Who's your long distance running idol?

its a toss up between bob kennedy and lindgrn one trained as smart as he could one trained way past what his body allowed imagine if they had children

Used to be:

Men: Steve Jones (Runners runner, tough as nails)

Women: Joan Benoit, tough, classy, humble)

Now:

Men:Haile Gebresellasie (classy, fast)

Women: Paula Radcliffe (persistent, humble, gives it her all)

Ron Daws

my patron saint

Yiannis Kouros

All time world:

Emil Zatopek

All time American:

Frank Shorter

Current world:

Haile Geb

Current American:

Alan Culpeper

peter snell: the ultimate fruits of lydiard's principles

plus, the guy was just so damn imposing

emil zatopek: a real animal, plus, one of the greatest class acts ever. have to respect the triple (however, in 1948, he was inches away from accomplishing what Viren was 4 places out of accomplishing--double double in the 5 and 10 plus the mary)

frank shorter: his ability to train like a beast and reap the results on race day. if only cierpinski wasn't juiced...

gerry lindgren: can't even fathom 300+ mile weeks. the damn kid WON the olympic trials at age 18, beating the eventual olympic champion, unbelievable. if only he hadn't rolled the ankle in '64.

that's only a start...

American: Pre and Lindgren, i dont think anybody trained like these guys did. Intensity(Pre) and sheer volume(Lindgren).

World: Got to Gebreselassie and Tergat.

Women: Deena Drossin, she trains like a beast.

Will Ferrel. A fat slob who can run an entire marathon.

Paul Tergat. Has the courage to race for records, even with the threat of getting caught for using drugs hanging over his head.

culpepper...williams

william artope

ken mansfield

Coe

Nathan stops: do you know how Artope is doing? Is he still running for USC? He was a pretty good runner in High School

WEJO

World Men: Has been Paul Tergat for a long time, ever since he started winning world XC. Best range I have ever seen on a distance runner, great at XC, on the track, and on the roads.

American Men: Bob Kennedy. Gotta respect him for continually racing the best, getting some big scalps along the way. How many guys that beat him at WCs and the Olympics were later proven drug users? Quite a few, makes him ever better in historical terms.

Collegiate Men: Ritz. Never seem him perform poorly in a big race, always seems willing to put his hand into the fire.

World Women: Joan Benoit: awesome, her marathon WR stood for an awful long time.

American Women: Toss up between Deena Drossin (chance to win a medal next year) and Lauren Fleshman (shows continual improvement and lots of guts).

Shorter, I got to race him once and you have to respect all that he has done for running since his top of the mountain days.

STEVE PREFONTAINE

MARY SLANEY

dave bronfenbrenner is my hero.

Art Siemers...

David Bedford. Kathy Ormsby.

Hottest runner ever--Kristin Ihle.

Mohammed Gammoudi had the smoothest stride.

Miruts Yifter was the most fun to watch.

Brendan Foster & Paula Radcliffe. Tough and personable...