Has a lapped runner ever come back to win a race?

Considering there are marathons that are run on a track, Kipsan is ducking the competition because he knows...He knows.

From an interview with Rod Dixon talking about Henry Rono:

... Four days later Henry was a lap down almost 5,000 meters into the 10,000 meters. He looked back and saw the leaders about to go by him. Suddenly it looked like somebody lit a bloody fire under him. Henry took off and won the race in 27:39.

PT: He made up 400 meters?

RD: He made up 400 meters and went on to run 27:39, which was the season’s best time until about August of that year and this was back in March. Extraordinary.

Women making comeback in track marathon after being lapped:

http://tinypic.com/player.php?v=103zqsm&s=5#.UkoxZ51zYeh

Bump for an old classic.

I saw Kelly Lillejblad (later Kelly Keane) of U. Mass lap four Dartmouth ladies in an indoor 5,000 back in 1995 or 1996. She then died, and the lapped foursome actually started pulling away from her, albeit from 200 meters behind. Kelly still won by about 150-160 meters in 16-something but it was still odd to watch. I'd bet this kind of thing happens more commonly in women's races.

In the 1913 British Empire Games, there was an event, now discontinued, called "Run a Bloody Marathon On The Bleedin' Track". It had 23 competitors from 14 different countries.

After 56 laps, a lead group consisting of Bernard Wythe-Harris (GB), Helmut Schlongfeiglestein (Can) and Anselm Witgettlehun-Chin (Hong Kong) emerged.

All of a sudden Wythe-Harris, realizing that he might actually win the race, realized that he would be put before the king shortly after the finish, and was in despair that he hadn't secured a rose to present to His Majesty, as was the custom for the champion. Stepping off the track, he began to scour the nearby gardens for a suitably fragrant blossom.

(TBC)

It could happen, but only if he was using solar powered helicopters and shit.

Les wrote:From an interview with Rod Dixon talking about Henry Rono:

... Four days later Henry was a lap down almost 5,000 meters into the 10,000 meters. He looked back and saw the leaders about to go by him. Suddenly it looked like somebody lit a bloody fire under him. Henry took off and won the race in 27:39.

PT: He made up 400 meters?

RD: He made up 400 meters and went on to run 27:39, which was the season’s best time until about August of that year and this was back in March. Extraordinary.

i can't find any record of henry running 27'39

a 27'29/27'31/27'40

still whichever one it was, it needs some figuring out

if he was nearly a lap down in say a 27'40 at 1/2 way, you are talking splits of maybe

14'20 / 13'20 !!!

I'm still with you.

This guy did in West Wyoming:

http://jimrhoades.com/08/boston/30k/index.html

Pretty sure the western states 100 miler on the track had this happen once.

ventolin^3 wrote:

Les wrote:From an interview with Rod Dixon talking about Henry Rono:

... Four days later Henry was a lap down almost 5,000 meters into the 10,000 meters. He looked back and saw the leaders about to go by him. Suddenly it looked like somebody lit a bloody fire under him. Henry took off and won the race in 27:39.

PT: He made up 400 meters?

RD: He made up 400 meters and went on to run 27:39, which was the season’s best time until about August of that year and this was back in March. Extraordinary.

i can't find any record of henry running 27'39

a 27'29/27'31/27'40

still whichever one it was, it needs some figuring out

if he was nearly a lap down in say a 27'40 at 1/2 way, you are talking splits of maybe

14'20 / 13'20 !!!

Malmo's help would be appreciated.

I can't figure out which race this is.

A candidate is a 27'31 he ran in February '80 winning by 15s :

That was Olympic year & although he seemed to fade badly after that, probably due to lack of interest once knowing there were to be no games for him, if that's the race he made up best part of a minute to win in 27'31, then he had to be in arguably close to 27-flat shape at even-pace & couda crushed the Moscow field into oblivion ( & obviously 27-flat is also near enough 13-flat for 5k ability )

bump

Malmo's unrivalled expertise on race histories + analysis would be appreciated.

Many thanks for any opinion.

I'd appreciate your opinion also on how fast you think Ron's 27'39 would have been on a '70s synthetic, as that looked like the target for '70s guys

Many thanks.

Your (infrequent !) postings are inestemably valued.

It's a great learning experience for me along with others.

Bump for an old classic.

Went to confession at church on Sunday. Had to confess my guilt and try to rid myself of the image of broken dreams I saw on the face of the runner who had lapped me during a race before I came back to out kick him. My last lap was 58 seconds. But it was indoors, during a marathon on a track.

Merry Christmas to one and to all! This is a good thread to read for all you Christmas readers!

Trader Joses wrote:

Merry Christmas to one and to all! This is a good thread to read for all you Christmas readers!

Thanks, good thread. I'll read it on my ipod while cranking out the 8min/miles on the trails today.

Ben Johnson was down a lap to Carl Lewis in the, um, Seoul 100m finals. Realizing the shame in this (after all...it was a short straightaway race), Johnson deftly reached into his bag of tricks, injected Stanozolol, bulked up a bit more, and powered back to victory.

Then the "get lapped in the Olympic 100m final, get DQ'd" rule was enforced. The OUTRAGE!

National Enquirer claims a UFO was involved in the Johnson victory, too.

Oh...I'm mistaken...substitute "Flo-Jo" for "Ben Johnson". Similar body types...but check the fingernails in the youtube video for the proof...

Merry Christmas, clean athletes and dopers alike!

I'm new to letsrun.com and haven't read the whole thread, but I just wanted to chime in and say that this could probably happen in a marathon on a track.