Matt Tegenkamp running world class 5k times. This pushed Solinsky, Rupp, and Ritz to the level they are at now.
Matt Tegenkamp running world class 5k times. This pushed Solinsky, Rupp, and Ritz to the level they are at now.
Sites like TNFMedia, Dyestat, and LetsRun are just as important as those performances, because they let runners, especially younger ones, know what other people were capable of doing. These sites provided goals and the means to learn how to train to achieve those goals. Just about every major distance contributor on the US scene grew up with them. Not a coincidence.
Can we say it was a combination of Webb/Ritz and to some degree Hall at the HS level, enhanced by the Dyestat and Letsrun internet community, and certainly followed by the success of Meb and Deena on the roads, along with Shalane and Teg on the track at the pro level- all showing the way and inspiring at their respective levels.
Mike, you made some great points in your last post, but you continue to sound like such a jerk when debating and insulting others opinions. This is a message board, full of opinions, not all like yours. You are not the end-all in knowledge and truth. Nothing's changed since your days on Dyestat.
I agree, Bob Kennedy. It takes a few years for that resurgence to surface as those looking up at the current pros are in HS at the time of their decision to go all in at distance running.And really we can attribute it all to Nike, they are pretty much responsible for the first boom in the 70's.
Factt wrote:
Bob Kennedy started it.
jdiaufrk wrote:
Matt Tegenkamp running world class 5k times. This pushed Solinsky, Rupp, and Ritz to the level they are at now.
100% no. Ritz did not up his training or anything after Teg ran his time. He switched coaches coming off marathon training and popped out a 12:56 a few months later. Teg def had nothing to do with that.
What's with all of these Bob Kennedy posts?
He peaked in 1996 and it looks like this resurgence started rolling over the past few years.
In 2004, the US had trouble finding enough qualified runners to complete an Olympics team.
They had to go to the semis to get the third guy for the 1500.
Ritz made the 10,000 team by finishing last after Bob Kennedy dropped out of the race.
I'm a Kennedy fan but as he finsihed his track career the US was not deep at all in the distances.
No body chased Kennedy to world class times.
* wrote:
What's with all of these Bob Kennedy posts?
He peaked in 1996 and it looks like this resurgence started rolling over the past few years.
In 2004, the US had trouble finding enough qualified runners to complete an Olympics team.
They had to go to the semis to get the third guy for the 1500.
Ritz made the 10,000 team by finishing last after Bob Kennedy dropped out of the race.
I'm a Kennedy fan but as he finsihed his track career the US was not deep at all in the distances.
No body chased Kennedy to world class times.
You really don't understand how this works do you?
In addition to Kennedy, I would toss in Todd Williams. They had a little bit of a rivalry going that helped. I recall at the Trials in 1996 there was a group of HS kids there cheering for Williams.
Sorry Truthmeister but you aren't looking at the situation critically.1. How many of the 300million train/follow/care about track/running versus interest in other sports?2. Technology/economic-development are hindrances in a sport as brutal as track/xc by providing distractions away from what needs the work.3. Yes, every hs has track/xc, but how well participated are they? And, how knowledgeable/caring are the coaches? (obviously there are some/many good ones)Replying to other posts, yes Alan Webb was at the core of any so called resurgence. He was a 3rd tier celebrity (articles in major publications, appearance on Letterman).For better or worse, I think hs kids around this time period (at least the one's I was coaching) saw through the "american" Lagat story. Hmmm.. who do I want to be like: import from kenyan or kid my age from Virginia....Bob Kennedy is great and the further along in life I get the more I appreciate what he did. With that said, back in the day I put him on a pedestal as the top American and then saw him get lapped by Haile in a 10k on tv. It was devastating.
The Truthmeister wrote:
The irony of all this is that even now... with this supposed "U.S. running resurgence" is the following:
1) The US population is well over 300 million people now.
2) We are one of the most technologically-advanced, modern societies in the world. In other words, we've got the best training facilities. Or at least we think we do.
3) Almost every high school has a cross-country and track team.
4) You need no talent to join these cross-country and track teams. There is no barrier to entry. So any HS student in our massively-populated country can join and compete in cross-country or track immediately.
5) Kenya and Ethiopia, on the other hand, probably have 30 to 50 times more depth at distance running than the U.S... with a much, much smaller population. What's more, Kenya and Ethiopia are "developing" nations.
So you can talk "resurgence" all you want. The bottom line is if you're any good, you're gonna get absolutely spanked by the East Africans sooner or later.
Just look at the top 100 marathon times this year and see how many are U.S. born Americans... and how many are East Africans.
The only way any U.S. born American will ever medal in a distance event - unless something radical happens in the near future - is if at least 2-3 East Africans competing in any given major race get injured, sick, or run a really crappy race. They are simply too good compared to us.
It's a joke.
Even all these "sub 9" guys in HS would probably get steamrolled by a 14 year old Kenyan wearing his school uniform and carrying books in one arm.
Bullshit.
Do you guys remember where you were when you found out that Alan Webb ran 3:53?
I was sitting in my living room with 3 friends yelling at the T.V. To me Webb is the reason running has elevated the way it has in the US
the real blahhh wrote:
I was sitting in my living room with 3 friends yelling at the T.V. To me Webb is the reason running has elevated the way it has in the US
I woke up on the morning of May 28th and immediately surfed over to Dyestat. I almost fell out of my chair, and when I recovered myself called all of my running friends to tell them.
Todd of Texas wrote:
I think it really started when Michael Stember ran a 4:04 as a high school junior back in the mid 1990s.
He was followed by a bunch of of guys who nearly broke 4:00 (John Riley, Gabe Jennings, Sharif Karie, Andy Powell, Don Sage, and more) before Webb's emergence.
The American high school middle and long distance scene had been dismal for maybe 15 years before Stember
Stember is the correct answer. Ran 4:04 as a junior and then got put on the cover of "HS Runner" as a senior. This was a mini-magazine put out by Runner's World and distributed to high school teams. Everybody read it and started thinking about sub-4 again.
The next year, T&FN put the national HS lists on the Internet and it was all over. Kids started shooting higher, training harder, and this built on itself over the years. Now the USA is in the enviable position of having several legit medal contenders. Great time to be a distance fan.
Pre did not die because he was an idiot. He died because another motorist ran him off the road. Read the Kenny Moore book about Oregon runners before you start talking smack about Pre.
It's true that Pre could have beat Ian Stewart to the bronze in Munich with smarter running over the last lap. But the man was a front runner and ran true to his instincts.
Why was the anti-Pre & anti-Webb poster so angry and vitriolic? Clearly the are the idiot!
Neil Owen wrote:
What Webb sorely needed was a modern day Bowerman. Someone to tell him to STFU and do what I say.
Almost all runners would improve with a Bowerman or a Lydiard ....especially Webb.
"It's true that Pre could have beat Ian Stewart to the bronze in Munich with smarter running over the last lap."
That's what I said.
"But the man was a front runner and ran true to his instincts."
That's a euphemism for 'but he was stubborn and stupid,' which I also said.
So we're in total agreement, which is nice.
When Webb broke the hs record, I was in Ocean City watching the meet. I was recording the race an must have watched it a dozen more times that night all whilst drinking beers and checking my manhood.
I remember hearing about someone breaking 4 minutes in a 4x1600m race in the spring of 2000. It was Alan Webb and he was a junior at the time. News of his performance cut through the state relay meet like a knife (strictly by word of mouth).
He has met and surpassed all expectation since.
Webb and Ritz started the entire movement. I was in their graduating class and to see both those guys running out of their minds just made a huge impact in the mid-d and distance resurgence in US distance running.
Both ran every workout hard, push themselves to the limit every race, and have both lasted this long. Everyone makes mistakes, but if it weren't for them the younger generations would not have learned. The younger guys are getting smarter because these guys were the example.
Everyone is still talking about them and no matter who you are, there is a little hope to see them go out with a bang. We will see you at the trials baby!!!!