would be interested to read that if you had the link, as well as his kiptanui story. loved to watch that guy run. i remember a story once regarding komen and doing an entirw workout on the track with a spike bag on his head...
It's not an incredible running story - just a funny one.
The Kiptanui story Kennedy told me is a much better running with with real running lessons - I don't mind retelling even though I've posted this a few times over the years on relevant threads.
So the Kenyans of that era in particular hated running on the roads/pavement and the ones that were in Kim McDonalds group used to stay in Teddington, London. They did all their running in Bushy Park and the houses were like half a mile away from the park entrance. They would either job incredibly slowly to get there or even walk to reduce the impact from even a short run on asphalt. Kennedy told me that about a week before Weltklasse in 95 (the first sub 8), he arranged to go for a run with Moses in the park and so the headed off at a snails pace - just faster than walking. At the park gate, Moses said to him "I don't feel very good, I'm tired" so turned around and went back which wasn't that unusual as again, the top Kenyans of that era ran very much on feeling rather than keeping to a schedule. But then Kiptanui then basically slept/stayed in his house rest of the week - basically just watching war movies and only really walking to the supermarket to get food. BK said that at one point he was like "there is no chance this guy should even bother going to Zurich let alone try and run sub 8" he seemed that blown out but come Wednesday he flew to Zurich and the rest is history, goes out and drops the first sub 8 in the chase.
And of course the real takeaway (and Bob said this) was how so many Americans/Europeans etc would freak out about being low on energy a week out from an important race and actually spend even more energy worrying about it/trying to do some kind of "reassurance" workout as soon as they could. Kiptanui on the other hand wasn't plussed at all about basically not running at all for a week because he knew he was in shape, he just needed to be fit and charged up - very similar to the famous Bannister situation where he intentionally rested for 5 days because he knew he had peaked mentally and physically.
I never forgot that story - I now think about how cool it was Kennedy told it to me.
many thanks for sharing stories like this.
it emphasizes the amature nature of the sport.
the takeaway is that the coach should be there to reassure the athletes
and baby these mentally weak guys along, or rather, guys that need to firm up their mindset.
a reassurance panic workout, as your are peaking, that spells disaster when you hit the bell lap, where the tank is empty due to dumping fuel - leaving it in practice ....
A few things about Kennedy. He was super efficient at 3k / 5k. His best 1500m was only 3:38 and 3:56 mile and took one good crack at the 10,000m in 27:37. But he ran between 7:30-7:35 like 7 or 8 times (all outdoor mid 90's). But he was also a very xc runner. And back most countries send teams to World XC every year and when it was 12k he was in the top 15 like 3 or 4 times. He was also a 2 x NCAA XC Champion.
At the time the USA had Todd Williams in the 10,000m (a top 10 World XC guy, great road racer at 10k- 1/2 marathon, ran AR 42:22 15k and 1:00:11 1/2 marathon) and Mark Croghan in the steeple (8:09 guy) with very similar results as Kennedy in Worlds and Olympics, etc. Steve Holman and Marc Davis had flashes of success, but these guys came right after fellows like Jim Spivey, Joe Falcon, etc. had been mixing it up internationally.
Here is a great video of Bob Kennedy and Todd Williams basically tying to win the Pre 2 mile:
I was sitting with Marc Davis on the backstretch there at Hayward that day. Todd/Bob/Marc had an extremely good rivalry, serious but also with some lighthearted ribbing. When Marc broke the AR in Sweden (Gothenberg?) the year before, he called Kennedy at home to give him some $h!t.
Yes, because going out too fast for the first lap of a mile (like every single high school runner who is inexperienced) is really comparable to trying to string an Olympic field out with two laps to go in a 12.5 lap race in a bid to win a medal. He may have misjudged it, but he went for it, and there’s absolutely no shame in that.
Kennedy was an inspiration to a generation of runners, including myself. He gave us hope that a Caucasian kid from America could compete at an elite level in events dominated by East Africans.
We are probably close to the same age. I graduated in 2001, so with Webb, but before him it was all Kennedy. We all had the shoes. He was the man.
But that race in particular was shameful. It was a bonehead move.
Also, speak for yourself about the whole "Caucasians vs. East Africans" thing. Bob Kennedy wasn't a racist. That was just your vile world view.
Nothing racist about it. Bob wanted to beat the best - and they were the East Africans.
Any runner in that race could have made the same move at that time. There is nothing "ballsy" about it. It was the wrong move to make. I could run the first 400 of my next mile race in 54, that doesn't mean I have balls, it means I am foolish.
6th is nothing to be praising 28 years after the fact. You're like the college that keeps talking about the time they made the Sweet Sixteen at the NCAA basketball tournament 30 years ago. No one cares about their or Bob's mediocrity.
This guy made exactly the same move in the Olympics, and won.
The fact that he had one paralyzed arm just added to the story.
I thought this thread was going to be about what time he won the NCAA cross country final, as an 18 year old true frosh, after coming out of high school as a low mileage miler. !!!
Stunning. Amazing. What a distance talent.
He definitely lacked pure speed. And therefore I really think should have focused on the 10k earlier his career.
This happened 17-18 years ago, when I was still a collegiate runner. A former NBA player/Coach, who was from my hometown and lived there in the offseason, had a charity road race there. He brought one of his NBA players with him, and Bob Kennedy - I believe Bob's wife and this NBA coaches' daughter were friends or something. In my small town, nobody had any idea who Bob Kennedy was and everyone flocked to the NBA player. I saw Bob just hanging out by himself and went over to meet him. He wound up talking to me about running for over an hour and giving me some good training advice. It was a pretty amazing experience for a twenty-year-old kid who was obsessed with running and got the change to meet one of his Olympic idols.
But back in 96 my brother and I were in the stadium watching this. The crowd went crazy but we both knew he was throwing away a medal just to run upfront and be a factor in the race. We were literally yelling "No Bob!" because we believed he had a chance to maybe medal (amazing field) and taking the lead with two laps to go and not being the favorite was exciting but cray cray.
This post was edited 5 minutes after it was posted.
Yes, because going out too fast for the first lap of a mile (like every single high school runner who is inexperienced) is really comparable to trying to string an Olympic field out with two laps to go in a 12.5 lap race in a bid to win a medal. He may have misjudged it, but he went for it, and there’s absolutely no shame in that.
Kennedy was an inspiration to a generation of runners, including myself. He gave us hope that a Caucasian kid from America could compete at an elite level in events dominated by East Africans.
We are probably close to the same age. I graduated in 2001, so with Webb, but before him it was all Kennedy. We all had the shoes. He was the man.
But that race in particular was shameful. It was a bonehead move.
Also, speak for yourself about the whole "Caucasians vs. East Africans" thing. Bob Kennedy wasn't a racist. That was just your vile world view.
Any runner in that race could have made the same move at that time. There is nothing "ballsy" about it. It was the wrong move to make. I could run the first 400 of my next mile race in 54, that doesn't mean I have balls, it means I am foolish.
6th is nothing to be praising 28 years after the fact. You're like the college that keeps talking about the time they made the Sweet Sixteen at the NCAA basketball tournament 30 years ago. No one cares about their or Bob's mediocrity.
This guy made exactly the same move in the Olympics, and won.
The fact that he had one paralyzed arm just added to the story.
Okay, so yeah, this thread is 28 years too late, but better late than never. I watched this race live in 1996 on television. But that was in the days before the internet and YouTube and 7 years before the birth of Letsrun. So I had forgotten what kind of balls Bob Kennedy had at the time. 2 laps to go in the race. He knows he’s a long-shot, but he was in 12:58 shape (insane in the pre super shoes era). He could have played it safe and maybe hoped to snag a bronze. But no. He says F this - I’m going for it. He was in over his head and ended up having to settle for 6th (still respectable). But that’s the kind of sh!t that inspired me at the time and is one of the reasons I kept running at the time. Still gives me the chills today. Good for you Bob - you deserve your MF thread.
Any runner in that race could have made the same move at that time. There is nothing "ballsy" about it. It was the wrong move to make. I could run the first 400 of my next mile race in 54, that doesn't mean I have balls, it means I am foolish.
6th is nothing to be praising 28 years after the fact. You're like the college that keeps talking about the time they made the Sweet Sixteen at the NCAA basketball tournament 30 years ago. No one cares about their or Bob's mediocrity.
Any runner in that race could have made the same move at that time. There is nothing "ballsy" about it. It was the wrong move to make. I could run the first 400 of my next mile race in 54, that doesn't mean I have balls, it means I am foolish.
6th is nothing to be praising 28 years after the fact. You're like the college that keeps talking about the time they made the Sweet Sixteen at the NCAA basketball tournament 30 years ago. No one cares about their or Bob's mediocrity.
You're like the college that keeps talking about the time they made the Sweet Sixteen at the NCAA basketball tournament 30 years ago. No one cares about their or Bob's mediocrity.
Clown.
I'm the same as age as BK. It's hard to underestimate how excited many of us were our freshmen year when he won NCAA XC. I was even more excited when he made his move in 96 as it was the only move he had. He could've played it safe. But he didn't. Hats off to BK. I agree with the OP. Ballsy move.
Any runner in that race could have made the same move at that time. There is nothing "ballsy" about it. It was the wrong move to make. I could run the first 400 of my next mile race in 54, that doesn't mean I have balls, it means I am foolish.
6th is nothing to be praising 28 years after the fact. You're like the college that keeps talking about the time they made the Sweet Sixteen at the NCAA basketball tournament 30 years ago. No one cares about their or Bob's mediocrity.
Yes, because going out too fast for the first lap of a mile (like every single high school runner who is inexperienced) is really comparable to trying to string an Olympic field out with two laps to go in a 12.5 lap race in a bid to win a medal. He may have misjudged it, but he went for it, and there’s absolutely no shame in that.
Kennedy was an inspiration to a generation of runners, including myself. He gave us hope that a Caucasian kid from America could compete at an elite level in events dominated by East Africans.
This. We just were so beaten down in the era where Todd Williams was the only other good runner besides Kennedy. We needed those two guys to do well because there was belief that regular 6'0 tall 150 lb white kids couldn't compete with 5'6, 120 lb East Africans.
Kennedy gave "average kids" all around America hope. Obviously, he was not average at all (either mentally or physically), but he was still an inspiration. People do benefit from role models who look like them...