If You Could Go Back In Time, What Race Would You Most Want To See Live?

1971 Helsinki - 5000m and 10000m

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyaJhyNKNEc

Look at the crowd. Absolutely nuts.

How about being on the lead vehicle watching Salazar vs Beardsley in Boston.

Miracle Mile. Bannister vs Landy, for sure.

Many - not all - of the post-1960 races have some YT coverage. I'd still like to see the part of the 1964 Olympic 800 where Snell drops behind the entire field before sweeping past all of them.

But for pre-video races, it has to be Bouin/Kohlemainen, Stockholm 1912. A WR by twenty-five seconds.

Understand the magnitude of their performances. Imagine El Guerrouj defeating Bekele by 0.1 sec in a 12:12 Olympic 5k final. It would be hailed righteously as the greatest race of all time.

It already happened here, almost a hundred years ago.

http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/ko/hannes-kolehmainen-1.html

Look down for two great views of the finish.

http://www.elatleta.com/foro/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=49653&whichpage=3

Kohlemainen was one of the all-time Olympic greats, yes. But Bouin too. R-e-s-p-e-c-t.

I would like to see Ryun's 1500 WR against Keino or a 1500 Ryun ran in Germany where he ran the last 400 in 50 point. I read somewhere that when he took off on the back stretch he moved away from the field so fast that the crowd was stunned into silence. Both were amazing races.

Lasse Viren placed 5th in the Olympic Marathon in Montreal in 1976 not in Munich in 1972.

I saw all of Lasse Viren's Olympic finals. 1972 was the first Olympics since 1920 that had heats in the 10,000 meters. The 10K heat was run on August 31st and Viren qualified for his first Olympic Final which was run on Sept. 3rd. It may have been Lasse Viren's greatest race! Viren, was running in 5th place when he fell during the 12th lap. He was back on his feet almost immediately and he then rejoined the leaders. Viren then made a decisive move with 600 meters to go and began to drop his pursuers. He won in a world record time of 27:38.4 His last 800 was 1:56.6 and his last lap was 56.6. I would like to see that race again! On 9-10-72, Lasse won the 5K in an Olympic Record 13:26.40.

As we all know Viren won the Olympic 5,000 and 10,000 meter races again in Montreal in 1976. The 5k final was on July 30, 1976. The marathon was to start in less than 24 hours. After that day's events, we were sitting alongside the sidewalk outside the stadium and Lasse Viren jogged by with his racing shoes in his hand. One of my friends called out to him "Are you going to run the marathon tomorrow". The reply was "Yes". He did! He placed 5th in 2:13:11! Lasse Viren was some runner!

Ghost of Paavo Nurmi wrote:

How about being on the lead vehicle watching Salazar vs Beardsley in Boston.

Or being in position to prevent that idiot moto cop from cutting Beardsley off and being able to find out if it would have truly made a difference in the final result.

Prep Level:

1975 Jr. AAU 10,000 - Chapa nips Hulst in 29:11 for a new HSR. McChesney sets the still standing Soph record of 29:27

Open Level:

1976 Montreal 5000 - Viren's amazing kick holding off Quax, Dixon and others

Jim Thorpe in the 1912 Olympics, or really any track meet. As far as I know there is no existing footage of the guy running track, although I've heard rumors of some football footage in private hands.

Glenn Cunningham's high school time trial in which he allegedly broke 4 minutes for the mile, but his coached asked him not to tell anyone as he would be accused of burning Cunningham out.

merci (and to Skuj)

How I wish I could have a first-class linament rub, half a glass of champagne and another crack at that One Hour Record !

I suppose the classic and unforgiving attempt of distance run in One Hour is completely against the competitive nature of this thread, and perhaps even rather passe these days, but somewhere in heaven I truly believe that all the great ones are still trying. Emil has only just arrived and he has plans . . . .

Do their magnificent running souls get reincarnated or do they stand alone for that short period of stopwatched time ?

Shorter, Wottle and Viren at Munich.

Abebe Bikila - 1960 Gold medal winner - Marathon - BAREFOOT

And I almost forgot,

Etienne Gailly, marathon bronze medal, 1948 Olympic Games.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etienne_Gailly

As emotive as Vanderlei de Lima's bronze in the same race, 2004.

the tortise vs the hare

KingWhiteShark wrote:

But for pre-video races, it has to be Bouin/Kohlemainen, Stockholm 1912. A WR by twenty-five seconds.

Understand the magnitude of their performances. Imagine El Guerrouj defeating Bekele by 0.1 sec in a 12:12 Olympic 5k final. It would be hailed righteously as the greatest race of all time.

It already happened here, almost a hundred years ago.

27:39.4 Ron Clarke Australia Oslo, Norway July 14, 1965 a WR by a more incredible 34.6 seconds - cant believe no-one has mentioned this yet

I go back in time to the year 2000, pick my old self up, then go to Stockholm in August 23rd 1923 and watch myself blow Paavi Nurmi to smithereens in the mile. The Flyin Finn would go down.