Question for Kvalheim

Hi

My brother raced Gerry Lindgren on several occations. I never did. GL was graduated when I was at Oregon and I do not think GL was competing when I was in Eugene.

I know the races my brother had with GL were tough races with a lot of uneven pace but I do not know the details. I just forwarded your quetsion to my brother and one of us will post a reply.

KnutK

Thanks for the response, I was wondering because in an old sports illustrated I saw a picture of Lindgrena dn then in the caption among the runners it said Kvalheim.

I attach my brothers reply to your question.

I just would like to make two comments.

By the time I got to Oregon the races between G.L. and Arne was part of the Oregon running folklore.

Arne's comment about G.L wanting to beat Ron Clarke is an illustration of how runners at the time regarded Clarke. He might not have won the Olympics but he was definitely the best distancerunner of those times and he was the one who set the standards for others. I belive G.L raced Clarke in a very competitive 6-miles race resulting in a tie and a shared WR for the two runners.

KnutK

Arne reply:

I raced Gerry L. four times during my years at Oregon, ones in a two miles races (Ore vs WSU), ones in a three miles(Northern Division Championship), ones in a 5.000 (NCAA Ch) (also Northern Division) and also in a 6 miles x country race. All the track races in 1968 andt the X country race in 1967.

Gerry was a very talented runner, who achieved extraordinary times at very young age. He was also a very fierce competitor, who always ran to win. The only way he could win against equally good runners was to "run them to the ground" either by going out very fast or by varying the pace over the last mile. Against me he used those tactics every time, and he beat my all but ones (the 2 mile race where I ran a NCAA record, 8,33, I believe).

At the time I ran for Oregon, I wasn't really trained for the longer races, and felt the mile/1500 was my distance. However, Bowerman needed someone to run the longer races, and since I was the slowest over 200 meters of the milers at Oregon (Divie ne and Wilborn) and the oldest, he chose me to face Gerry. So in retrospect, I probably wasn't strong enough to face Gerry in the 5.000 in 1968.

However, I was told by Bowerman "to stay away" from Gerry and let him lead by 10-15 meters to prevent him form varying the pace. I did this in the first race, the 2 miles and beat him over the last lap (55 sec.).

The two other times I felt more confident and stayed right at his heals and paid the price for that. Gerry beat me over the last 600 meters me in a very hard race the first 3 miles and more easily over 5.000 in the NCAA.

Gerry was the best NCAA long distance runner in history until Pre came along. As a freshman Gerry ran a world record 6 miles and beat the Russians on the USA vs USSR. In all his years in college, I believe my 2 miles was the only race he was ever beaten. His running style seemed very efficient, with short light strides, and he had a great will power.

Gerry was very competitive and wanted to win very much over Ron Clarke.

As a person I learned to know Gerry as a fun loving and easy going person, who liked to flirt with girls and have a beer or three (much like other young men). The only difference I can remember between Gerry and other student/athletes was that he probably trained harder and more than any other college runner at his times. I believe he enjoyed racing against me since I gave him a better run for his money than he was used to in college.

Arne Kvalheim

Bump

Excellent post! Thanks. I love the history of running, including, especially, the people who made it great and their personal stories. We need more of this stuff! Tinman

Thanks for the great post. Hearing about those days when running was more simple and basic and with great results is super. I'll go out on a limb and ask about a few other runners. You or your brother may have run with them or not: Bruce Mortenson (Minnesota guy) and Brian Clarke (coach in Hawaii now).

how great is this link...thanks to all

Great question & great answer, thank you all.

Monty

Knut and Arne,

thanks a bunch for that. Brilliant stuff. Threads like these are those rare nuggets of gold that get unearthed every six months or so at LetsRun. Really appreciate the direct line into the way things were.

Speaking of Brian Clarke, has anyone read his book and used his ideas? I am thinking about ordering the book. Tinman

I have met Bruce a couple of times, but never raced him. Hello to you Bruce if you are a reader of these messages. How are things with you? Still running?

Brian Clarke I do not now.

Again I'll ask my brother. He definitely knows Bruce but I have never heard him mention a guy named Brian Clarke.

KnutK

Knut:

Did you race against Gary Bjorkland who was on the Univ. of Minnesota team?

What about the Kenyan Nyambui, what is your impression of him?

Tinman

The name Gary Bjorkland sounds like he has Norwegian or Swedish blood. The Norwegian version would most likely be Bjorklund or actually not with an ?o? but with a ?o? with a slash across it. This is a special Norwegian letter pronounced something like the ?u? in run. I always thought his name was Bjorklund. I remember him as a good runner and a very tall guy, but I never raced him and do not know him personally.

I do not recall racing Nyambui either but I might have raced him one or two times in Europe. He was a great runner when in top shape and was second in Moscow in the 1980 games. I think he was from Tanzania and not Kenya. I remember him as a person who most of the time gave the impression of enjoying his running and generally having a good time.

Trine Pilskog (4.07 1500m last year) is a Norwegian girl who ran at El Paso when Nyambui was coaching there. I never talked with her about the at El Paso but on her web-site

http://www.trinepilskog.com/news.php?extend.14

she tells (in Norwegian) about one hour hard runs. They ran as a group at a quick pace the first half hour, then turned around and ran hard back. This is very similar to the training Mike Manley and I did in Eugene the winter of 74. We did not know that this was ?tempo runs?, below something called ?anaerobic threshold? or any such thing, but we did know that you got strong from doing this.

I believe most good runners from 1 500m and up did this type of running in the 70?s early 80?s. Maybe they still do but with new names and more science to tell that what brought runners like myslef to 13.20 5000 is good training.

KnutK

I have read Brian Clarke's book and it is interesting because of the storoes he tells from his Oregon days in the mid to late 60s. His training is heartrate based and the book is telling of a comeback he made on the local Hawaii racing scene as a masters runner. I definitely would suggest it because it is an intersting read.

that is a perfect description of brian's book. i have read it too and found it a good read.

knut,

i am curious, why did you and your brother arne choose to go to oregon?

Bruce Mortensen lived in my hometown when I was in HS and he was in his mid-30s (this was 1977 or so). I used to see him out running in the morning when I was delivering newspapers. I don't recall him talking much about his old Oregon days, but about 90% of my knowledge of running comes from him, either directly or indirectly. It was kind of Lydiard, thrice removed. Great guy, though I haven't seen him since 92 or so. It was always my dream to stay in good shape through my mid to late 30s and get into a race with him. I figured that he would be late 50s, so I might stand a chance to beat him. Alas it never happened.

P

For me it was rather simple: I followed my brother.

Arne went to Eugene because a sprinter from our club who was on some kind of non-athletic schollarship to UoO recomended the school.

This sprinter was a carracter. When he came to Eugene as a 10,9 sprinter he went to Bowerman and said ?Show me your best sprinter and I?ll beat him?. Oregons best sprinter at the time was one of the best in the world who had 10.1 as a pr. Bowerman thought this was kind of fun and arranged a ?race? the same evnening. No reason to spend much time of the result of that ?race?.

Bill B always liked the guy from our club from then on. When he recomended Arne to Bowerman he decided to try another Norwegian.

I?m going to the mountaines in Norway for some days so if you ask more questions I want be able to answer till Monday.

KnutK

How incredible was this past question/answer with a couple of legends?!

I'm an old dude and am pumped up by this kind of stuff. One note that is just incredible to me. Bowerman tells Arne to stay back 10 meters from Gerry L so that GL doesn't surge on him. Then he outkicks GL for the win. That is racing! In todays world, hell in any distance race that I recall a runner will just draft and keep with the pack a stride behind the leader...never wanting to get gapped. Then everybody in the pack tries kicking it in, or if a couple of guys gapped the pack then those two duel it out over the last 200-400m. Ol' Arne was just outwitting GL in his race.