Whats the most inspiring run you've ever seen? Elite or not.

Correction on my previous post to appease the nit-pick trolls:

*striving towards for over 9 years

*the end of a 9 year dream

You can debate when his dream of Olympic gold began, but I'll say they actually became realistic with his silver at '95 Worlds in Gothenburg. So, 9 years, at least.

Billy Mills, 1964 Olympics 10000m-

http://youtu.be/uOj0zjPzg-c

Look at Mills! Look at Mills!

Mills talks about it-

http://youtu.be/l5vOhMwRQwI

"look at Wottle! He is passing one kenyan, how is passing a 2nd Kenyan,........."

Color footage of Tokyo 1964 and Mills-

http://youtu.be/vs6G8NfEyVk

Not as powerful as the b&w with the the original commentary, but still good.

Joan Benoit's 1984 Olympic Marathon victory. With the 1980 boycott, this was the first Olympic Games that I cared about, and having an American win on American soil, the way she did, was incredibly impactful to me.

OK, here's all of the great color footage of Mills from the "Tokyo Olympiad" movie.

http://youtu.be/AyJlERp1A9E

If you watch past Mills winning, it's also cool how the crowd cheers for the last place guy from Ceylon.

July 19, 2008, The Red Hot Chili 5k. I was coming off of an injury to my achilles. I had been on the shelf for 6 months and had finally worked myself back into decent shape. At one point I was on the verge considering retirement. Everytime I thought I was healthy I would reaggravate it. So since I was in decent shape I thought I do this race and actually see how fit I really was. Mind you, I hadn't really done any workouts to see where I was at. So anyway I roll up to this race and figured no one would show up. But lo and behold, a runner who ALWAYS beats me showed up to the race. He had beaten me for years!I almost didn't even start the race! So I tell myself, you know what, just race. Whatever happens...happens. So I head to the start line and give it a go. The first mile I'm a little bit behind him but I feel fine. I'm relaxed and I'm breathing pretty well. My legs feel great and peppy. He finishes the mile about 2 seconds ahead of me. On the second mile he picks it up quite noticeably. I think he's trying to shake me. About halfway through mile 2, my lack of race fitness starts to show and I am HURTING! I have thoughts of quiting the race right there but I just suck it up and buckle down. We hit the 3rd mile and I am just hanging on. I don't want to look at my Garmin because I know that will make the pain worse. So I just focus on the back of my rival's legs. In my head I am wondering when this pain will ever end! I notice his lead has gone from 2 seconds to about 4 seconds. So I push a little harder. Finally I see the 3 mile marker. I'm known for having a great kick so I know if I can pull even with him there is a good chance I can beat him. So I finally pull even by 3 miles and I kick. Then he kicks ahead. Then I kick with all of my remaining strength and I end up beating him by less than a second! 20:51.4 to 20:51.6 and win 1st in my age group! This was the first time I managed to beat him ever and I also PRed and broke 21 minutes for the first time. After that I told myself I would never give up because you never actually know what you really are capable of. Strangely enough I have never been able to break that PR or break 21 in the 5k since that time. :(

10/10

0/10

Absolutely! Worst to first. So many young runners get gapped in a race and give up, they should all be made to watch this. They may not be Dave Wottle, but they will never know until they try

RuKidddingMe!! wrote:

1972 Olympic 800m Final (Hi Quality

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LHid-nC45k

my favorite of All Time!

DAVE WOTTLE!

/ thread?

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?board=1&id=1710404&thread=1710036

One of my old team mates Paul Fitzpartick 'Fitzy'

He's finished well down in some big xc and was in the bar afterwards, hammered and going on about how he used to beat the winner when he was a junior. The following year he came out and started showing those were not just drunken ramblings

He would always get involved in those nip and tuck battles on the track or road. His best for a 1500m was 3:53. I was watching one of his club league races and him and this other kid where locked together going through the laps in 60 dead, and unheard of pace in these local races

Anyway they remained locked together alll the was until on the home straight, one would get the edge then the other. On the line Fitzy just edged it. He was an iron man in a race. See if you recognise the guy who finished 2nd:

http://www.thepowerof10.info/results/results.aspx?meetingid=0&event=1500&venue=Oldham&date=15-Jul-89

In person: Pete Richardson Ca high school state meet champion 1:47

On TV: Edwin Moses--any race of the 10 straight years he did not lose. Wearing shades and gold, too cool

31min 10K runners all dream of trying the marathon and finding out you can be an instant star. This happened in 1973 for Brits watching Ian Thompson, a 30.xx modest club runner, win the AAA marathon in his debut in 2:12, then win a string of fast major marathons. At least temporarily, that gave me hope that I could be a celebrity - until I tried a marathon....

Mary Decker winning the 1500 and 3000 at the 1983 Helsinki world championships.

Tie between Rocky running up those steps in Philly and then being all happy with himself and Rocky running to the top of that mountain in Russia and then yelling "Drago!."

My seven year old kid asks, "How can a butt be cute? It's a butt."

In this same vein, I have to ask, "How can a run be inspiring? It's a run."

Has to be asked wrote:

My seven year old kid asks, "How can a butt be cute? It's a butt."

In this same vein, I have to ask, "How can a run be inspiring? It's a run."

You are a f*cking idiot.

We need subcategories:

1 - Truly inspiring stories = profound

My vote goes to Terry Fox.

2 - Underdogs Stories

My vote goes to Billy Mills

3 - Jaw Dropping Athleticism and Aesthetics

My vote to Geb vs. Tergat or El G

4 - 'WTF just happened' moment

That girl who fell

5 - Sportsmanship / Grace

Derek Redmond

Watching one of my older brothers lap people in a 1 mile race on a quarter mile track when he was in junior high school blew me away. I couldn't and still don't understand how it was possible. I've lapped people in the 2 mile on an indoor track since then, but never in a mile outdoors. The amazing thing was that he didn't like running and probably hardly trained.