Pat Porter...

Lou wrote:

What did you guys do in the off season? Did Vigil have you still doing some sort of speedwork 2x per week?

Did Porter ever say why did didn't move up to the marathon?

Lou, I ran at Adams in the early 80's (with Porter, Sam Montoya, John Esquibel, Peter Graham, Dave Cuadrado, Robbie Hipwood, et. al) and Vigil was really intense with intervals. After cross nationals, we would take it easy for 1-2 weeks and then start indoor training (on our tiny, 12-lap astroturf "track"). Soon, he had us running 16x 400m (63sec. ave, 90sec. recovery), and 4-5x 800m (I once saw John "Skiball" Esquibel ave. sub 2:00 for 5x 800!) each week. The winters are pretty bad in Alamosa, so we would stay indoors until late February and then start running on the outdoor "track" (back then, it was black dirt) and at Cole Park.

Over the summer, Coach mailed us a schedule which consisted of base work only.....lots of miles (80-100miles/wk in single runs)

Porter never moved up to the marathon because he hated long runs. He could never imagine racing for over 2 hours. On 2 hour training runs, he was known to stop RIGHT AT 2:00:00 and then walk home from there....not a second longer; but no one I have EVER seen, trained as hard as Porter....no one.

Correction on my earlier post: "Road top the Top", Creative Designs Inc, Albuquerque, NM

I saw Montoya race frequently in 1979...He ran like crap at the RMAC meet and came out of nowhere really to win the national championship...pretty amazing. Does anyone out there remember a guy named Jeff(?)Turningheart...He ran one or two rraces for Adams and I've heard that Vigil called him the "most talented" runner he ever had...Lasted less than a semester and went home, I believe.

historybuff wrote:

I saw Montoya race frequently in 1979...He ran like crap at the RMAC meet and came out of nowhere really to win the national championship...pretty amazing. Does anyone out there remember a guy named Jeff(?)Turningheart...He ran one or two rraces for Adams and I've heard that Vigil called him the "most talented" runner he ever had...Lasted less than a semester and went home, I believe.

historybuff wrote:

I saw Montoya race frequently in 1979...He ran like crap at the RMAC meet and came out of nowhere really to win the national championship...pretty amazing. Does anyone out there remember a guy named Jeff(?)Turningheart...He ran one or two rraces for Adams and I\'ve heard that Vigil called him the \"most talented\" runner he ever had...Lasted less than a semester and went home, I believe.

Historybuff, Sammy was so sick days before that 1979 National meet in Kenosha, Wisconsin that he almost didn't run, but he was an animal! He was so sick, he couldn't even get out of the van to jog the course the day before the meet.

If Montoya wasn't the most talented Adams State runner, then Jeff Turningheart certainly was. He was on our team in 1982, sadly, for only 6 weeks, and then he went back home to his reservation in South Dakota. He only ran our team 10k time trial, the WSC meet, the AFA invitational, and our home meet on the 'loop.' What an amazing talent!! When we ran our 'one-lappers' at Cole Park around the park benches, he would run 20ft. wider by the trees and STILL keep up with Porter (who was in his first post-collegiate season and on his way to his first Nat'l TAC championship XC win). Turningheart, like all the great ones, made it look effortless.

I talked to him two years ago, and he is still in S.D. Many years ago (10+ years?) when he ran the NYC marathon, ABC sports did a profile on him. What Jeff could have done, had he stayed at Adams!

Pat is fat and gives nothing absolutely nothing back to the sport, I dont care how hard he trained. It takes alot to make coach Joe Vigil write you off, which he did. Coach Vigil even gets along with Teddy, but has not and will not speek to Pat, because PAt was very disrespectful to his own family. He weighs well over 200 pounds these days.

Gidget wrote:

Pat gives nothing absolutely nothing back to the sport, I dont care how hard he trained. It takes alot to make coach Joe Vigil write you off, which he did. Coach Vigil even gets along with Teddy, but has not and will not speek to Pat, because PAt was very disrespectful to his own family.

....sad, but true.

C'mon. Don't leave us hanging. What do you mean he was disrespectful to his family? How? And how fat is he? Why did Vigil write him off? And I believe Porter did run one marathon but it didn't go well, he might have DNF'ed. Anyone know?

Over 200 pounds, my post will be deleted if I go into the other details, but he is greedy, angry and his wife goes to urgent care often.

the miles at the park/church were 1526meters...just ask the Finns...

Porter ran 2:17-2:18 at Twin Cities in 1993.

And as far as Pat not giving anything back to the sport, I remember him as being encouraging and supportive of young junior runners on the National Teams. He spent more time talking to kids than any of the other studs.