Gerry Lindgren really could run 25 miles at sub-2 Marathon pace.

Mills didn’t demolish the field in Tokyo. He won by a nose in a last ditch sprint.

Man, do some research before you crank out your comments. Lindgren did not do all-day training runs. Clarke ran 27:39 the same year Lindgren ran his 6-mile record. Pre was still in HS and it was long before Liquori moved up in distance and who knows how fit he was for that race.

Lindgren's crazy mileage didn't help him run any faster but for sure, it shortened his career.

You didn't give him credit for his speedy 16:08 on a hilly 4-mile XC course.

He used to post here quite a bit and claimed he was on pace for a sub 2 hour but nobody believed him.

Lindgren was AMAZING!!!!!! and vanished a reappeared in Hawaii:)

OP, I want to believe!

Sure he was next level talent, and I'll leave it to the gallery to fact check, but lets not throw away Lindgrens incredible accomplishments no?

He was/is a hell of a runner, and was a force in his generation. But I dont think we need to talk about crazy stuff like a sub 2 half. Wasnt his best 10k at around that pace? eg 27:11 6 mile is 4:32/mile, fast no doubt., a 2 hr marathon requires <4:35/mi pace to get through.

Really close. Doing a single 10k at that pace, awesome. 4? ok I guess it was the shoes

SDSU Aztec wrote:

Man, do some research before you crank out your comments. Lindgren did not do all-day training runs. Clarke ran 27:39 the same year Lindgren ran his 6-mile record. Pre was still in HS and it was long before Liquori moved up in distance and who knows how fit he was for that race.

Lindgren's crazy mileage didn't help him run any faster but for sure, it shortened his career.

You didn't give him credit for his speedy 16:08 on a hilly 4-mile XC course.

Man, your reading comprehension is not great. The context was speed and kicking. Who had an unanswerable kick in Tokyo? Mills. Who could match the best kicker, seemingly? Lindgren. Transitive property. Adding to the point about Lindgren's ability to beat people in a speedy fashion, I said he beat Pre and Liquoiri. Did I say it was in 1965? No. That was in 1969. If he could outkick the best kickers and milers in their prime (Liquoiri, was ranked #1 in 1969, he was in shape, do your research) while running 200-plus mile weeks, that tells us something. I said he ran a time converting faster than Ron Clark's WR, not that he ran faster than Ron Clark EVER did.

The point is, it's unheard of for ANYONE EVER to put in that kind of volume and beat people who are world class at middle distance events (I almost consider a 2 mile a middle-distance event.)

It makes Snell's 800 meter training look very normal.

I just saw a clip of Ron Clark running his 12:52 3 mile WR in 1965. Afterwards, he was showing a lot of appreciation for some guy on his victory lap, and had the crowd applauding for him.

Turns out that Gerry Lindgren, one year out of HS at 19, had taken turns with Clark, pacing every other lap for him for most of the race.

At the time, this WR was considered perhaps the greatest one on the books, with Clark beating his own record by 8 seconds.

Gerry Lindgren- "I used to run 25-35 mile days"

Also Gerry Lindgren- "Back then we didn't count miles"

uuuhhhh...

My teammate tried to run like Gerry Lindgren but then got very sick. If I had to train like Lindgren I would probably kill myslef.

SDSU Aztec wrote:

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Man, do some research before you crank out your comments. Lindgren did not do all-day training runs.

Lindgren definitely made some pretty miraculous claims regarding his training. In "Run with the Champions: Training Programs and Secrets of America's 50 Greatest," I seem to recall that he claimed he did absurdly long weekend training runs, and that he routinely ran 200+ mile weeks. I don't remember exactly how long he said he'd run on weekends, but I seem to recall it being many many hours.

Hemingway of 139 characters wrote:

SDSU Aztec wrote:

Man, do some research before you crank out your comments. Lindgren did not do all-day training runs.

Lindgren definitely made some pretty miraculous claims regarding his training. In "Run with the Champions: Training Programs and Secrets of America's 50 Greatest," I seem to recall that he claimed he did absurdly long weekend training runs, and that he routinely ran 200+ mile weeks. I don't remember exactly how long he said he'd run on weekends, but I seem to recall it being many many hours.

Here's a quote about his training:

"Some days in the summer I would take a lunch and light out in the dark of early morning and run the entire day. I think the most I ran in a single day was around 125 miles. I ran to Mt. Spokane, 44 miles out of town; to a swimming hole 17 miles away; and even to a lake, 70 miles out of Spokane, to go swimming. I continued doing this for about 7 years."

You didn't give him credit for his speedy 16:08 on a hilly 4-mile XC course

One of my all time favorite running memes

I saw a video, featuring the one and only Jack Daniels, who had no issue believing that Gerry ran 360 miles or so in a week, and also averaged over 200 for something like a year.

According to a couple interviews I have seen, Mr. Lindgren would sometimes wake up in the middle of the night, and decide to run 10 miles, because he was already awake, so why not...

I wonder what he subsisted off...probably not ugali!

Hard to say what is credible with him. There is a chapter about him in Run With The Champions by Marc Bloom. It states that for one 6 week period he ran 50 miles per day, 350 per week, this in college. Also mentions the 88 mile round trip runs to Mt Spokane. I'm sure his mileage was voluminous but it must have contributed to his short career as he did become injury prone. I do think that in 1964 (he finished 6th in the Olympic 10k) he probably did have the right training to possibly win the marathon as he was combining the mileage with speed unlike other marathoners at the time, but we'll never know.

ripmeiguess wrote:

You didn't give him credit for his speedy 16:08 on a hilly 4-mile XC course

One of my all time favorite running memes

I hadn't heard that one, but here's an impressive result, from the most truthful news source known to humanity:

Don't give Lindgren any more attention than he deserves. Which is none. The guy is full of carp and clearly nuts.

sub sub elite local hobby jogger wrote:

Don't give Lindgren any more attention than he deserves. Which is none. The guy is full of carp and clearly nuts.

I won't give a multiple-American-Record-holder, (also held the HS 5k all the way to Galen Rupp) who competed against the worlds best, put up times on a level with the world's best, beat the darlings of American running handily...No, I won't give him any attention, thanks to LRC poster "sub sub elite local hobby jogger." I should have thought better!

Didn't he grow up to be some kind of nutjob?

Anton C. wrote:

sub sub elite local hobby jogger wrote:

Don't give Lindgren any more attention than he deserves. Which is none. The guy is full of carp and clearly nuts.

I won't give a multiple-American-Record-holder, (also held the HS 5k all the way to Galen Rupp) who competed against the worlds best, put up times on a level with the world's best, beat the darlings of American running handily...No, I won't give him any attention, thanks to LRC poster "sub sub elite local hobby jogger." I should have thought better!

...who abandoned his family