Was Mark Sisson a legit national class runner?

i am not sure if this is the person, but i think i remember that name as one of the names the miami herald listed as one of the favorites to win the orange bowl marathon, which was won by local runner pat chmiel the first year, i think sisson dropped out of the orange bowl 1 year, maybe the year someone from great britain won. and i seem to remember that name as the winner of the fort lauderdale heart run. i remember the name as one of the top finishers in several south florida races in the late 1970's.

i could very easily be wrong as i am 45 years and this was about 30 years ago. the name does sound familiar.

he's in the business of selling you his ideas, so you will buy his products, thereby increasing his income.

20 years ago when he was poor, and only good at running, he probably went to a tony robbins seminar...and the rest is history.

history lesson on primo wrote:

Was the the 1980 national championships race a separate event from the 1980 US Olympic Trials race?

Yes it was. Sisson was 5th in the US marathon in Jan 1980 in CA running 2:16.31 on a course that turned out to be short. Winner was 2:13.54

The trials were in Niagra Falls in May with Tony Sandoval, Benji Durden and Kyle Heffner taking the top 3 places all in 2:10.xx.

There is no record anywhere of Mark Sisson's running in or finishing in the top five in the 1980 Paul Masson Marathon. Sisson also claims a personal best in the marathon of 2:18, a pace of 5:16 per mile. However, in a 16 mile road race in Maine he clocked 1:37 or 6:04 per mile. At the time of the race in Maine he was 23 yrs. old. At the time of the 1980 race he was 27. It would be highly unusual for a competitive college runner to improve his mile splits over a much longer distance from his early to mid twenties. By the way, his time in the Maine race did set the record at the time hence justifying I suppose his claim that he was a "record setting runner." His claims regarding his time in the marathon however seem dubious at best. It sounds like some puffery is going on.

history lesson on primo wrote:

http://www.squidoo.com/whoismark

He claims:

"In fact, the running was going so well after college that I decided to forgo medical school for a few years (it's at 31 years now) and concentrate on a running career. I trained seriously as a marathoner for another five years, racking up well over 100 miles each week in training. The effort culminated in a top 5 finish in the 1980 US National Marathon Championships and a qualifying spot for the 1980 US Olympic Trials."

Was the the 1980 national championships race a separate event from the 1980 US Olympic Trials race?

That is not true at all. There is no way I could run a 16 mile race at 23 faster than I could now (27) and more than anything it is because I know how to run that distance. But again I don't have 2:18 talent. Someone with 2:18 talent could presumably could easily run sub 6 for a 16 miler

whirledpeas wrote:

he's in the business of selling you his ideas, so you will buy his products, thereby increasing his income.

20 years ago when he was poor, and only good at running, he probably went to a tony robbins seminar...and the rest is history.

I haven no idea about his running background, but just because he's selling something doesn't mean he's a charlatan or that he's lying about anything. Either prove that his claims are false by citing relevant race results that don't include his name or else shut up. He does very much have the physique of an elite runner.

I knew a runner named Mark Sisson from the time period. He was a decent local/regional talent, but as far as I can remember he never ran faster than like 2:23 or so.

California?

Yeah, I think he was living in Menlo Park. Blond surfer type guy.

from his homepage:

"top 5 finish in the 1980 US National Marathon Championships and a qualifying spot for the 1980 US Olympic Trials."

Read more:

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/about-2/mark-sisson/#ixzz2SEm58epm

Guy is in his 50s but feels the need to tell us he was a "pre-med candidate" in college?

26.1 miles? 22 miles? "Short course" isn't terribly informative, USATF.

[quote]factchecker wrote:

Yes it was. Sisson was 5th in the US marathon in Jan 1980 in CA running 2:16.31 on a course that turned out to be short. Winner was 2:13.54

http://www.usatf.org/statistics/champions/USAMarathon/men.asp

Looked at the picture, that's the same guy. Like I said, he was a decent local/regional talent. 2:23 was the OT standard in 1980 so he could have qualified but there's no way he ran a legit sub-2:20.

I'm assuming he was eating normally when he ran that well, right?

xenonscreams wrote:

I'm assuming he was eating normally when he ran that well, right?

Define normally. If normal for you means GMO modified soy/corn, plenty of sugar and milk products from cows, then the answer would be yes. I, however, would not consider that "normal".

I initially thought this thread was about Emily Sisson's dad who ran for the Badgers in the 80's, but then I clicked the link. I'm not sure if Emily's Dad had a post collegiate career, but he would have been better than a Williams runner from that time period.

Gabyoc24 wrote:

There is no record anywhere of Mark Sisson's running in or finishing in the top five in the 1980 Paul Masson Marathon.

Why would you resurrect a four-year-old thread just say something that is flatly untrue about someone you apparently know little about?

I don't know Sisson, but I had no great difficulty finding the results of the 1980 race, with Mark Sisson listed as fifth in 2:16:32. As for the short course, I understand that police routed the runners in some way that slightly shortened the course. I don't know if anyone went back to measure how much the race was shortened, but I doubt it was much. The winner, Frank Richardson, was a very consistent low-2:14 guy at the time. (He ran a low 2:14 a couple of months later when he finished ninth in the Olympic trials, and won the Chicago Marathon a few months later in a low 2:14.)

Sisson's running career is not exactly undocumented. Nor is his triathlon career, including his fourth-place finish in the February 1982 Ironman race in Hawaii (best known for Julie Moss's dramatic collapse just before the finish.)

he is a charlatan now, but he was a decent athlete back then. his triathlon "career":

1982 Hawaii Ironman

4th Mark Sisson 1:18:18 5:21:23 3:17:34 9:57:15

http://www.slowtwitch.com/News/Top_Ironman_Hawaii_Finishers_Archive_58.html

He was a good athlete , better triathlete given his Ironman finish.

He's not stating anything he didn't do.

Im not sure why getting people on a healthy track to living is considered to be bad ?

He looks pretty good in his pics , I would ask others commenting to look in the mirror at this age and forward your pics to compare.