Who's the Best Ringer You've Ever Seen Show Up at an Obscure Local Race??

I was at a small (less than 100 people) race in Albuquerque in the early 80's. It was an out-and-back 5 mile or 10K. At the start, the director was shouting out the course directions and a really scraggly, 40+ guy in bermuda shorts, a dirty wrinkled t-shirt, and very worn cheap tennis shoes seen unduly interested in the directions. A few younger runners, in their matching running togs, nice shoes, and sunglasses, scoffed at the guy and one actually said something like "why do you care?" After the turnaround, the old guy was way out in front, at least a minute ahead of the next runner. He blew these kids away. Turns out he was in town to participate in a anti-nuke rally at Kirtland AFB and Sandia Labs. No idea what his name was.

In a tiny 5k road race in the middle of nowhere (less than 100 people generally) I got my butt handed to me by Celedonio Rodrigues- Former D2 NCAA champ and a guy who's gone 28:20's and mid 13's. He only ran a 15:45 (at 7500 ft. altitude), but didn't even have to try. Second was a low 16.

Some little 10K here in Sacramento back in Ingrid Kristiansen showed up a few weeks before her breakout win at NY Marathon and cruised around a 33 flat 10K as a training run. I think the 2nd woman was Sally Edwards around 39 minutes or so.

This isn't the best ringer story but one year Eddy H at 40yo showed up to the Tulsa run in 2001 and smoked everyone in 45:34. Then he said in the newspaper that he wondered why no one went with him. Andrey Kuznetsov (43) was second in 47:17. Well I wonder why too!!! Hmmmmm, could it have been EPO???

Craig Virgin at a small 5 miler in Charleston, Illinois in 1979. He ran the 5 miles as an easy training run in about 26 minutes.

In late 70's Orange County Henry Rono showed up @ the Saddleback JC XC race in the summer a couple of times. he was living nearby with his manager.

A few years before Steve Scott[wasn't real big yet but well known] showed up @ Chaffey JC and ran both legges of a 2-man 5 mile relay and won easily.

Also this wasn't a ringer as such but in the mid late 70's Costa Mesa HS had All Comers meets in the summer and finished with a 3 mile XC[back then we in Cal were still only racing 2 mile XC in season] Anyway this XC was a who's who of So Cal Distance HS and College runners in the mid seventies. Literally fields as good as the state meet!

You old HS stat folks will recognize fields that would show-Hulst, Serna, Hunsaker, St. John, Cook, Tillman, Clifford, Scott, Blume, McConnell, Angel,Schilling. Of course not all the good guys would show all the time but always a few would show.

I started running at age 41 and did my very first race in 1998 Local (~80 runners) at a 4 miler in small Nor Cal town. Four time OT qualifier, many time winner and course record holder at Big Sur (2:16 on a difficult course) Brad Hawthone shows up, runs about 5:10 to win by a ton. (I believe he was already 40+ years old.) Not knowing who Hawthone was, I thought I would be that good some day. Wrong!

Last Wednesday - at a 300 person race, Matt Giusto appeared and joined the "race". He held back as there was a bounty on his head that went to charity (he could have lapped me on the 5K route, but I beat him by 10 places). Total class act!

Here are his stats:

PRs (outdoor):

1,500 3:38.06 '90

Mile 3:55.58 '96

2,000 4:59.91 '95

3,000 7:41.60 '93

Steeple 8:42.56 '88

2M 8:26.83 '94

5,000 13:23.60 '93

PRs (indoor):

3,000 7:48.74 '92

PRs (road):

5K 13:34 '94

10K 27:59 '96

15K 44:41 '96

Major Meets:

1983 1)Kinney XC

1984 41)NCAA XC

1985 22)NCAA XC

1986 3)NCAA XC

1987 20)NCAA XC

1988 1)NCAA 5,000

9s)Olympic Trials 5,000

1989 6)USA 5,000

9)USA XC

1991 12)USA Indoor 3,000

8h)USA 1,500

1992 8)USA XC

1993 2)World XC Trials

50)World XC

1)USA 5,000

1994 2)USA Indoor 3,000

1)USA 5,000

8)USA XC

1995 3)USA 5,000

1996 2)Olympic Trials 5,000

9h)Olympic Games 5,000

Eddy H was a member of an age handicapped team at the River to River Relay in Southern Illinois. His handicapped team won pretty easily...

Last year, at the River to River Relay, Jenny Spangler ran on a women's master's team that set a course record.

Oh yeah...and this is semi-ringer, but, at the big St. Patrick's Day parade run in St. Louis last year, Soimo Kiplagat showed up, and ran the race as a bandit, because he "couldn't afford" the entry fee. When he won the race easily, the old guys who run the show decided they would just "comp" him, post race, and gave him the big champion's bowl thingy. That poor sucker who was second...

I ran a small 4 mile race where Ann Marie Lauck ran it as a tempo work out. She won with no problem and then gave the prize money back for the charity the race was sponsoring. She didn't hang around for the awards because she had to keep running to finish her work out.

Talia Ringer - Snoqualmie Railroad Days this year. Won her age group by nearly seven minutes with a 39:49 10K. Utter domination.

This was the worst I've seen in recent memory.

http://results.active.com/events/holy-child-tiger-trot-5k--2/5k

I believe it was March, 1978 at the Oregon Road Runners Club Oak Hills 7 Miler in Beaverton. Just a small club race that usually attracted about 200 runners and maybe a couple of guys under 35:00. Athletics West, with Craig Virgin, Jeff Wells, Tiny Kane, Doug Brown, Mike Manke, and I believe Malmo and possibly a few others showed up at the start. I don't remember the times, but I'm sure it was in the 33-34 minute range.

Was there huge 1 deep prize money, or were those Ethiopians under the impression that there was? Or just an easy tempo effort for these guys?

worst poster wrote:

This was the worst I've seen in recent memory.

http://results.active.com/events/holy-child-tiger-trot-5k--2/5k

No kidding. That D3 girlie needs to pick on chicks her own size.