Who was/is Craig Virgin?

Virgin had a pretty good outdoor season his senior year in high school:

Craig Virgin - 1973

Lebanon HS in Lebanon, IL

4/07 8:50.4 2 mile & 4:17 relay leg

4/24 8:55.6 & 4:16.6 St Clair County meet

4/28 8:59.0 Granite City Invite

5/02 9:24.2 O'Falon Relays

5/03 4:27.9 & 2:02.1 Conference meet

5/05 8:46.6 & 4:11.8 relay Orphan Relays

5/15 8:54.0 Cahokia Invite

5/18 8:53.6 & 4:10.9 District

5/21 8:48.6 & 4:08.5 Meet of Champions

5/25 4:10.0 State meet heat

5/26 8:42.6 & 4:12.2 State finals

6/01 4:05.5 Top 10 meet

6/09 8:40.9 Intl Prep Invite - HS 2 mile record

6/23 13:36.8 3 mile at Ntl Jr AAU

7/04 4:06.1 Freedom Mile (5th)

7/14 8:10.2 3000 for 3rd vs West German Jrs

7/20 8:16.0 3000 win vs Poland Jrs

7/28 13:58.2 5000 win vs USSR Jrs \

---------------------------------

Clearly a sign of overracing! Just think what he would have done only racing 4 or 5 times! (jk)

Alan

That 1975 finishers list is incredible; the 1976 list is flat out off-the-charts unreal. Incredible runners getting their doors blown off, i.e., Centrowitz in 51st, Nenow in 203rd. What an amazing list, I'd argue that's the greatest finisher list in NCAA X-C history.

Didn't Malmo used to call him Oscar cause he was always so persnickety on the Euro Circuit??

Chris Fox did not run in the 1975 NCAA XC championships for Auburn because he was a high school junior in West Virginia at that time. Your list is suspect.

the real 70s guy wrote:

Chris Fox did not run in the 1975 NCAA XC championships for Auburn because he was a high school junior in West Virginia at that time. Your list is suspect.

The list comes directly from the results, which I have in my hand. 160th was Jon C Fox of Auburn, not Chris Fox. Good catch.

NV XC FTW, you've got your Odd Couple characters reversed. Virgin was "Felix" because he is such a neatnik.

Its exciting to see high schoolers running so fast after so many years of decline.

There are a lot more top notch national class competitions now, they even have national class championships for freshman. Of course locally in the 70's and early 80's local competition was a lot stiffer.

Also the kids today to pick and choose their races and peak efforts. You see 2 milers at state who are favored skipping the mile. But the bottom line is this year may turn out to be the best ever for depth of sub 4:10 and 9:00, or if not very close to the best. You seem to hear a lot more talk of these times as not being unordinary. Without the internet, most of us in the 80's didn't know anyone ever ran that fast except Jim Ryun or Pre.

Old guys may tend to lean to far to give the benefit of the doubt to the runners of their day, but the bottom line if Derrick can run an equivilant 3200 better than Virgins 2 mile he's earned the spot as Illinois best ever.

No high school kid has ever even sniffed having the kind of season Virgin did his senior year. Don't believe me? Look at how he stacked up against the ENTIRE CLASS of 2004, which was one of the fastest and deepest top fives in many a year.

In Craig Virgin's senior year in high school, he posted five times at two miles that BY THEMSELVES are equal to or better than the seasonal PR's of Rupp, Kiptoo, McDougal, Landry and Bumbalough COMBINED! And in many cases, he did it doubling back and putting up mile times that would make, or be near, the current top-10 list in the mile.

The 2004 top five performers at two miles from Track and Field News (including 3,000 and 3200 conversions):

8:42.37+ ............ Galen Rupp (Central Catholic, Portland, Or)

8:45.44 ............ Shadrack Kiptoo' (La Cueva, Albuquerque, NM)

8:47.41+ ................ Josh McDougal (Home Schooled, Peru, NY)

8:48.25 .. Christopher Landry (Jefferson Science, Alexandria, Va)

8:49.87 ... *Andrew Bumbalough (Brentwood Academy, Brentwood, Tn)

Craig Virgin's Senior Year Top Five, Including Date and Other Info:

8:40.9...............6/09 (IPI; temps in 90's; HS record)

8:42.6...............5/26 (doubled back in 4:12.2; State finals)

8:46.6...............5/05 (doubled back in 4:11.8 relay)

8:48.6...............5/21 (doubled back in 4:08.5 Meet of Champions)

8:49.85..............7/14 (converted from 8:10.2 3000m)

In the one month from May 5 to June 9, he ran 8:40, 8:42, 8:46 and 8:48, three of those times doubling.

Met Virgin in '81 in Oslo. Didn't run a particularly great race that day. I approached him afterwards, very down to earth and easy to talk to, no trace of arrogance.

Luv2Run wrote:

I saw Virgin at a pre-race running clinic. He showed one of his runs at Worlds XC and commented the entire thing. He was pretty full of himself.

A friend ran against him in HS and also at some camps and thought he was arrogant.

That top 5 of Virgin's is impressive. Even though every year recently we have seen a handful of guy's run sub 8:50 and none of them did it more than once I bet.

None of them probably tried. Virgin seemed to hammer it every race. And doubling most of the time. Didn't seem to hurt him either.

Anybody know how Virgin trained. Memory serves me his training was posted in The Runner for one or two issues.

Didn't CV and Tom Graves have what many consider one of the greatest races ever, resulting in Graves winning?

What were the details of that race?

Captain Krunch wrote:That top 5 of Virgin's is impressive.

understatement of the year.

Spivey, not Virgin

Craig is an unsung hero! He is an American Legend that deserves more recognition for his amazing accomplishments. Being the only man in American history to win a World Cross Country Championship not only once but twice is no small feat! He continues to be a part of the running world and strives to make a difference in the lives of runners of all ages. He is the sweetest, kindest man with so much to give. Meeting Craig and understanding how he achieved world class status will change you! He is a Legend you would want to know!

Are you able to share the picture of Craig?

Thanks,

Karen

The guy who started this thread obviously knew who Virgin was. Victor Burns was a Virgin teammate (and Class A 800m champ) at Lebanon High in Illinois.

I thought I'd bump this all time great thread to say that we'll have Virgin on our live Internet Show on March 18, 2010 at 8pm EST.

More info here:

http://www.letsrun.com/2010/ttalk0317.php