Hoping to offer a space to share favorite memories and stories about Walt as he retires this week.
Not a place for criticism or conjecture. Just flat out gratitude...
Hoping to offer a space to share favorite memories and stories about Walt as he retires this week.
Not a place for criticism or conjecture. Just flat out gratitude...
I am not offering anything other than curiosity. I knew about his brother Jeff. Was Walt also a competitive runner before he became a coach?
Got to see him and his runners some at the Zimmer Championship XC course over a number of years and got to talk with the parents (and grandparents) of his runners, as well as the runners. That was a really good group and it was fun talking with them, especially seeing them once or twice a year over their careers. He did some marvelous things with his crews and to win the Championship 'hands down' that year without a set of 'big stars' was an accomplishment. Take a look at the results of that race:
Kate Avery won
Sarah Disanza was 2nd
Emma Bates was 3rd
Dominique Scott was 6th
Crystal Nelson was 7th
Shelby Houlihan was 9th
Chelsea Blaase was 10th
Elise Cranny was 12th
Courtney Frerichs was 13th
Katrina Coogan was 16th
Molly Seidel was 19th
Colleen Quigley was 23rd
Rhianwedd Price was 24th
That is really a great group of athletes, and in most cases, people.
Walt will be missed, and I cannot speak about him anything like Des Linden can, so listen to her.
Thanks, Walt, for making this sport better and for helping your charges achieve what they aimed for.
Shocked this thread only got 2 replies. Walt was a great coach and his brother was a great runner taken before his time. I missed his retirement.
Walt driving a WM white van on the sidewalks of small towns ina VA while lost is the stuff of legends.
Oh, that and his 6:00 warm up leads that he used as his run for the day. Slow down Walt, we've got 5x5s coming up bro.
Can’t believe I missed this thread the first time around. Walt was the reason I went to WM and I would have gone almost anywhere to run for him. His passion was developing mediocre talent into good runners and he was better than anybody at that.
I think he’s pretty sick.
For real?
Bump. Any updates?