Tragic News: Sammy Wanjiru Is Dead

RIP, he was a world class marathoner, we will miss his races.

We like to bandy around the idea that every race should be run as if it was the last. Wanjiru's performance in Chicago will always serve as a great tribute to the man, who fought back over and over again when all was lost to win the race in the end. Sammy, you embodied the ideal of the hero-athlete, and if the world brought you down in the end you will always have something very special to show for the life you lived.

RIP Sammy Wanjiru! You were an inspiring champion!

Wanjiru's death comes as such a sad day for the running community. Why is it that runners who can/have/will change the sport forever die so young? It is with a heavy heart that this world will have to say goodbye to him. RIP Sammy.

May your humility, purity and passion as a marvelous young champion be left as an image upon us forever.It is there for us to behold in every video of you running . I still remember when I lived in Fukushima, Japan 2003-2005 and I first watched you compete for the sendai -koko team and I really had never before or since seen any 16 year-old run like that ...so unrelentless...breathtaking for any fan of the sport.

For me Sammy will always be that boy who first came from Kenya to Japan,.. and then the world. Sought after by many as a valuable commodity but in the centre of all the attention and expectations was just a young man who deserved the same honesty and soulfulness that he gave us on the race course everytime. For that I will be forever grateful.

May your soul rest in peace Sammy.

^ Thats not what this thread is for.

RIP Sammy, I watched the Chicago finish last night and it absolutely sent a chill down my spine. Sad to think what this kid would have done

RIP Sammy Wanjiru

He had that fire that lit up everyone that watched him race. He ran hard and amazed in every race. He is an inspiration to this running world.

Did anyone notice he died at 24 - same age that Prefontaine died. Both died in the month of May.

I couldn't believe it, when I read the news today. May Sammy rest in peace.

Shocking news. His olympic and chicago races were both all time great races. RIP

The Kenyan PRE. Confident and a real blazer. A front runner. Took on all challenges.

The way he ran that 2008 Oly marathon was epic.

They need Wanjiru trail in Eldoret.

Like someone else said, I spent the whole Beijing Marathon waiting--hoping, even--for Wanjiru to falter, to pay for his early torrid pace, to allow the Americans back in the race.

As he entered the tunnel into the Bird's Nest, I realized that I had just seen the greatest Olympic Marathon ever run, and perhaps the greatest marathon of all time. Little did we know that at 21 years old that would be the greatest achievement Sammy would ever reach. Surely we didn't expect him to NOT be around for London, Rio, etc. I, for one, halfway expected for him to be the first to run a sub-2:03 clocking.

Unbelievably sad news. May God bless Sammy's family and loved ones as they cope with his death.

His 2008 Olympic marathon revolutionized the sport. The marathon is no longer a battle of attrition. It is a race from gun to tape. Wanjiru also proved definitively that the marathon is where you race in your prime, not where you go after your track speed has past its prime. Before Wanjiru, anyone wanting to push the pace in a marathon would go out alone and inevitably get consumed by the pack. After Wanjiru, everyone wants to push the pace in the marathon.

This is a huge loss for our sport.

Sammy Wanjiru was my favorite runner of all time. I first remember hearing about him when he ran that insane 26:41 WJR, we are the same age and that was the time I was actually starting to care about running and get into training hard and I couldn't believe someone our age could run that fast. It was incredible. I started following his career and watched with awe as he ran some of the fastest half marathons ever. I anxiously awaited his marathon debut while I trained for mine. We both debuted, his much more spectacular than mine but I was estatic to run a time good enough for the Chicago Marathon top 100 program. I watched his London battle with Lel, if you're going to lose that's not a bad guy to lose to. Then his spectucular Olympic marathon, if I ever want to be inspired I just watch that race.

Before that Olympic marathon I had actually spent the prior weekend in jail for an alcohol related offense. I remember starting to hear about Wanjiru and his drinking, his friends and it seemed to resonate with me. When I am not drinking I think I am a good person but when I drink I tend to hang out with some not so good people and do bad things that I always regret the next day. In no way am I blaming the alcohol, I am responsible for my actions as was Sammy but I could understand how it can be possible for good people to go bad espescially with alcohol in the mix.

I did ok with drinking (not getting in more legal trouble) finishing out college and ran my first Chicago marathon in 2009, the year Wanjiru set the CR. I got to start at the front because of the top 100 program and remember being within 10 feet of him at the start. I first remember thinking "Damn, he's really short in person" but then seeing how focused he looked. It was inspiring. I ran hard that day, the hardest I ever have in a marathon and collapsed at the finish. When I finally was good enough to get up and hobble around I remember asking quite a few people how Wanjiru ended up because I was thinking he would run a WR that day. Sadly it didn't happen but to hear of how fast they went out and to still run the CR was pretty awesome.

After that race my life went to shit. I started drinking heavily, pretty much every day of the week. A very low point came in the winter when my girlfriend broke up with me (completely warranted, my drinking had gotten out of control and I said and did bad things when I was drinking) and I remember her calling to tell me and I thought about jumping off my balcony. Looking back on how drunk I was combined with how upset I was I could have seen myself doing it. Ended up being in a tailspin for most of last year until a final drunken arrest and almost getting fired from my job led me to re-evaluate my life and start changing things. I had put on 40 pounds from my running weight and felt like shit pretty much all the time. I hadn't run a step in 8 months. I started running again, training for another marathon. Stopped drinking completely, no program or anything just stopped. That hurt at times, I did have an alcohol dependence problem but I got through it. I think the will power you can gain from running helped a lot. I remember watching the Chicago marathon last year, it was my 3rd week sober and I was going to do my long run after watching the race. I remember cheering for Wanjiru, thinking he would be dropped but then he responded amazingly well and the toughness he showed winning that race was unbelievable. I went out and ripped a long run that day, he inspired me.

Reading about his subsequent troubles I always hoped he would pull through and turn out better for it like I had. To hear about his death yesterday was very sad and for me it made me look back and think how lucky I was to have not died during some of my lower times. I hope he rests in peace, I will always remember him for his amazing races and how he inspired me. Looking at how healthy I am now and how much happier I am I really wish he could have found that.

RIP Sammy Wanjiru

sucks

Awful news. While everyone connected with the sport feels a sense of loss and grief, my heart especially goes out to all our Kenyan friends.

It is a cruel twist of irony that Sammy lived in Sendai for several years and passes on so soon after the region was devastated.

RIP Sammy. I am too young to remember the famous "dual in the sun" 1982 Boston Marathon but the last few miles of the 2010 Chicago Marathon will forever be burned in my memory as one of the greatest marathon duals of all time. Sammy showed real guts in that race. Every time it looked like Kebede dropped him, he came back. Amazing, he was a true competitor. This is a huge loss for the world of distance running.

Wow this is shocking and terrible news. Can't help but to think there were warning signs, he obviously had some demons which were increasingly affecting him but he had so much more left to do. I think his aggressive style really changed the way marathons are run and we probably have him to thank for the numerous 2:04's and 2:05's that we are seeing. I was waiting for the day he would break Geb's world record, but I guess that day will never come. RIP man.

Without knowing about Sammy's fall and death, yesterday ran for the first time since early this year. I had gotten injured and was recovering by doing trail hiking. On the way back down from the peak I climbed I got the sudden urge to try running again. I ran nearly 4 miles back without stopping.

Something inspired to simply run again. You can guess my absolute shock reading about Sammy. Sammy was my inspiration yesterday to start again.