Bob MF Kennedy!!!!!!!!!!!

Redonculous Maximus wrote:

Okay, so yeah, this thread is 28 years too late, but better late than never. I watched this race live in 1996 on television. But that was in the days before the internet and YouTube and 7 years before the birth of Letsrun. So I had forgotten what kind of balls Bob Kennedy had at the time. 2 laps to go in the race. He knows he’s a long-shot, but he was in 12:58 shape (insane in the pre super shoes era). He could have played it safe and maybe hoped to snag a bronze. But no. He says F this - I’m going for it. He was in over his head and ended up having to settle for 6th (still respectable). But that’s the kind of sh!t that inspired me at the time and is one of the reasons I kept running at the time. Still gives me the chills today. Good for you Bob - you deserve your MF thread.

Video:www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvRq3K2Mthc

Sub-9:00 guy wrote:

How Racing works wrote:

Any runner in that race could have made the same move at that time. There is nothing "ballsy" about it. It was the wrong move to make. I could run the first 400 of my next mile race in 54, that doesn't mean I have balls, it means I am foolish.

6th is nothing to be praising 28 years after the fact. You're like the college that keeps talking about the time they made the Sweet Sixteen at the NCAA basketball tournament 30 years ago. No one cares about their or Bob's mediocrity.

Yes, because going out too fast for the first lap of a mile (like every single high school runner who is inexperienced) is really comparable to trying to string an Olympic field out with two laps to go in a 12.5 lap race in a bid to win a medal. He may have misjudged it, but he went for it, and there’s absolutely no shame in that.

Kennedy was an inspiration to a generation of runners, including myself. He gave us hope that a Caucasian kid from America could compete at an elite level in events dominated by East Africans.

Salvitore Stitchmo wrote:

Redonculous Maximus wrote:

Okay, so yeah, this thread is 28 years too late, but better late than never. I watched this race live in 1996 on television. But that was in the days before the internet and YouTube and 7 years before the birth of Letsrun. So I had forgotten what kind of balls Bob Kennedy had at the time. 2 laps to go in the race. He knows he’s a long-shot, but he was in 12:58 shape (insane in the pre super shoes era). He could have played it safe and maybe hoped to snag a bronze. But no. He says F this - I’m going for it. He was in over his head and ended up having to settle for 6th (still respectable). But that’s the kind of sh!t that inspired me at the time and is one of the reasons I kept running at the time. Still gives me the chills today. Good for you Bob - you deserve your MF thread.

Video:www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvRq3K2Mthc

Yeah the crowd pop when Kennedy takes the race on at the 4200m mark is pretty awesome. As for the post below this one (and above mine), I mean yeah - what can you say.

Side note, I spent a little bit of time in Teddington, London with Kennedy back in 2002. Stayed in the same house together with Daniel Komen and Noah Nygeny next door (I wrote somewhere recently about Komen and his Dyson vacuum cleaner debacle). We ran a few times in Bushy park and he was the nicest, most humble guy ever. Told me a great story about Moses Kiptanui and the buildup to his steeplechase WR in 95 amongst others. Top guy.

Sub-9:00 guy wrote:

How Racing works wrote:

Any runner in that race could have made the same move at that time. There is nothing "ballsy" about it. It was the wrong move to make. I could run the first 400 of my next mile race in 54, that doesn't mean I have balls, it means I am foolish.

6th is nothing to be praising 28 years after the fact. You're like the college that keeps talking about the time they made the Sweet Sixteen at the NCAA basketball tournament 30 years ago. No one cares about their or Bob's mediocrity.

Yes, because going out too fast for the first lap of a mile (like every single high school runner who is inexperienced) is really comparable to trying to string an Olympic field out with two laps to go in a 12.5 lap race in a bid to win a medal. He may have misjudged it, but he went for it, and there’s absolutely no shame in that.

Kennedy was an inspiration to a generation of runners, including myself. He gave us hope that a Caucasian kid from America could compete at an elite level in events dominated by East Africans.

Redonculous Maximus wrote:

Okay, so yeah, this thread is 28 years too late, but better late than never. I watched this race live in 1996 on television. But that was in the days before the internet and YouTube and 7 years before the birth of Letsrun. So I had forgotten what kind of balls Bob Kennedy had at the time. 2 laps to go in the race. He knows he’s a long-shot, but he was in 12:58 shape (insane in the pre super shoes era). He could have played it safe and maybe hoped to snag a bronze. But no. He says F this - I’m going for it. He was in over his head and ended up having to settle for 6th (still respectable). But that’s the kind of sh!t that inspired me at the time and is one of the reasons I kept running at the time. Still gives me the chills today. Good for you Bob - you deserve your MF thread.

Video:www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvRq3K2Mthc

Salvitore Stitchmo wrote:

Redonculous Maximus wrote:

Okay, so yeah, this thread is 28 years too late, but better late than never. I watched this race live in 1996 on television. But that was in the days before the internet and YouTube and 7 years before the birth of Letsrun. So I had forgotten what kind of balls Bob Kennedy had at the time. 2 laps to go in the race. He knows he’s a long-shot, but he was in 12:58 shape (insane in the pre super shoes era). He could have played it safe and maybe hoped to snag a bronze. But no. He says F this - I’m going for it. He was in over his head and ended up having to settle for 6th (still respectable). But that’s the kind of sh!t that inspired me at the time and is one of the reasons I kept running at the time. Still gives me the chills today. Good for you Bob - you deserve your MF thread.

Video:www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvRq3K2Mthc

Yeah the crowd pop when Kennedy takes the race on at the 4200m mark is pretty awesome. As for the post below this one (and above mine), I mean yeah - what can you say.

Side note, I spent a little bit of time in Teddington, London with Kennedy back in 2002. Stayed in the same house together with Daniel Komen and Noah Nygeny next door (I wrote somewhere recently about Komen and his Dyson vacuum cleaner debacle). We ran a few times in Bushy park and he was the nicest, most humble guy ever. Told me a great story about Moses Kiptanui and the buildup to his steeplechase WR in 95 amongst others. Top guy.