Does having a short last name = running success?

There is an abundance of functionally retarded people starting threads today.

You might want to explain this to some fellows nammed Keflezighi, Abdirahman, and Khannouchi.

Paula Radcliffe, Chris Solinsky, Kennesia Bekele, Alan Culpepper, Dan Lincoln, Chris Lukezic, Nick Symmonds, Carrie Tollefson, Tiffany McWilliams, Katie McGregor...

I don't see it.

Very astute observations. I was going to offer a rebuttle by citing Gebreselassie as one exception. But people in the running community do often refer to him simply as Geb.

Some other single syllable guys are Webb and Cram.

But then some longer examples are:

Abdirahman

Bekele

Kannouchi

El Guerrouj (even his shortened nickname is two syllables "El G")

Salazar

Aouita

Zatopek

Bannister

....just to name a few.

So maybe the coorelation isn't really there afterall.

Bob Jones wrote:

Does having a single-syllable last name increase your ability to run faster? Think of Hall, Sell, Rupp, Coe, etc. (women-Waitz, Scherf, Blood, Lane, etc) Longer names tend to get shortened by the running community, hence Pre, Ritz, Meb, etc. Do runners with short last names get talked about more, giving them a psychological advantage?

You are totally right. I have been saying this for years. It is just common sense. Think of how many times a day one has to sign one's name. The longer the name, the more effort wasted. One may argue that this should provide a training effect that advantages those with extended Monikers, but studies in the late 70's (Daniel's et al) showed that this extra effort merely detracted from the quality of workouts, reducing overall performance.

As well, in some cases carrying the weight of one's extra letters on personalized singlets, or numbers, slows people down too.

Just imagine how fast Geb would go if that was his real name and not just a short form!

running failure = having a short christian name that rhymes with knob

Runners tend to be impatient, Type "A" people, so it makes sense that they might be less likely to take the time to try to pronounce or even remember a long complicated name and therefore mention that runner less often. If there's anything legit about "karma" or the power of thought, then runners with short names could be the recipients of that sort of energy more often.

Didn't Flagpole start this same dumb type of thread a few months ago?

Yeah, after reading the title I started to wonder if some high school, possibly junior high, had already gotten out for Thanksgiving break or something like that. But once I looked at the calendar I realised that the only possible answer was that the short bus must have gotten a flat on the way to pick up the original poster.

CTC wrote:

There is an abundance of functionally retarded people starting threads today.

Thanks, yeah I found that thread but it talked about letter patterns in runners names, not the single-syllable thing.

Not Juiced wrote:

Didn't Flagpole start this same dumb type of thread a few months ago?

Nope. I started the following thread -

I stand corrected.

Gebrselassie.

End of thread.

How about a "Shorter" last name?

not Frank wrote:

How about a "Shorter" last name?

Good puns make one groan, and that made me groan. Nice job.

yep , must be all the energy you save signing for your bib.

I think the first letter of the last name is the key to running success. Just not sure which letter is best, i'll get back to you. Hold your breath.

A lot of times I wonder why some of the elites of the country don't post on here very often anymore but then I read theards like this and asking whether or not to pay for a boob job for the girlfriend and it all clears up.