it's true that everyone lived up to their potential isn't reality.

Schief, there is always an argument about potential. I agree that Falcon had maybe the most before Webb came around, but ...... Ryun did not reach his, most don't for various reasons. Falcon ran 13:20; 3:33; 3:49 by age 24. I was around him, training with him some when it all ended. He was dealing with alot of personal problems and running was as important to him anymore. He did not get anywhere near his prime part of his career (also had some achilles issues). I have no doubt that he had he had 3:46; 3:30; sub 13:00 talent and who knows what he could of run a 10k in. I also know that all of the components have to be there to be successful - I would list those physical ability, mental toughness, and motivation (among others) and at the end, I know for a fact that Joe may not have possessed any of those big three. With the achilles issues, he probably needed surgery and rehab and he chose to go on with his life, without running.

i don't know why i feel so inclined to defend joe; maybe i just want to defend reasonable arguments.

when you refer to "stating the truth about someone's career," i'm not sure what truth you're talking about. if you look at simple facts, for example, what joe DID, instead of what he DIDN'T do, it's pretty hard to find fault. if you're trying to assess what he "could have done" or ultimately "didn't do," well, you ain't going to find much truth with which to judge a man, or, only the same truths by which you'd have to judge us all.

i will, however, willingly admit that viewing a person from below-looking-up (which is where i was) is probably much different (not saying better or worse) than from the outside-looking-in (which is probably where most of the more critical posters are/were)...

Loved reading this post about the former Razorbacks. You guys were awesome! But Dewayne the Razorbacks did not take the top 8 spots at the SMSU XC Invite, I was 5th. :)

I was the only non-razorback in the top 8. Dewayne where are you coaching these days?

schiefer wrote:

If anyone questions the great consiglio, they are met with harsh criticism, which is disguised, passive aggressively as humor.

Keep searching, you'll soon find the person posting "rubbish" about Consiglio, but keep in mind, he's been throwing this "rubbish" my way for 13 years, so sometimes the medicine doesn't taste to good eh?

Damn. It just got real in here.

schief:

This may be hard for you to read, but:

1) you think it is fine to criticize 3:49 miler Falcon. Okay, I guess you feel you have that right to analyze his career.

2) But if somebody reminds you that you never broke 4, that is considered "throwing rubbish" at you?

You are willing to criticize a great American miler, but if somebody criticize your own career, you consider that not fair?

Show some respect for Falcon. He wouldn't bad mouth you.

Frank,

Let's stay on topic. I'm talking about the way Doug treats people. I have no problem being reminded I never broke 4, but if you are going to beate over the head with it year after, then it's not too much to expect that Consig can be reminded about his Seoul performance without lashing out, again.

MWegenka wrote:

Loved reading this post about the former Razorbacks. You guys were awesome! But Dewayne the Razorbacks did not take the top 8 spots at the SMSU XC Invite, I was 5th. :)

I was the only non-razorback in the top 8. Dewayne where are you coaching these days?

Not sure what year Dewayne is talking about, but back in 1991, we went 1-13. This was the Missouri Southern Stampede

This may be hard for you to read, but:

1) you think it is fine to criticize 3:49 miler Falcon. Okay, I guess you feel you have that right to analyze his career.

2) But if somebody reminds you that you never broke 4, that is considered "throwing rubbish" at you?

Sorry, I was on my iphone, couldn't properly type:

Let's break this down.

1. You use the word criticize and analyze. Believe it or not they are two different words.

I can certainly analyze anything I want to. Furthermore a 3:49 miler is not above analysis. At least not in the real world. What I have a hard time with is where I criticized him?

2. Anyone can remind me I never broke 4, it's a fact, but to do it over and over and over and over as if it's in any way relevant in my world is hysterical. I don't live in 1988, I live in 2011.

I never broke 4 for the mile. It's a fact. If that's fair game, then let's see some other former hogs post their failures.

hell, I could go on. I ran 4:17 for the mile in the first meet of the year in 1992. I didn't run the 2nd meet at Arkansas because I had a case of the "sniffles". I ran 1:56 in the 800m in 1992 at Nebraska. I dropped the baton at Penn in 1993, I ran 3:50 for 1,500m at the home meet in 1992.

The best, was I ran 4:20 for a mile (and to quote a famous Arkansas alum) "Did you see Schiefer at Penn Relays? He had the nerve to run 4:20 in front of 40,000 people, ran a 70 second last lap, what an embarrassment." (Of course this was in Joe Fennell's office, and I heard the whole thing because we were on speakerphone. This guy realized we were on speaker, and was quite embarrassed.

Have a sense of humor people, we've all been through the meat grinder, laugh at yourself.

If this is infact Frank O'Mara, I am appauled that a great one like he is writting this trivial BS. I don't believe that the eldest of the names I know of Arkansas track would contribute such childish behavior.

As a matter of fact, this thread started off as a topic of the great things this program experienced over the years. It has turned into mockery of another that appears to be amoung a bunch of former runners coached by John McDonnell.

It is obvious that the program was not all peaches and creme as demonstrated with the hostility between former team mates.

I can only imagine what it was like 20-30 years ago within this group. If the attacking and bantering is this bad today, I predict it was pure mayhem back then. If the coach were reading all of these didturbing posts, I am sure he would be just as embarassed today as he was proud when theses same runners were winning.

O'mara, Donovan, Consiglio or whoever else is representing Arkansas from the days I followed you, please take note of this message.

I was pleasantly surprised at how little pettiness, bitterness, and competitive garbage that doesn't matter now was being thrown around in the first few pages. It seemed to all be non-Hogs that appeared to be jealous of the program.

It was nice to see stories from Miner, Paul Thomas, Consiglio, some background on Falcon, etc.

I was also pleasantly surprised at how well Schiefer did until the last 2 pages. I remember 10-12 years ago what a loudmouth, boring, look-at-me type he was back in the tnfmedia days. I thought, "How nice that Schief seems to be secure and comfortable with himself now and above constantly picking on people and giving his opinion where nobody wants it."

Well, you can scratch that. See you in another 10 years Schief? We'll see if THEN you can JUST contribute to a thread without tearing down an all-time great, a teammate, and reminding everyone why they didn't like you the first time they met you.

-Brian McEwen

NOT in any way related to Arkansas; just a fan

Brian,

That's more like it. You stated your opinion, gave some feedback, used your name and were not passive aggressive about it.

It's nice to have opinions out in the open isn't it?

schiefer