Arkansas Runners- McDonnell Era

Pretty sure Eric Henry was sub 4. Gilbert Contreras was close with 1500 conversion as well.

The "black guy" who could scoot was Richard Cooper, a serious badass steepler.

Colonel mac wrote:

The "black guy" who could scoot was Richard Cooper, a serious badass steepler.

Yes, Coop is a "black guy", but the talented 1500m runner was Michael Byrd. Not sure if Byrd ever broke 3:42 or 4:00 before his eligibility was up. Coop was more like a 3:45 guy, except when he put on his cape and became Super ****** at conference, then all bets were off.

P.S. Don't Believe the Hype

getting out the training log...be right back.

Was Byrd the one that shot and killed a guy?

Consiglio is still the skinniest runner I've ever seen for a white guy.

I read a "Harrier" article where McDonnell spoke about lifting weights before you run. Did they really do that there. Seems like it would ruin a run.

first of all, "don't believe the hype!" While there were crazy workout and shenigans, there are some very exagerated. there were no 250lb bench presses, no 10 milers at 4:50 pace and few recovery runs at 5:00 pace/ However, there were beers placed in mailboxes on the 14.6 miler (not 14 miles,) runners showing up for practice with BAL of .2% and few sub 4 minute milers running around campus.

The bigger miles were run in Aug-Oct. Only a few would really get the morning runs in to hit 80-95mi. Falcon woke up every morning at 6am. Coop would religously run 4-6mi morning runs- 4 days/week Zinn was consistant. Reub....not as consistant. He hated mornings, but did more am running than most. I know for a fact he had a 7:30am class in the winter of 87, so probably not too much then. He was probablyt the most consistant person/runner with Joe.

XC Season

Monday would be the golf course- 4-5x 1 mile uphill for 2nd half. who knows if it was a true mile, but the big dogs would be in the 4:30's

Tuesday, weight circuit and 8 miles. Most ran easy, but this was the day to shine for

those who couldn't do it on M, W, and race day! Alex Hallock would be the guy hitting it hard....Reina was always content on recovery. Some would go hide in the woods and throw rocks,

Wedneday- back to the golf course, which by the way, meant that you were warming up and down a total of 6 miles, 3 each direction. 16x400m... run on the same hill as the uphill miles from Monday. 60 seconds going down and 68 up.

Thursday- same as Tuesday more rock throwing for a handful

Friday Behind the Golf Course 10.5 miles 62 min I think there is a story of someone running 51 minutes...

Saturday- steady run....coop loop or maybe johnson city saturday night was the most difficult effort of the week for some. It would be on off workout for Eric Henry, Reina, Falcon, Zinn, and Hallock. For Cooper, Byrd -not on the team-, Gabor, Thomas, Smith, Alsen, Taylor and a few others, it would be the workout that would set them back for a few days- with Sunday am being tied with Saturday night as the hard workouts. During my era, Schlitz Malt (The Bull) would buck most of us off by 2am. We would land at Taco Bell where we would steal each others orders as they came up. I am still wondering who would be driving the car???

Sunday 9am...Joe would have already gone fishing as he was asleep by 10pm the previous night, rising at 6am. There were a few softies that would only have to run 12mi (Chip, Alsen, Boakes etc) while the rest of us ran 14.6 or 18.6mi Looking at the log, we typically ran 1:24-28 for the so called 14 miler. The 18 would be covered in 1:46-49. The fastest I ever ran the 14 was 1:23:33 and 1:46:10 for 18...lets not forget the .6 at the end of both of these runs. What made these more impressive is that the first 4 miles ( to the base of a hill) was run pretty slow- maybe 6:30 pace. That means the tail end of these runs were pretty fast with the booze leaving the system. I believe Reina and Coop ran 1:21 the Sunday after Texas Relays- Joe was passed by John Quade in the final 100m in the DMR and was pissed the next day. Somehow we got abck to Fayetteville for our Sunday run. Joe blazed out of the blocks at 5:15 pace. Joe was caught by Reina and Coop by mi 11 and a new record was set, although Arizona won the DMR the revious night!)

Somehow I merged a track season event into this XC routine. More to come on Indoor and Outdoor later on. Come to think of it, it was an awesome display of training at Arkansas. (I do still have dreams of showing up to school in August with one more year of eligibilty remaining, but at 175lbs. It is more of a nightmare as everyone is checking out the weight and fitness of one another and I am limping through my current aches and pains in my 40's but as a Razorback.

1988 XC weekly miles:

Aug 29- 97mi

Sept 5- 78mi

Septc12- 87mi

Sept 19- 76mi

Sept 26- 68mi

Oct 3- 72mi

Oct 10- 60mi

Oct 17- 82mi

Oct 24 62mi

Oct 31 (dan gabors bday) 79mi

Nov 7- 60mi

Nov 11- 55mi

Hope this helps. I do want to emphasize that the training and racing were not the highlights of this program. It was the characters and the interactions that made the memories that is hard to rival for other schools.

Awesome stuff! Sounds like my college team too in terms of all the extra stuff, we just didn't have the talent or the work ethic. The throwing rocks thing cracked me up, we used to do that in high school.

and for the sub 4 milers......

As of Feb 1989:

On team- Reina and Falcon.

Off team- Frank O'Mara and Paul Donovan

Off team and no longer running: Gary Taylor, David Swain not sub 4 but 3:40)

Consiglio was not around, Matt Taylor may have had a 3:41 at that point but not sub 4 til 91 or so) Contreras was still a pup. Boakes had run 3:41 at 18, but had not become eligible as he was a trasnfer. No Hood or Bruton til 91. Henry broke 4 in 1990.

BYRD ran 3:44 I think he ran 3:37 in hs

3:47 in hs

very nice rendition. hope all is well, cuz.

Behind the golf course was not 10.5. If it was 10 It was BARELY 10. Welsh ran 49 minutes once in 1993 with Deena Drossin riding her bike alongside.

Mailbox to mailbox exactly 10-yes I measured. They don't run it anymore, too afraid of cars. Back in my day, Matt Mitchell would punch 3 cars right in the mirror as they passed everytime he went arount the backside of the old golf course. Oh yeah, this was before they paved the road next to "the hill". Falcon also ran 49 low behind there as well.

Was in Fayettenam in the mid 90s.

A few guys ran 48 low behind the golf course, by the way. I remember Ryan Wilson running around 49:00 one day and was about the 4th guy in.

I also remember some guys breaking 40 minutes somewhat consistently on the trails for 'weights and 8' which was an 8 miler after lifting weights. I heard that Cragg ran 38 more than once.

After a poor performance by the team, Coach McDonnell would have some words for everyone in Monday's team meeting. If it was a strong enough speech, then the slowest guy would usually still run 43-44 minutes for 8 that day.

The great thing about Arkansas was that on any given run (i.e. weights and 8), you'd have a guy feeling great and running 5:10 pace (maybe he had something to prove, etc.) and on the same day you'd have someone taking it easy running 7:00 pace (i.e. Matt Kerr). Between the two, there were plenty of options in terms of running with guys.

Any good Teddy Mitchell stories from Fayetteville? The guy was only there his last two years but I'm sure he left his mark around Arkansas.

my father was a huge track fan growing up, and we used to go to the okc myriad every year for the ncaa indoors. the meet was run on a multicolored high banked 9 or 10 laps to the mile track. i saw falcon detsroy this guy names gerry o'reilly there over 3k, as well as a bunch of other heroic hog performances. saw roddie haley break 60 secs and set a new wr there for 500m, though that may have been the daily oklahoman meet? either way, it was an electric atmosphere. even as a kid, i could feel that.

Mailbox to Mailbox, not 10. I measured it using GPS. The day falcon claims to have run 49, he started late, actually ran the opposite way around the square loop met us before halfway, and ran 49. That's not a legit 49, I was there, that was the day I ran 51:50.

Wasn't Weddington a tryout for making the Stanford team.?

Falcon once told me he ran 1:45 in practice for 800m in 1992