Ron inspired a lot of runners; he was a genuinely nice guy who EVERYONE could relate to. You're right about Ron and eating. The first time I met him in '65 , right after he won a hot road race , he literally downed a full quart of Pepsi in one swallow, as I recall!! Loud belch and, "glad to meet ya..." He ate a package of sweet rolls before his long 20-25 milers (primitive carbo-loading?). Some high school kids heard about Ron's sweet roll idea and ate them before a two-mile race; they puked right after the race!! He was a character. His brief marriage to Lorraine Moller got him to eat better, as Ron was single for quite a few years "between marriages", and he ate a lot of canned food, etc. I believe the conventional wisdom back in the 60s and 70s was: if you ran a lot, it didn't matter what you ate. Bill Rodgers and others, (myself included) had the same idea. Distance running made us somewhat invincible?! Ha, now we know better!!
Living in the Past wrote:
I was at that camp in 1973 and recall Daws's advice to slow down the long runs. J.J. Griffin was there, and he had just run 8:57 for two miles as a senior in high school. He was the guy every other high school runner wanted to hang with. Daws very politely suggested to J.J. that he might want to do his long runs slower than he had been. He was very approachable. We would go into town to play foosball and eat ice cream. As I recall, Ron had the notion that a runner could eat whatever he wanted.