Tom McCardle - Dartmouth - - did have a great blogsite while he was at Dartmouth
Tom McCardle - Dartmouth - - did have a great blogsite while he was at Dartmouth
Rojo - a lot of the names being thrown out are bogus, but there are some good ones that have come through:Lukas Verzbicas - left for TrisKenny Cormier - left for militaryJohanna Nilsson - left for a different lifeTony Waldrop - left for PhD - http://www.letsrun.com/2005/waldrop.phpDavid Kinsella - left for law schoolNicodemus Naimadu - left for Dental SchoolPaul Ereng - old collegian who won OG and WC golds while at UVA, then left the sport.*Donald Sage - Honorable mention, considering his later attempted comeback.Injuries led to their choice to walk away:LindgrenMatt DavisMatt WithrowJosh McDougalJohn QuadeTom McArdle
rojo wrote:
Anyway, what about 1996 and 1997 Foot locker champ Abdirizak Mohamud. Did he even run in college? What the hell is he up to now? If you know, email me as I"d love to do a story on him.
Per this thread from 2003 and other posting on Letsrun, he ran briefly for NAIA Lindenwood, then moved back east and started working hourly jobs:
"random hero RE: Anyone remember Abdzirak Mohamed?? 12/5/2003
I was Mohamed's roommate in college for the year he was at Lindenwood. The guy was amazing. He came into the '98 season about 5 weeks after the rest of the team, and went on to place 5th with a 24:11 at the NAIA National meet at Kenosha. That indoor season he ran 4:07 to finish 3rd in the NAIA mile, and fell in the finals of the 800 with 150 meters to go as he was passing the field in lane two. That outdoor season he did not run; he was having problems with his legs. He would train in racing flat, and was running about 80 miles a week. He was out for 2+ months, which was the same time McDonalds was offering 2 Big Macs for $2. I'm not exaggerating when I say he would eat 6 Big Macs a week. After taking the time off he came back with 0 miles over two months under his belt and rabbitted a 1500 at Lindenwood. He went through 800 in 1:57 with a Southern Indiana runner (not Rono) running 3:42, Koech from McKendree running 3:43, Yossef from Lindenwood running 3:43, and Ibrahim from Lindenwood running 3:44.
Someone said that Abdi and Sharif had a falling out in school. That's not true, but not entirely false....if that makes sense. The never really got into any type of arguments, but that was because they never talked to one another. Apparently they were from warring tribes from Somalia. Sharif really took this seriously where as Abdi said it did not bother him. Sharif would never really give Abdi a chance.
Abdi was really homesick while he was at Lindenwood. He always talked about how he wanted to transfer to a D1 school. I think he wound up on Michigan State's roster for awhile, but never ran for them. He took a year off of school before running for Life the last year they had a program. I talked to him occasionally after he left Lindenwood, but I have not talked to him in a couple years. Last time I talked to him he was working as a security guard.
Abdi was probably the most gifted runner I've ever met. If he could have been in the right program with the right coach he could have gone onto do great things as a runner."
newname wrote:
certified quitter wrote:Given the state of athletics in the overall world of sport, there is really not a huge amount of incentive for a young person to stay in the sport long term unless they feel they have good shot of reaching the top or just simply love running that much. Why put up with all of the brutal hard work; early mornings; monitoring diet; no alcohol; skipping parties and social events for such little pay off? Add on top of this the fact that most of the public are convinced that runners are just as doped as cyclists and you have a dying sport at the competitive level.
I mean, the bottom line is that outside of running, Rupp is a nobody although he works just as hard as Mo at the game. Try asking the general public who Rupp is and you’ll be met with confused looks. Running at a very elite level is just not viewed as cool and will never compete with other sports especially team ones which are more social and thus will never attract a lot of cash or respect. The general public have no idea of the difference between a sub 5:00 and a sub 4:00 mile let alone the difference between a 1:45 800m runner and a 1:42 guy.
I woke up just after my 18th birthday when I was busting myself doing 400m repeats on a cold running track and suddenly found myself asking, ‘what is this all for?’. I made a decision there and then to quite based on the likelihood that I was never going to make it really big and just did not enjoy the sacrifices needed for further improvement. I had a fair bit of talent (sub 1:50 800m & sub 3:45 1500m HS runner) but just figured I’d go down the education road.
Do I have any regrets? None at all as I’ve lived a far more balanced life and enjoyed my 20s to the absolute max in so many ways – studied, partied, learned guitar, made lots of friends, travelled, got laid more times than I can even remember; started a fulfilling career; met my now wife. Oh and all the while still enjoying running as a means of keeping fit and to blow off steam. Yes, I’m now a hobby jogger as defined by LR but I’d rather be a ‘nobody’ hobby jogger than a ‘nobody’ who makes the semis in the Olympic Games and is forgotten about the next day or is dropped from the team following a period of injuries.
Everyone’s different but there are many others like me who just simply look at the broader picture and think, ‘ah fuc* this for a laugh, there’s way more to life!’
No 1:49/3:44 American HS'er has EVER quit the sport as a senior. It is easy to look up all of them. You are an idiot, trying to make yourself sound deep and complicated.
Maybe you just can't handle the fact that some people with way more talent than you have in one of your tiny little brain cells did decide to quite the sport and move on.
Waldrop is the GOAT walkoff, for sure.
Request to restrict entries to those that 'walked away' for no really apparent reason. It's dumb to say Renaldo Nehemiah 'walked away' from the sport - or anyone else who made a completely logical decision to leave running. Looking for the headscratching situations......