Can you imagine if LetsRun existed during LASSE Viren’s career?

He did race, he just lost.

He knew how to time the reineer milk cycles

LASSE IS FINNISH'D!!!!!!

Good one. I guess Lasse Virén began his running career at BYU. I suppose he is too old to be on the team now? Or is there such a thing?

Is Lasse Viren blood doping or is it the Reindeer burritos?

It existed and used to be called Letse We Run .com.

I don't get how this would work in the 70s. Is it like an underground zine? How do we post on the forums if there is no internet? Do all our favorite characters like Jamin, Greg, Mr. Renato Canova, and Seth James DeMoor also get to time travel to be back there? Are the Brojos their current age or whatever age they would be in the mid-70s? (They're the same age, right?) Would posters' IQs be adjusted for the Flynn Effect? Do we get to argue about Vietnam and Watergate in spicy "NRR" threads? Did our dreams become reality?

Viren’s PB in the marathon was 2:13. He’s no CJ Albertson.

It would be writing on a bathroom stall. Maybe at a track stadium and/or public park restroom near a XC course.

A bunch of high school boys and masters athletes would be trying to figure out how to get reindeer s**t and ask if anyone knew the right amount to rub on their legs after workouts. There would be a cult of posters arguing that Pre and Shorter are WAYYYYY better than Viren.

70's Jamin would still be like today's Jamin. Too timid to get any action at car key parties, complaining about having to pay $125/month to rent a decent place in Seattle, hippies and braless women in bell bottoms at Pike Place Market, some stupid new coffee place that charges a quarter for coffee, and expressing his admiration for Richard Nixon.

Greg would sit at home writing endless critical letters to the local papers about Canada's celebrity wannabe prime minister, Pierre Trudeau.

Renato Canova would be working at home in Italy creating an unstoppable army of distance runners that would completely rule the sport throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

Seth James Demoor would be an annoying little man spreading positive vibes and extolling the virtues of jogging to people in the Denver area. For $0.99 a month, you would get a mimeographed newsletter exclusively featuring his race results, training tips, and pictures of his family. He publishes letters that he gets from members of his community but, only letters that say nice things about him.

I'd expect you'd get a lot more "Lassie" related puns.

Rather than the movie title Lassie Come Home, you'd get LASSE GO HOME!

Or you might get:

"Can he win? Not un-lasse dopes"

Steve Prefontaine!!! When was the big rematch after he upset the unbeatable multiple American record holder in Munich? Was there ever a rematch? Did Viren even once dare go compete in Eugene, the world"s track Mecca?

As usual, even my jokes turn to be true, as Viren DID in fact duck out of a meet vs Pre in Eugene, and then Pre DIED the SAME DAY.

None of the doping talk would have occurred because the average fan knew nothing about it then. Some still don't.

I read that while Viren was at BYU he didn't learn a word of English.

So you wouldn't post! Bliss.

The so-called average fan of T&F and S&D had reason to suspect something after 1976 Olympics. See then East German female swimmers, 1976 Olympics. See then East German and then Soviet women T&F athletes, 1976 Olympics. Have you seen women 800m semifinals, 1976 Olympics, T&F?

I'm not sure that even today the average fan is aware of how much an issue doping is. But nearly all even semi serious runners are now and the internet has a lot to do with how widespread that awareness is. I think if there was internet in Viren's time there'd had probably been more awareness, though with Viren specifically it would mostly been about blood doping. Heck, there's been a bit of that here even after all those years.

You forgot a couple.

Lassie MF Viren

and

Viren goes home DEVESTATED!

You are correct. It became a topic after the 1976 Olympics. Actually during those Olympics, due to the appearance of the East German women. I remember a Miami afternoon talk radio host who totally deviated his normal happy talk and music format to daily rants about the certainty of the East German swimmers doping.

It was not a topic prior to Montreal and certainly not prior to Munich. And when it became a topic it was directed at swimming, not track and field. When Cierpinski left Shorter behind in the final stages of the marathon I remember many of my high school buddies talking about it. They blamed the rain and everything else. Nobody said a thing about doping.

As soon as a saw the header of this thread I was dismayed at the anachronistic ignorance. Lasse Viren would not have been a topic at all, at least not from a cynical perspective. Then it was astonishing that it required so many posts before a hint of clarity. Kudos to Armstronglivs for finally supplying it.