Runners who are/were the most satisfying to follow?

I saw this with complete sincerity: Emily Infeld. I know she had that one creepy stalker guy, and I am not him, but she is the most positive and inspirational runner out there. She’s been through hell and always fights through it. The people’s hero.

I’m a former distance runner but following Usain Bolt for about a decade was fantastic.

On the distance side, I have been a Centrowitz fan since he was in HS.

It’s very likely only those who were never competitive when they were younger give him crap for winning an Olympic Gold Medal in a slow race and that he never broke 3:30…he’s as savvy a runner as I’ve ever seen and anyone who hasn’t been in the position to win a high level championship would care about the winning time.

“You play to win the game.”

Centrowitz is either the best American miler of all time or 2nd to Jim Ryan.

Yuki Kawauchi

Races constantly, posts publicly about his training, has written insightfully about the marathon, and his Boston victory is a perfect story

Love the original post, the examples you used were perfect, can't agree more. Will add that Prime Rudisha has to be up there for sure, I always go back and watch the masterpiece that was the London 2012 final. His stride was impossibly smooth and powerful. I love kickers just as much as I love frontrunners, but I doubly admire those who can do both and everything in between. For this reason, Sifan Hassan is one of my favorites. She as well as Cheruiyot and Brazier made Doha 2019 an absolute blast to watch, and we certainly can't forget what she did in Tokyo...

The ones that went to my university. It doesn’t really matter who they were for this thread, it’s fun to follow runners from your school in college then as pros.

It hints at something missing in the sport, a stronger sense of your team that would drive an added motivation to follow your favorites.

Following Haile Gebreselassie changed the trajectory of my athletic career and my life. The sheer optimism, joy and determination of that man's running is incomparable to me even today.

Grant Fisher

Kelly Holmes and I'll tell you why. Aside from producing brilliant results she is genuinely a nice person.

Also, I like a good comeback story - people thought that she had given up athletics and she saw Lisa York on the TV and thought no! And went back to it then ended up with two Olympic gold medals (in the most exciting women's 800m of all time IMO).

Marita Koch and her dominance and battles with Jarmila.

Valbymania

Expect Great Things!!!

For me, Mohamed Katir. I remember first hearing about him late 2019 and immediately being intriqued by his story. Then seeing him again absolutely blow up in 2021, it was really cool to see a familiar face go from being known as a good athlete domestically to one of the best in the world. Absolutely freaked out when I saw him get bronze at worlds last year.

It's Bekele. He will be back with at least one more GREAT performance to silence his doubters. It's what champions do and Bekele embiggens us all.

Parker valby. By follow I mean literally follow.

Kenenisa Bekele is by far the most satisfying runner to follow. I was going to look through his trash bags one time, to find some 'artifacts' and whatnot, but someone else was already there.

Called himself BB, wouldn't say his full name. He told me most politely to f*ck off.

I second the Centrowitz pick, he always showed up when it mattered and would almost always defy every type of expectation put on him. Rudisha would be another obvious pick. For about 2 years, Donavan Brazier. Jeremy Wariner. Grant Holloway. Even though he never quite got it done at the world level, Robby Andrews' career revival was pretty satisfying to watch.

Least satisfying: Clayton Murphy (so much wasted talent, but his hubris caused his downfall), Michael Norman, Drew Hunter, Nijel Amos, Kejelcha (at least for now).

Following Kiphchoge has been fun to follow (obvious, but needs saying).

Before him, Gebresselassi was fun to follow. Such an amazing career over a huge spectrum of distances, with 27 world records from 2K to marathon (wtf!)

Ed Whitlock (R.I.P.) might be my all time fave, doing seemingly impossible things at impossible seeming ages, with countless age-group world records.

A random one for ya: Brian Sell, back in the day, because he was a guy that seemed to do better than seemed possible on sheer guts and hard work, alone.