Kenny Cormier joins the U.S. Marines!

See this is what happens when you go to arkansas! They burn out really great runners. He should have just gone somewhere else where he could have actually continued to enjoy running. Great job John.

Cormier was an extremely high mileage guy in high school. I wouldn't blame John for burning him out.

nothing wrong with being a marine, good luck to him.

He'll be up and running in no time on the new prosthetics we'll fit for his stumps. I salute his future sacrifice in one of our many future wars.

Stop acting like an idiot. Keep your troll comments out of the thread.

John McCain wrote:

He'll be up and running in no time on the new prosthetics we'll fit for his stumps. I salute his future sacrifice in one of our many future wars.

Harsh dude. Harsh.

But sadly true. Shit :(

Well that may be true but what has happened to Chris Barnicle? He was one of the top runners in his graduating class. Looking at the national level Arkansas has not developed their long distance runners well. Nobody has put up any spectacular time this year or even last year and maybe the year before that with the exception of their kenyan athletes. Arkansas is still pretty good in the mid-distance range though

Dusty Bones wrote:

Cormier was an extremely high mileage guy in high school. I wouldn't blame John for burning him out.

This is exactly correct. This kid shot his wad in high school, and I can remember taking a good bit of criticism for making that prognostication some two years ago. He was a big fish in a small sea. How many high schoolers who were putting in 120 miles per week go on to achieve greatness??

He better punch that ticket quick. The war will be over soon for the U.S. Obama is winning Wisco and Hawaii.

Cormier and Barnicle were kicked off the team at Arkansas for quite a while by coach Mac for some stupid crap they did. They were later let back on the team but Cormier never seemed to bounce back after the mishap.

Last time I checked, the Marines had nothing even remotely resembling "eight weeks of prep school" in their training, so maybe the local reporter is a little woozie from that Douglas AZ sun. I wish him well, but the military, and especially the Marines, is a far cry from U of Arkansas XC and track. He will never be the same person, for better or for worse, depending on how it all works out.

"I'm ready for the challenge"...I am sure those are the very words that he stated before heading to arkansas

Give him 6 months, and he will be on his hands and knees wishing he was running laps for an education.

There are guys in kenya that are running away from this very situation.

Makes gabe jennings look brilliant

Let me get this straight:

You're saying that Ken ran 6000 miles his last year in HS? I'd be shocked if he ran more than 4000mi.

As to your question:

1) How many high schoolers actually run that much consistently or anywhere close to it? Your survey pool is so limited that of course you're going to have fewer success stories.

2) Can you point to a source that credits Ken with saying that he feels burned out? The article above mentions that he contracted mono, lost quite a bit of fitness and was discouraged coming back at it.

3) Who has succeeded running a lot in HS? I'd suggest that the majority of Kenyans and Ethiopians you see winning races around the world benefited from an active youth. Not to mention all the Japanese pros and America's own Ryan Hall and Dathan Ritzenhein.

John Mac stalled the inevitable for awhile but he is not the right personality for modern kids. Arkansas kids are legendary for their partying. Somehow they survived the 90's in spite of this. No longer. The one flaw John Mac had was not keeping his kids in control off the track. It finally caught up to him. Not a real criticism as he is a great coach but his time might have come and gone unless he moves to a program where the AD has better control of the situation.

So I consider myself friends with Kenny and I can say that while Ken did a lot in high school he was very fit at many points during his UArk career, by no means burnt out, he did run 9:0X in the steeple in his first true outing @ Penn. Mac is a very low mileage, quality guy and Ken has always stayed fit and healthy from a high mileage approach. I would see Ken for a week or so in the summer after a few 100+ weeks and he was fresh and amazingly fit. He just didn't fit with Mac's approach, and many times he clashed with his coach about it. Kenny also got mono, something having nothing to do with running.

Basically between sickness, injury and coach/athlete clashes he decided to leave UArk and had some plans to try to get a good steeple time in and maybe make the trials, but clearly plans changed.

I think Kenny has a great personality for the military, he gets up at 6am every morning when I see him and does 10 milers so he can run with the younger and slower kids in the afternoon, he's disciplined and very mentally tough. I've heard him speak to a crowd and he is a great leader and full of passion.

I don't expect this to sway all of your opinions, but there is more to people than their running careers sometimes.

Kenny is the man. I wish him the best.

I agree. Good luck Kenny.

he should have finished school and gone to ocs after graduation. the pay is better.

100krunner wrote:

Well that may be true but what has happened to Chris Barnicle? He was one of the top runners in his graduating class.

indoors i've seen a 4:09 mile, 4:08 mile, and a DNF at 3k.