On your honor.
Post of the Year credit to the person with the most impressive Malmo can participate also ;-).
Make this fun, I don't care about era. Bonus points if you scan era's.
Since "Met" qualifies, you can be a former elite or non elite, and sight both runners you ran against, and runners you've coached. Male or female. Sprinters count!
GO FOR IT!
Oldsters or Youngsters...
Meeting the Halls (Ryan, Sara, and Chad) was really cool... they are great people and it was awesome talking to them for a while.
Shalane Flanagan is also another one that I talked to who was also great. And, a top tier runner for her age group, Jordan Hasay, was also another great person to talk to... very gracious and humble/mature. Basically, pretty much most of the runners are good people... the ones that stand out to me being Halls, Flanagan, Hasay, Barringer.
To list all the pros/top runners I've met: Shalane Flanagan, Shannon Rowbury, Halls, Jordan Hasay, Mottram, Lagat, Abdi, Kim Smith, Chetelat (top college/HS runner), Babcock, Fernandez, Teg, Wheating, Rupp, Clarke, Kipyego, Willard, and Barringer... there might be more but those are the ones off of the top of my head.
It helps living near Stanford ;) (Cardinal Invite, etc)
Kwel.
Who else?
(sorry for the typos in OP, but you get the drift).
Have fun and go for it, Brojo's even qualify.
Wanjiru
Khannouchi
Geb
Penguinn wrote:
Wanjiru
Khannouchi
Geb
...Impressive.
a word or two to describe each...
Lagat - calm, pleasent
Webb - grumpy, unfriendly
Ramzi - quiet, serious, focassed
Khannouchi - friendly, serious, focassed
Geb - friendly, v relaxed, very nice guy
Hall - very nice guy, freindly
Meb - very nice guy, freindly
All very nice people with different personalities apart from Webb!!
It really depends where and when you met Webb, or any of them, duh.
No one asked how they were when you met them, just who you met...
My 2 favorites:
(1) Ronaldo DaCosta: Super friendly, very funny.
(2) Kaori Yoshida: Friendly and usually smiling.
LANCED OUT THE GORD ATHLELES I'VE MET & SHOOK HANDS:
Marion Jones (at Edmonton)
Barry Bonds (at UCLA)
Kevin Toth (at Mt Hood)
Dwayne Chambers (at Mt Sac)
Lance Armstrong (at NYCM)
Nick Symmonds (at UO)
Kellie White (at Penn)
very... wrote:
Penguinn wrote:Wanjiru
Khannouchi
Geb
...Impressive.
I was only 2hrs behind them in each race!
LaShawn Merritt, Alan Webb, Amy Yoder Begley, Todd Williams, Mark Croghan (3 time SC olympian), Josh Simpson (Olympic Trials 10k 10th last year), Megan Metcalfe (5k Olympic finalist for Canada).
Also raced against Sammy Chelanga.
I don't think I've ran against any super elite runners, but I like to think my cousin was an elite. When she was running at top form she went by Colette Liss. She's remarried now and I'm not sure if she wants or needs anyone to know her last name now. Anyway, I used to run a lot of training runs with her. Especially the year she was first American in the world cross country championships short course. When I was in high school, she would give me her track shoes after she wore them in a few races. I always thought they were cool because they had Japanese writing on them.
Bill Rodgers, in the porta-potty line at Cherry Blossom.
I've also met Webb a few times. Stopped during the middle of his work-out to shake hands. Even asked how my lame-ass running had been going. So obviously like everyone else, he has good and bad days.
Virgin
Shorter
Tuttle, but who hasn't drank a beer with him.
I raced Dieter Baumann a few years ago in a 10k in Germany. Ran 35ish. He was jogging with a group that was called "from 0 to 42 (km)" and finished with the slowest of them....I think 1h15m or so.
Since that day, I consider myself of "having beaten an Olympic Champion". :-)
Joseph Kipsang
Joe Falcon
Yobes Ondieki
Pat Porter
Rob Decastella
Etc...Etc...
As a high schooler I met:
Mike Boit (seriously nice guy)
John Walker (totally uninterested in chatting until my friend brought up horses, then he livened up)
Nick Rose (very cool and autographed and gave me his bib number)
Tony Staynings (good guy)
Henry Rono (standoffish)
Adrian Leek (chatted for ages and he tried to convince me to go to ETSU)
Steve Scott (nice, but much more interested in the girls--who could blame him)
Edwin Moses (wouldn't give me an autograph)
Suleiman Nyambui (begged me to convince my friend Madge to dance with him)
and
Eamon Coughlin. He was totally funny. I walked into the hotel room "party after the party" at an indoor meet and he was standing at the door. As we walked in with some friends he said, "Oh, the children are here. Isn't it past their bedtimes?" I turned to him and said, "Yes, but my mother threw me out of the house and said don't come back until you've met Eamon Coughlin." He looked at me with that Irish twinkle in his eye and said, "Oh, well he's right over there" and pointed far into the corner of the adjoining room. I just nodded and smiled as if to say, "Okay, I won't bother you." Later that night Dwight Stones and I, arms over each other's shoulders, used beer-bottle microphones to sing along to "American Pie." He was totally cool.
And yes, I'm old. Google these names and learn some history. LOL.
Dick Beardsley
Frank Shorter
Ryan Hall
Alan Webb
Anna Willard
Reuben Reina
Bob Kennedy
Jorge Torres
Ed Torres
Adam Goucher
Alan Webb
Chris Solinsky
Matt Tegenkamp
Sara Hall
Bernard Lagat
Abdi A.
Bobby Curtis
Shalane Flanagan
Don Sage
Suzy Hamilton
Carl Lewis
Leroy Burrell
Tyson Gay
Ryan Hall
Meb Keflezighi
Dathan Ritzenhein
Leonel Manzano
Galen Rupp
Terrence Mahon
Brad Hudson
Joe Vigil
Steve Scott
Didn't talk to him because I didn't want to interrupt, but kind of met Deriba Merga at Houston this past winter.