David Torrence is Dead: RIP / Appreciation Thread

Rest in peace, David Torrence -- a runner I've enjoyed watching since his 2005 Big Wave Dave midnight sub-4 antics. My deepest condolences to his family and friends. It's a very sad day in the running world.

mwwwin wrote:

torrence fan wrote:

For people asking about why he was in Scottsdale, it's because he was part of the Altis training group which is based in the area.

Thank you for the clarification. Why don't they train up in flagstaff during the hotter months?

They're mostly a sprints and jumps groups, so the weather is suitable for them.

torrence fan wrote:

For people asking about why he was in Scottsdale, it's because he was part of the Altis training group which is based in the area.

Thank you for the clarification. Why don't they train up in flagstaff during the hotter months?

5x18er wrote:

mwwwin wrote:

Thank you for the clarification. Why don't they train up in flagstaff during the hotter months?

They're mostly a sprints and jumps groups, so the weather is suitable for them.

Makes sense. Thank you.

The most articulate and heartfelt comments about Torrence are coming, perhaps not surprisingly, from Nick Willis on his Facebook Page. I'd recommend checking them out.

RIP to a great man and athlete

So sad I really did look up to him,

Rest in peace

RIP David.

DT was my favorite fast/pro runner since the Big Wave thread in 2005. When I saw this thread, I was hoping it was a joke, but no such luck.

Shocking, terrible news. Condolences and commiserations to all his family, friends and fans.

What happened? Was he unable to swim. Apartment pool? Was in inside after hours?

Jaded or wrote:

This has all the hallmarks of a cardiac event. Remember Kenenisa's fiancée? David Torrence ran 13:16 in the infamous Lopez Lomong race where there was an initial miscount of laps, if I recall correctly. Tremendous talent.

I agree about there being a good chance this was cardiac.

A decathlete that was local to me went off to college years ago. He was swimming with friends at an apartment pool. They left a little before him, he never came in so they went out and found him deceased in the pool. It was a cardiac event.

Terrible loss for David's friends and family and the entire running community :(

Jaded or wrote:

This has all the hallmarks of a cardiac event. Remember Kenenisa's fiancée? David Torrence ran 13:16 in the infamous Lopez Lomong race where there was an initial miscount of laps, if I recall correctly. Tremendous talent.

It does. It also happened to a Kenyan runner called David Kiprotich who collapsed and died in training in June. Although this thread has been mostly respectful, can't ignore the unfounded innuendo thrown about when this happens to Kenyan or Ethiopian runners.

The important point remains, we shouldn't have to lose athletes, or anyone, so young.

No words. David was always one of my favorite runners and I know he inspired countless other high school runners here in the CIF Southern Section to strive to be their best. David proved more than anything that hard work can be more affective than talent - that one does not need freakish genetics to run world class times. I haven't run for days but all I can think about is attempting an all out down hill mile tomorrow. Rest in Peace, DT.

What horrible news. My heartfelt condolences to David's mother and family. His positive impact on the Loyola Cub, Cal Bears and T&F community will be missed.

Someone should start an annual Big Wave memorial midnight downhill mile race in Berkeley. RIP.

Shocking and terrible news. My condolences to his family.

Commando wrote:

I met him a couple years ago, at a Hoka postal nationals event in Santa Rosa. He was very nice to me, a guy who was going to go out and run 10:40 in the 3200 that night, something he probably never ran in his life. I've had his picture on my wall ever since, and I just can't believe it. He had so much more life left

Interestingly enough, his PR as a junior was like 10:00, which he then improved to like 9:03 his senior year. That my friends, is insane.

I heard that from a teammate who met him in high school. It was at California state xc, they had him and Fernandez there signing autographs. Of course everyone was lined up to see german of course, hardly anyone was talking to Dave. My friend medaled that day, I wanna say 10th place, and german signed one side of his medal, "german Fernandez 3:55 mi". My friend was talking to Dave later, just finding out who he was, and as kind of a lighthearted jab at German he signed the other side of the medal "David Torrence 3:52 mi". I always thought that was funny because nobody knew who he was there even though he was light years ahead of german. Good guy, good runner, sad day. Rest In Peace Big Wave.

Can't believe this really happened, it all seems so surreal. Looking back on one hell of a career, David gave a lot to the sport and inspired a lot of young runners including myself. Thanks for everything you've contributed to the culture and to the next generation of distance runners. The world lost a damn good runner today, Rest In Peace David.

What the (*&^ happened! I can't process this, I don't know why I wasn't even close to Torrence, but he was an amazingly nice guy and STRONG runner! I raced him in the 800 once and remember idolizing him and Matusak growing up. They were the killer 1-2 Loyola XC punch in CIF D1 before they got downgraded to D2. And then both of them trained at Cal and were legends there too. David just kept getting better and better after college which is different than most stories I know.

This is terrible (*&^ing news. Healthy guy, young, in amazing shape... Dies in a pool alone? I'm just totally shocked and wtf until more news comes out but even then, I don't know. My thoughts and prayers are with you man.