Jim Ryun - Long Run Quote

Ryun and another guy ran and walked to get first place in a 50 mile hike, which was either just before or just after his 10th grade cross country season.

The Wichita East runners ran 20 miles every weekend during cross country season.

Timmons dropped them off in Augusta and they ran back to Wichita.

and all Ryun's top performances were before this alleged starting of long runs.

he sucked by 22

"Basically, he said how he would not do the long run in college. After he graduated, he started doing the long run. He noticed he started beating guys that used to be him."

Just, curious- what "guys" besides Kip Kenio were beating him before he left college? It seems like he was a better runner before he graduated college.

giffypop17 wrote:

and all Ryun's top performances were before this alleged starting of long runs.

he sucked by 22

Ryun did not "suck" by the time he was 22. He was running pretty well going into the '72 games. He fell in the prelims. If he hadn't, it was quite possible he could have medalled that year. That's not "sucking". After the '72 games he knew he wanted to do something else with his life.

It's interesting that people talk about how hard Timmons pushed him in high school and later at KU, and that that had a lot to do with his peaking young and burning out. Yet no American since has been as great a miler relative to the competition in the rest of the world. All the milers since Ryun who have been allowed to develop more gradually may have had longer careers, but none have gotten to where Ryun was.

Ryun did not "suck" by the time he was 22. But given the economic realities of running in that period, there were no incentives for remaining an amateur. He ran in the mid-70s in that brief pro tour which sort of shot itself in the leg, as it were, because the frequency of the meets (often two in a weekend) and certain incentives to double meant that no one was breaking 4:00 for the mile....which bored the public.

Ryun very conceivabley could have won the 1500 at the 72 Olympics. In fact, it's my humble opinion that he would have never been worse than second - clearly he could outsprint Kip Keino, except at 8000 feet. The way the 1500 went, I believe that he would have won the gold by a comfortable margin due to his closing speed.

But, it may well have been better for him to have to have had the opportunity taken away from him. Yes, it was a severe test of his faith. Yes, it must have been a weight to bear these many years. But he has carried the weight and he has kept the faith.

Children, there is a gold of more value than Olympic medals.

Can someone jog my memory on that quote? Dad always did long runs on Sundays in highschool, many times 16 miles plus, so I am not sure where that quote came from. He ran long runs in college (believe me, I've read his training journals) as well as after college.

Well he was 15 in 10th grade, so I'd be surprised if all his top performances were before that. :)