Rick Wohluter- Why had I never heard of this guy?

...I'm 'old' enough to remember seeing in person, Rick run a 1:49 880 yd. run at the old University of Chicago 220 yd. clay indoor track...mostly as you'd expect by himself!

He was an incredible athlete and humble as the day is long...truly one a kind!

Nathan Jessup wrote:

...I'm 'old' enough to remember seeing in person, Rick run a 1:49 880 yd. run at the old University of Chicago 220 yd. clay indoor track...mostly as you'd expect by himself!

He was an incredible athlete and humble as the day is long...truly one a kind!

Did you order the Code Red?!!!!!!!!!!!

I was in the Olympic Stadium at the 1972 Olympics in Munich when Rick Wohlhuter fell in the 800 heats. I remember Jim Ryan falling in a 1500 meter heat, too. For the life of me, I can't remember if both of these events happened at the same session. Maybe someone can dig up the schedule.

Here's an interview w/Rick from a few years ago:

http://www.talk.dyestat.com/showthread.php?t=33890

Thanks for the link to the RW interview.

This is great. It says it all...

Wohlhuter: Size has no bearing on success in the running events. Mr. Juantorena was successful at the Montreal Games because he trained hard and raced hard to win.

Watched that race in Eugene. The officials should have timed at the 800 as well and he would have brocken both records.

Still one of the sickest 800 workouts Ive ever heard of;

4X400 in 49-50sec with 20sec rest!!!! Straight from the horse's mouth.

So why doens't anyone remember Wolhuter? Wottle was (is a fun, engaging character, plus he won the olypmic goldf. Wolhuter was a obnoxious, self important, little shi-t...thats why no one remembers him

I was in the LA Coliseum when he set the WR in the 880 in 73. I was a big track fan but went with a high school buddy of mine who had never been to a track meet before. When the first lap time was announced I told my friend "that's real fast," and a minute later said "that's a world record." I had to explain to him that you usually doesn't get to see that kind of thing every time you go to a track meet.

rick wohlly wrote:

Still one of the sickest 800 workouts Ive ever heard of;

4X400 in 49-50sec with 20sec rest!!!! Straight from the horse's mouth.

No way that happened. Makes me question everything else he reported in that interview.

i have to agree

i don't really have much interest in training schedules/logs, but jeeezus !!

4X400 in 49-50sec with 20sec rest!!!!

isn't that the training schedule you woud associate with a 1'40/1'41 guy ???

perhaps the 20s is meant to be 200s

I think it is possible, esp. if he is including 50.99 in that.

I assume he was a 46 high 400 runner and evidently weigh about 125.

In my 800 peak, I prob could have come close to running that workout within 4 sec of my 400 pr. Okay the more i think about it, that is insane.

he does include 49 in that which woud be 49.99 using your method

that is still damn fast !

Nah. His dead even 800 race pace is 52 seconds. So we know he can run back-to-back 52's with no rest at all. Now, 20 seconds rest is very little. So little that it's not thatmuch different than no rest at all. So no rest = back-to-back 52's. 20 seconds rest = what? 51's? 50.5's? Hell, let's even give him back-to-back 50.0's. I can't imagine him going that much faster with so little rest.

But now he is talking about doing two MORE 400's at that same pace with that same rest? No way, no how.

I read and appreciate all the comments posted. Hopefully I spelled my name correctly, but anything close is fine. There were many great runners competing during my career (mid '70s) that likely you will never see on this site. For me, time and the fact that other runners have surpassed my efforts diminishes my accomplishments. If I had won a gold medal, a few more people would remember me.

Let me speak to my experience racing in the '76 Olympic Games, particularly the 800 meters. When I competed in the Games, I was a very experienced runner. I had run against the world's best numerous times and developed an effective stategic and tactical approach to racing realizing that each race has its own ebb and flow. I believe the first real race in the Games is the semi final(certainly, do not take the first round for granted.) By this stage all the so-so runners have been eliminated leaving the best all sriving furiously to make the final. To say the least, competition is keen! My stategy is simple; stay in contention near the front of the race and finish in one of the two quaranteed spots. Too often, many good runners stay too far off the pace and end up not qualifying for the final especially when the race is slow. How disappointing for them. In other words, you must treat the semi like it is the final or there will be no final. Of course, your semi time will be fast expending more energy, but that is better than being well rested while watching the final from the stands. All of the above is the same for the 1500, my other event. By the time I made the 1500 final, I had run six races in seven days. Moreover, I was tired and consequently not really a contender for a medal. However, I still made the final.

OK, let's look at the 800 final, step-by-step from my vantage point. Like most Olympic events, everyone knows who likely will get a medal; we actually run the race to determine who gets which medal. For the first time in Olympic history we ran the initial 300 meters in lanes. For me, I saw neither an advantage nor disadvantge in this. It did mean that no one would be bumped or shoved early in the race. This is a good thing. I had the fastest time in the semis so I was given the middle lane. Alberto Juanterano was outside of me. Also a good thing; I could keep an eye on him. Lining up to start the race is a stressful time so you have to control it or it will consume you. After all, there are 80,000 fans in the stadium and a few hundred million viewing on TV. I knew the race would be fast; I was hoping to win, of course, but also in an Olympic and world record time. Hey, you have to have goals in mind! We are off. Stress is gone, now time to go to work. At 300 meters out, where we broke for the inside, Juanterano took the lead, It was clear to me at that point he was going to run the race from the front. Seemed OK to me. All I had to do was slide in just behind or off his shoulder and let him do the pacing. At 400 meters, another runner temporarily took the lead. OK as long as no one else moves up too. I looked up at the stadium clock to get my 400 spit, 50 point. Great, looks like we will have fast race. So far all to plan. Going up the back stretch past 500 meters to 600 meters the pace was very quick, maybe a little too quick over that hundred meters. I was in second place going into and around the final turn. Felt good so far so I decided to move up a bit and challenge Juanterano. Nothing like a little pressure on your competitors. Suprisingly, he held me off as I wanted to pass him coming out of the final turn. Never hurts during the late stage of a race to have all your competitors behind you. But Juanterano held his pace. With some 50 yards or so to go all I could do is hold my form and see if he fades. Unfortunately for me, he ran strong through the finish and I being spent, ended up third. Ivo VanDame pasted me at the very end for silver before I could react to him. But all-in-all it was a great race, one of the best ever over 800 meters. Looking back today, I would not have done anything differently. Most importantly, I followed my plan (it was a good one) -- kept in contention giving myself a chance to win and went for the gold.

There is on bit of confusion regarding a 4X400 workout of mine. My intent was to run each 400 meters a little faster than the previous one with a short rest betwen. I would start with about 52 seconds and end with the last at about 49 point. The confusion is with the rest between each interval. I attempted to rest about 45-50 seconds, atleast less than 60 seconds. Not 20 seconds!! This work out is not too hard for the fist two or even three 400s. But by the fourth one, it is a bear. I remember attempting this work out perhaps once or twice because it is very hard to get all the way through and I didn't want to become injured. As a side note, I build my career largely on short-rest interval work, that is why I came up with this workout. Good running to all!

Damn Rick, I'm not too proud to admit my heart was beating a little faster reading your take on that Oly 800m Final in '76. I watched from home and recall trying to will you past 'the Big Cuban' coming off the last bend. Then, half way up the straight, hoping your form didn't go to hell because it was evident you were flat out!

Thanks for contributing!

Rick,

Thanks for the post!

Great to read your story. Thanks. I did watch you at the '76 trials. Best wishes to you and your daughter.

Great to hear from you. Best wishes!

Thanks for sharing your memories Rick. Awesome race, class guy. This is why we visit letsrun for nuggets like this.