Minnesota Nice wrote:
With all the discussion of Ritz's 10K, I find myself wondering more about Mark Nenow. I did a google search and found surprisingly little about him:
..good but not great in college (Kentucky),
..excelled after college by running lots of miles on a hilly course, and almost no intervals.
I also have some vague recollection that he was a soccer player in high school who did not start running until his senior year... in Minnesota? Is this correct?
Can someone fill in more history about Mark Nenow?
I remember watching the Dale Farm Ulster Games, October 1986 on TV. Ovett was working on a move to 5000m. It had been fast early with Ovett behind the pacemaker. When the pacemaker dropped out, Ovett was out on his own in front. Nenow caught Ovett and going into the last lap and had about 10-15m lead on him (this is just from memory of a race that's now 40 years ago, and I haven't seen since I saw it live). Halfway down the back straight Ovett turned on the the jets, went by, and won in 13:20, about a second and a half on Nenow. Field also included Easker (USA), Dave Lewis, Clarke, Ray O'Flynn, Peter McColgan (father of Eilish) and Eamon Coghlan.
This was on the BBC, and I've tried to find a video of it, but with no success.