Gerry Lindgren is absolutely full of $hit

Gerry ran faster than Lukas did for 2 miles indoors, faster than anyone did indoors at the high school level, and he did it in crappy, heavy shoes on an 11 lap to the mile BOARD track. People haven't been able to break it with pacers on a nice banked synthetic track.

Lindgren is the real deal. People just can't comprehend themselves doing what he did so they immediately write him off as a nut case.

I love Gerry Lindgren. He comments on my Facebook statuses all the time. It's awesome. I just friended him for the heck of it, never met him in my life.

this dude has obviously lost his friggin mind. just straight up leaving his family then posting on your facebook. i wont take anything away from his running but what a F@%* for leaving his family

FB BFFs wrote:

I love Gerry Lindgren. He comments on my Facebook statuses all the time. It's awesome. I just friended him for the heck of it, never met him in my life.

quick question wrote:

conficious wrote:

"Many runners smoke now. Smoking might not even be that much of a hindrance."

Are you high? No decent runner smokes, and smoking is definitely a hindrance.

No, I'm not high. I know plenty of sub 4:10 milers that smoke

Are we talking smoking every now and then, or several a day?

agreed, no normal person says stuff like that

he has something wrong with him and I'm not saying it as a joke

This is the first time I ever heard the story of Lindgren going down to Coos Bay to encourage Pre to continue running to make his HS team. Sounds fishy to me.

How would Lindgren ever even hear of Pre if he wasn't even good enough to make his HS team.

Doesn't make sense.

I mean Lindgren was a a phenom at a young age .... some of my best memories are of Lindgren winning the 10 in the '64 USA-USSR Meet at the LA Coliseum; coming back a couple of months later to win the US Olympic Trials at the same LA Coliseum.

Then, the following year at the AAU 10000 Final at Balboa Stadium in San Diego in which Lindgren and current Olympic 10000 Champ in a near dead heat World Record 6 Mile ... they gave Mills the win but both had the same time. And of course, the "Stop Pre" T Shirt at the Eugene '72 Olympic Trials.

Great runner .... seems like an equally big ability to spin some tall tales, too!!

about to be deleted wrote:

Gerry is a pathalogical liar, and people are truley twisting that by trying to say he is attempting to inspire.

Left his young kids

refused to acknowledge paternity of another

Lied about his coaches treatment of him

Ran a 1:58 26.1

Let's Run is much harder on Kip Litton for a lot less.

Just because your life is filled with hate doesn't mean everybodies is. We all know his life story. I don't know any good it does for you to keep repaeating it other than you must think it makes you feel superior for a small amount of time.

espn generation wrote:

We all know his life story.

While I like that you handled the other poster, this quote right here is the whole problem. NONE of us knows his life story. We've only heard bits and pieces and don't know the circumstances and motivations behind those decisions. He very well may have had a good reason to leave his family.

quick question wrote:

espn generation wrote:

We all know his life story.

While I like that you handled the other poster, this quote right here is the whole problem. NONE of us knows his life story. We've only heard bits and pieces and don't know the circumstances and motivations behind those decisions. He very well may have had a good reason to leave his family.

All you have to do is google his name and you can find out everything about him.

One of my best friends in high school was a lot like Gerry. His mom and dad divorced when he was young and he lived with his dad. When he was younger, his dad used to lock him in the closet when he went out and didn't want to take him along. (his dad was a school superintendant).

He was about the same size as Gerry and wasn't real social. Running was also his way of being accepted into a group and he did pretty well for our small school running a little over 10 minutes for 2 mile. He didn't get the recognition he should have because myself and another runner were faster. His second year of college at a major university he tried to walk on after getting in good enough shape to run 25:30 for 5 miles but the coach told him they had enough runners. He eventually dropped out of college after his junior year when he didn't have enough money to finish. After that I didn't see him for years as we lost contact. About 15 years later, we somehow got back in touch and made plans that I would drive about 120 miles to visit. He never showed up. I tried the restaurant he worked at but he wasn't there. I have never heard from him since and that was 15 years ago.

He just didn't want to have anything to do with his past and I can respect that. I have never seen where trying to belittle someone for how they feel just because you don't agree with their actions does anybody any good. At some point, you have to go on with your life. Posters that repeatedly bring up Gerry leaving his family are saying more about themselves than they are about Gerry. I guess they get some satisfaction from sticking the knife in and turning it about every chance they get. I hope I never live my life like that.

peace out wrote:

All you have to do is google his name and you can find out everything about him.

Did you find out what his motivations and reasons were for doing the things that he did? If not, it's not "everything". Heck, maybe some former Soviets forced him to leave his family as payback for their embarrassment at his hands (or feet). I'm surprised there's no conspiracy theories about that haha!

I liked the rest of your post, so don't perceive my disagreement with you as hostile-toned.

While I think it's sad that he feels a need to overstate his already great accomplishments in order to inspire others, last night I did dream of running 57 miles plus a marathon in one day and it felt great. So I guess his weird motivational method is working on some level...

espn generation wrote:

about to be deleted wrote:

Gerry is a pathalogical liar, and people are truley twisting that by trying to say he is attempting to inspire.

Left his young kids

refused to acknowledge paternity of another

Lied about his coaches treatment of him

Ran a 1:58 26.1

Let's Run is much harder on Kip Litton for a lot less.

Just because your life is filled with hate doesn't mean everybodies is. We all know his life story. I don't know any good it does for you to keep repaeating it other than you must think it makes you feel superior for a small amount of time.

My life is not filled with hate. I just believe that his running accomplishments while significant to running are insignificant to real life. Leaving your kids outweighs any praise you should get for running fast. It is so significant that it should be inserted into any discussion on Gerry's running.

Roman Polanski raped a teenager but that is overlooked because he made a lot of money...

You are either one perfect individual (the only one on earth), or a real dick whcih one is it?

Yeah France wrote:

[quote]espn generation wrote:

My life is not filled with hate. I just believe that his running accomplishments while significant to running are insignificant to real life. Leaving your kids outweighs any praise you should get for running fast. It is so significant that it should be inserted into any discussion on Gerry's running.

But you don't know WHY he left his kids, so how can you make a judgement on that?

There are great reasons not to be a Dad! I see them all over downtown Detroit.

There is a lot of truth to what he's saying. I have no clue as to why he left his wife and kids only what I believe his ex-wife had said in a The Runner Magazine interview many moons ago when nobody knew where he was. Regardless, he's still responsible for his actions and it's still abandonment.

But, anyone on this board who honestly believes any of the numbers and times that he has so haphazardly threw out during an interview, is...well dumb.

It's funny that no one was there during this sub 2 hour race that fell short and no one recalls it but him.

Honestly, I do believe part of it is just plain ole' lying and the other is that he truly has something wrong with him. His axons and dendrites just don't connect properly because who would say that and think that people would actually believe him?

Sad, truly sad.

For all bashers of Lindgren for leaving his wife, Letsrun idol Sammy Wanjiru was just as bad as he was caught in bed with another woman by his wife, not to mention he f***ing shot at her with an illegal firearm! Lindgren never shot at his wife

Either we can look past their personal lives and say they are great runners, or disregard them because of how they live their lives and not talk about them.

But we can't praise Wanjiru for being a great runner and disregard the way he treated his wife, but focus on Gerry Lindgren for how he treated his family and disregard him being a great runner.

Both were insanely fast. Both were world record holders. An Olympic Medal does not make the difference between which person was more moral than the other

back in the 70's when sports illustrated actually had running articles, they had a picture of John Walker smoking a cig in one of their olympic preview issues

vale park wrote:

quick question wrote:

No, I'm not high. I know plenty of sub 4:10 milers that smoke

Are we talking smoking every now and then, or several a day?

I wonder what it's like to have every story about your life told and retold by others? I'm not sure many of us can relate to that degree of public scrutiny. Maybe Lindgren wanted stories of his own to tell, and the only way to do so was to make them up...

Dan