Henry Rono
Frank Shorter
Jerome Drayton
Chris Lukezic
Eamonn O'Reilly (classmate)
Steve Stageberg
John Jones
Henry Rono
Frank Shorter
Jerome Drayton
Chris Lukezic
Eamonn O'Reilly (classmate)
Steve Stageberg
John Jones
Glenn Cunningham spoke at our High School assembly circa 1965.
Lorraine Moeller
Frank Shorter
Bill Rodgers
Dick Beardsley
Ran some trial workouts with Ryan Solinsky, a cousin of Chris.
Finished a few strides behind Patty Catalano at Boston, and got to hear her expression of disbelief at seeing Rosie R. on the Podium.
Most recently-- a chance meeting of wejo at an Irish pub in upper manhattan ,NYCM weekend 2010.
met: Jim Ryun, he was a really cool guy, I liked him a lot.
trained with: Arata Fujiwara, he was very organized and did everything exactly according to plan, he was a machine. Outside of running he was a bit quiet but he loved to talk about running, he knew everything that was going on in the running world.
So many here. I'll just name the Oly/Worlds/Major medalists I've talked to. Allyson Felix, Johnny Gray, Shawn Crawford, Seko Toshihiko, Wallace Spermon, Walter Dix, Shalane Flanagan, Geb (paid for my hotel room in Eth), Toby Stevenson, Murofushi Koji, Bekele, Defar, Jeter, Xavier Carter, Mark Crear, Dee Dee Trotter, Lashinda Demus, Joanna Hayes, Sheena Tosta, Nick Hysong, Stephanie Brown-Trafton, Lionel Larry, John Godina, Tim Mack, Maurice Greene, Allen Johnson, Lu Xiang, Noguchi Mizuki, Brian Clay, Brad Walker, Stacy Dragila, Stuczynski, can't remember them all... Moral of the story... if you live near USC & UCLA you get to meet all the great ones.
I wouldn't say I competed against him as much as I was just in the same races, but Chris Solinsky.
Rod DeHaven and Suzy Favor at a Big Ten meet.
Alan Culpepper threw his warmup shirt at me before the Chicago Marathon if that counts for anything.
Ricky Flynn
Josh Mcdougal
Ed Moran
Sam Chelanga
Mike Morgan
Sergey Kaledin
and more I can't think of
Paula Radcliffe- super nice, the most pain i've ever seen anyone in while training!
Khalid Khannouchi- quiet and very friendly, signed tonnes of autographs even though he was training at the time.
Moses Kiptanui- lovely guy, excellent english, again signed many autographs for kids in my club.
Colin Jackson- we interrupted his training for autographs as kids but he was polite if not hugely enthusiastic, understandably, about it.
Jason Gardener- talked about his injuries, training etc, offered lots of advice to us as kids, super nice guy.
Kelly Holmes- spoke to a group of us who were training at the same place as her even though she could have easily ignored us- very friendly.
El Guerrouj- shook hands with him after his 5000m silver in Paris- he was elated and hugging everyone.
Felix Sanchez- got an autograph, nice guy.
Sergiy Lebid- he was warming up for his Euro xc at the time but was nice enough to give us a big friendly smile and wave when we shouted his name.
Have never met a good athete i didn't like, though i've heard bad stories about Michael Johnson's attitude to the public.
Er... wrote:
As a high schooler I met:
Mike Boit (seriously nice guy)
John Walker (totally uninterested in chatting until my friend brought up horses, then he livened up)
Nick Rose (very cool and autographed and gave me his bib number)
Tony Staynings (good guy)
Henry Rono (standoffish)
Adrian Leek (chatted for ages and he tried to convince me to go to ETSU)
Steve Scott (nice, but much more interested in the girls--who could blame him)
Edwin Moses (wouldn't give me an autograph)
Suleiman Nyambui (begged me to convince my friend Madge to dance with him)
and
Eamon Coughlin. He was totally funny. I walked into the hotel room "party after the party" at an indoor meet and he was standing at the door. As we walked in with some friends he said, "Oh, the children are here. Isn't it past their bedtimes?" I turned to him and said, "Yes, but my mother threw me out of the house and said don't come back until you've met Eamon Coughlin." He looked at me with that Irish twinkle in his eye and said, "Oh, well he's right over there" and pointed far into the corner of the adjoining room. I just nodded and smiled as if to say, "Okay, I won't bother you." Later that night Dwight Stones and I, arms over each other's shoulders, used beer-bottle microphones to sing along to "American Pie." He was totally cool.
And yes, I'm old. Google these names and learn some history. LOL.
aahh the stories about Nick Rose and Tony Staynings are pretty good.
ran in a 1500 race that Brian Sell was in when he was at Messiah. He beat me...
Naoko Takahashi: Had dinner with her on her 31st birthday in 2003.
Mizuki Noguchi: Ran a 20km tempo run with her in May 2005, about 3:30/km. She simply bounces down the road. Had dinner afterward at a Korean BBQ restaurant in Kyoto.
Yasuko Hashimoto: Did a set of 5x3km with her and her team in Kunming China in 2003.
Masako Chiba: Ran a 30km with her in Sakura in June 2003. She kicked my a$$. I was just coming off a stress fracture.
Yoko Shibui: Paced her on a 3km interval in Kunming in August 2002.
Bill Rodgers, a very unassuming guy. Boston, 1981
Herb Lindsay, (day before 1983 or /84 Cascade Runoff) focussed on his race.
Ron Dawes, day before /82 Cascade Runoff (I know he's no longer with us), preoccupied, having personal problems.
Dick Beardsley, 2004 RVM (in Victoria, B.C.) presentation, riveting, caused much emotion when he went through his story how things went sideways for him following 1982 Boston mar., and his battles with drug addiction & success in getting his life back together. A friendly guy, was proud to hear I was in that same race was kidding him how bad I couldn't see conclusion, err I was never up to that level of competition
Katherine Switzer, 2004 RVM, talked to her while meeting D.B., very personable as well as attractive :) :)
Anne Audain, 1987 Cascade Runoff 15 km, stride for stride with her pulled away from her last mile.
Nancy Conz, /82 Cascade Runoff, hung on to me most of way then blew by me, this was a great time I ran for that course. Rather shy but friendly when congratulating her, actually I was more thrilled with my race:) so I gave her a hug.
Patti Dillon, met her in passing, /81 Boston, began corresponding with her on-line first through this forum then through dyestat so, feel like I have met her.
Lynn Williams Canadian bronze medalist 1984 Oly. 3000 m, had the honour of going on a group run including her, morning following B.C., Haney-Harrison Road Relay. She was so vivacious.
Lastly, Victoria's former resident, Commonwealth Games 1994 gold medalist for women's 3000 m Angela Chalmers, a great person, always lending an ear whenever I was visiting P.T. whom she was once married to, felt there was a spiritual side to her, last report she's now residing down under & has a family.
Back in Santa Barbara in 04, Maurice Greene was working as a bellhop in a hotel my father was building. At the time I wasn't a runner and didn't know who he was. He kept telling us that he was the fastest man in world and that he was going to the Olympics. Neither of us believed him. He even asked if we wanted to race him. A few days later we watched him win the Olympic Trials on tv and I swear me jaw hit the ground!
The list would be quite long, so I'll just go with the most memorable.
I would say Meb - Oly medalist (raced against) and Dieter Bauman - Oly medalist in Flagstaff, AZ training (met/warmed up with him).
My father said it's a toss up between Pre - US legend (raced against) and Jim Ryun - Oly medalist (met). My fathers complete list spans 4 decades and includes multiple Oly medalists.
hellohello wrote:
a word or two to describe each...
Lagat - calm, pleasent
Webb - grumpy, unfriendly
Ramzi - quiet, serious, focassed
Khannouchi - friendly, serious, focassed
Geb - friendly, v relaxed, very nice guy
Hall - very nice guy, freindly
Meb - very nice guy, freindly
All very nice people with different personalities apart from Webb!!
Webb may have only been grumpy because he was experiencing symptoms from overtraining?
Russell Brown, Andew wheating, Kevin Sullivan, Katie McGregor, Bill Rodgers, Frank Shorter, Melissa Donais, Dan Wilson, Martin Fagan, Richard Kiplagat,
Usain Bolt, Michael Johnson, David Rudisha, Hicham El Guerrouj, Daniel Komen, Kenenisa Bekele, Haile Gebreselassie
Met and raced all of em
I recently met....Tyson Gay at the NYC expo. Very nice guy. I was a bit nervous so the conversation was short but I did get a picture with him and an autograph. Very cool.
Others I have met briefly; Steve Scott (very nice guy), Kathrine Switzer (very friendly and personable), Matt Fitzgerald (very genuine and tall...lol).
worked out while bryan clay and his dog were at the track and in the weight room several times. beat him in a card game too.
i also should have gone to Bob Mathias' funeral but i didn't know when it was. instead i made it out of my PE class in time to see the jets do a fly over. i then put 2 and 2 together. my lucky friend went though.
MET: Johnny Kelley - he handed me the Johnny Kelley Award at a track meet and shook my hand. Also, I served him food and cleared his dishes at the restaurant I worked at.
RAN Against: Bill Rodgers, Frank Shorter, Craig Virgin, Alberto Salazar, Marty Liquori, Bob Hodge, Joan Benoit, Jan Merrill, and more -- all in the Falmouth Road Race. They kicked my ass. My brother ran against Alberto in H.S.
victoria, b.c., canada, runner wrote:
Bill Rodgers, a very unassuming guy. Boston, 1981
Herb Lindsay, (day before 1983 or /84 Cascade Runoff) focussed on his race.
Ron Dawes, day before /82 Cascade Runoff (I know he's no longer with us), preoccupied, having personal problems.
Dick Beardsley, 2004 RVM (in Victoria, B.C.) presentation, riveting, caused much emotion when he went through his story how things went sideways for him following 1982 Boston mar., and his battles with drug addiction & success in getting his life back together. A friendly guy, was proud to hear I was in that same race was kidding him how bad I couldn't see conclusion, err I was never up to that level of competition
Katherine Switzer, 2004 RVM, talked to her while meeting D.B., very personable as well as attractive :) :)
Anne Audain, 1987 Cascade Runoff 15 km, stride for stride with her pulled away from her last mile.
Nancy Conz, /82 Cascade Runoff, hung on to me most of way then blew by me, this was a great time I ran for that course. Rather shy but friendly when congratulating her, actually I was more thrilled with my race:) so I gave her a hug.
Patti Dillon, met her in passing, /81 Boston, began corresponding with her on-line first through this forum then through dyestat so, feel like I have met her.
Lynn Williams Canadian bronze medalist 1984 Oly. 3000 m, had the honour of going on a group run including her, morning following B.C., Haney-Harrison Road Relay. She was so vivacious.
Lastly, Victoria's former resident, Commonwealth Games 1994 gold medalist for women's 3000 m Angela Chalmers, a great person, always lending an ear whenever I was visiting P.T. whom she was once married to, felt there was a spiritual side to her, last report she's now residing down under & has a family.
Aditionally; Jeff Galloway, 1988 attended a weekend symposium put on by him