JIM RYUNS STORY!!!! 5:30 MILE TO 4:10 MILE

Sophomore first attempt in practice was 5:38.

Junior last attempts were 3:59.0 and 3:39.0 (1500) and an Olympic berth at 17.

Me:

Freshman year xc 5k PR: 20:56

Senior year xc 5k PR: 15:48

Granted, I came into high school extremely scrawny, and during my senior year i became....slightly less scrawny. Growth and puberty had a lot to do with it, but the miles certainly didn't hurt.

A guy who went to my camp over the summer (forgot who he was) but had current american record for triple jump and went to the olympics when he was 14

Amazing what you could do back then....

How are these kids so good at this age. There is a 7th grader running a 15:47 and a 10 year old benching 200 pounds or something like that.

These kids have prs of those that are "super human"

I read a biography on him and its not as exciting as it sounds. He was just a natural. He started out as the other guy said and ran a 5:38 mile. He was training well after his freshman year and relized as a sophmore this was for him. He finished the cross season well. Not going to say a time but it was a respectable two mile time and then he goes low four during track that same year. As I said before he was a natural and my opinion the greatest american miler ever.

It is all well chronicled in Cordner Nelson's tome, "The Jim Ryun Story"...it is out of print but one ca typically find a copy on line for about fifty bucks it, until recently, was my absolute all time hands down favorite running book...(then along came Kenny Moore"s "Bowerman and the Men of Oregon")

MF

I had the pleasure of meeting Jim Ryun and his entire family at the Bix 7 many years ago. Thinking the year was around 1988. The entire family was very nice. My father brought his original book with him to the race the next day, and they all autographed it on the inside cover. I have it on display in my classroom where I teach but unfortunately it means nothing to 99.9% of the students. A few of my runners dig it, but that's about it.

Sovreign

What you own is practically a national treasure...spent a bit of time with Jim and Ann and kids in mid-80s negotiating a sponsorhip deal...agreed, very nice down to earth folks...yes, Jim was hugely talented but even more to the point, this guy was seriously committed and Timmons had him doing just monstrous sessions a young man...what a beast!

MF

MF

is it true? or just a myth? wrote:

Is it also true he was the first highschool kid to run over 100 mile weeks?

No. That is not true.

Who then?

Ryun is my favorite miler of all time. I recall riding my bicycle to the neighborhood library in 1969 at the age of 13 and reading "The Jim Ryun Story."

In hindsight, though, I think he was horribly overtrained by his coach, Bob Timmons. One summer, Ryun lived with the Timmonses on their farm. Ryun would work out twice a day, usually doing lots of hard intervals, and would do farm chores in between workouts.

It's pretty obvious that Timmons was pushing Ryun to short-term glory. Timmons had had some earlier coaching fame with Archie San Romani at Wichita East, and the success he had with Ryun made him a coaching superstar. He got an offer to head KU's track program, so he didn't even coach Ryun in Ryun's senior year. The assistant coach, J.D. Edmiston, was Ryun's coach. So Timmons got a huge career boost thanks to Ryun.

At Kansas, the hard intervals continued, along with the track success. Ryun ran a 3:51.3 world record as a 19 year old but only improved by two/tenths of a second the following year. In the biography, which went through the 1967 season, Nelson shrewdly hinted that Ryun was getting burned out. As I recall, he quotes Ryun as saying that he needed a break from running.

But Timmons apparently would have none of it, because 1968 was an Olympic year, and Timmons wanted his gold medal. But Ryun was getting a lot of "junk injuries" (Ryun's term) that hampered his training. A few months before the Olympics, Ryun got mononucleosis. But he had to limit his rest period because of the Olympics. It seems like he was falling apart by then. In the Olympic trials, he dropped out of the 800 meters, even though he was the world record holder at that event and had never dropped out of a race before. I recall that Timmons's hard-ass approach caused a rift between the two.

The following year, Ryun's senior year in college, he ran poorly but was still able to win most of his races by running 4:00 to 4:04. But he was struggling to run under four minutes for the mile. Liquori beat him in the NCAA indoor championships and Ryun would later drop out of the NCAA outdoor championships. He gave up running at that point. He was out of track at the age of 22.

He would make a comeback in 1971, though. There's the famous "Dream Mile" or "Mile of the Century" with Liquori. Ryun ran well in that race, but he was horribly inconsistent. He would run well run week, but he would be just as likely to run 4:07 the following week and finish dead last.

Some attributed this to his allergies. Others thought it was the lingering effect of mono. Still others thought it was due to all the years of intense anaerobic training. it was clear that something was wrong, but no one knew what to do about it, including Timmons, who incredibly was still Ryun's coach.

Ryun's on again, off again performances continued into 1972. He ran 3:52.8 on a good week, but he was still running 4:08-4:10 on bad weeks. No one really knows which Ryun would have shown up at the 1,500-meter final. But it's likely that he would have not won the gold. Pekka Vasala had run 1:44 that year for the 800 and Ryun failed to qualify for the US team in the 800, although he did run 1:45.9 to finish fourth (check me on the time, I'm going by memory).

This fourth-place finish was considered something of a victory, because it showed that the faster version of Jim Ryun had shown up for the trials.

We all know what happened in the Olympics. Ryun was accidentally tripped and went down with a no-name runner from Africa. His races right after the games were not that impressive, either. So he would have done well to get a bronze medal behind Keino.

After the 1972 season, he joined a newly formed professional track circuit and ran a couple of 4:20 miles before retiring for good.

I always wonder what he could have done if Bob Timmons had not been his coach. What if Ryun had been blessed with a coach who really understood training for the long term? Ryun would have almost certainly been the first man to break 3:50 in the mile. My guess is that he would have run 3:46 before hanging up his spikes.

agreed.

timmons is not the ogre that you make him out to be- one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet. i doubt there was any browbeating ryun to do the hard work. i'm sure he wanted it just as bad.

Wow, that is an interesting take on dad's career. A couple of things-yes, Timmons did overtrain dad and I think he and dad would both admit that today. But neither knew any better and there is always the question:would Jim Ryun have been as good as he was without that work load? Timmons was a swim coach and basically took swim workouts and made them track workouts, thus the extreme bulk of dad's training. I am working on his 1967 training journal and there are some ridiculous workouts in there. Two, yes I think the mono in 1968 affected him in later years and helped bring on his allergies.

But one thing I have to point out is that from the 1972 Trials on, the Jim Ryun of 1966-67 was back. He ran 1:45 low in the 800 meter final (he admits to this day that his third 200 in 24 point was a little too much and he should have sat and kicked) and then 51 low for his last 400 of the 1500 and blew Wottle away. After that he ran some great times preparing for the 1972 Olympics, like his 3:52 at the Torono Police Games (which I think he won by well over 10 seconds). I have seen his 1972 training journal-he and Timmons felt that he would have to run 3:30 to win the gold and all the workouts were geared towards that. He ran one fantastic workout in Munich that began with two 800s on shorter rest in 1:50. I'll have to go back and see what the rest of the workout was, but to read that journal and his thoughts, the times he was running and how confident he was-the fact that he was knocked to the track in the prelims is a real bummer. But he'll say it again and again-he would not be who he is today were it not for his experience at the 1972 Olympic Games.

And as for his couple of 4:20s while a part of the ITA and then retiring is incorrect. Yes, he never broke 4 minutes, but he ran a lot of low 4s. One race, in fact, he ran solo against a series of lights set up track side that were set to pace him to a sub-4 mile. As he says, it became a circus and there wasn't enough money in it, so he retired.

Wow thanks for the great insight!

How D. Pard wrote:

Who then?

You serious?

what do you mean you're working on his training journal? are you related to ryun? are you writing a book or something?

It's his son Drew dude.

drewr wrote:

Wow, that is an interesting take on dad's career. Timmons did overtrain dad and I think he and dad would both admit that today.

Drew, thanks for the post. Your dad actually did run a 4:20 mile in that pro circuit. But you're right that it was unfair to characterize his "pro" career the way I did.

One thing that always puzzled me about your father's career after the 1968 Olympics is his surprisingly inconsistent performances. As I said earlier, he would run 3:52-3:57 one week and then the following week would run 4:07-4:14 and finish last. This was going on throughout 1971 and 1972. I recall one meet in 1971 in Britain where he finished last in 4:09, and Dave Bedford bragged that he beat Ryun in the mile. I think Keino might have won that race.

Anyway, something was going on with your dad that was causing a bizarre inconsistency. Does he have any idea what was causing that?

In meets right after the 1972 Olympics, your dad's races were okay but nothing really noteworthy. If he really was ready to win the gold in Munich, you'd think that he would have ran some fast times right afterwards.

Finally, to say that Timmons and your dad didn't know any better doesn't let Timmons off the hook for the overtraining. Let's face it, Timmons meant well. But he was in over his head. He also used your dad to further his career. After all, if he were really that devoted to your dad, he would have stayed at Wichita East and coached him during your senior year. But his career advancement took priority.

Timmons may have been a nice guy, but comments from other athletes suggest that he was a control freak who demanded absolute obedience. He was the national coach one year, and I recall reading that George Young had to hide a beer when Timmons came into the room, otherwise Timmons would have considered the beer to be a lapse of character and discipline. He seems like an incredibly close minded, stifling individual.