Who is the most famous runner you ever worked out with?

On any given day at the track where I workout, I can see Natasha Nazarova, Alexandra Fedoriva ( and her mom who coaches the top sprinters),Dmitry Safronov (Olympic marathoner 3rd in the Euros (and his dad Oleg former top 5000 runner who coaches son). Summertime- I can pretty much see many of the top dogs on the Russian national team and often saw Yuliya Pechenkina before she retired.Of course all of our workouts are differnt, but we hit the same track at roughly the same time of day everyone knows everyone else and we respect each other and no one gets in anyone's way:)

Bob Timmons - fine coach and great person

Jim Ryun

Neill Duggan - great runner and good fellow

Danie Milan & Ewald Bonzet

Idk, haven't kept track of them.

Most of the Bill Dellinger trained runners in the mid-1980s.

My Saturday morning running buddies include former AW runners and other has-beens.

Al Salzar, he was a diferent guy back then, and not as friendly.

Bll Mcchessney, still the coolest of the fast guys I ran with.

Mary Decker, see Al Sal comment.

Julius Korir and Mike Boit, good guys.

anthony famiglietti! Did a pre meet tempo with him, with a couple friends. Had a great time, he's a great guy!

I have done several 5-8 mile runs with Paul McMullen, dude is an animal. Even wayyy after his prime, and way heavier than normal he was still grindin out 8 mile tempos at 5:45 pace with me. Great guy too, truly a good human being.

I got a massage from Ted Corbitt once. He was the nicest, most humble man with a wide range of accomplishments in the sport of running who was just trying to help me out with an injury.

newly minted wrote:

Worked out with Kara Goucher from 2004-2012

Paced Galen through many workouts in High School and College

Worked out with Ritz many times and even when he ran his 10 mile AR workout

Worked out with Adam Goucher when he still ran and was a beast

Worked out with Alan Webb while he was with Salazar, and still currently do easy runs with him (great guy)

and also:

Josh Rohatinsky, Julius Achon, and some lesser known professional runners. It's been a very fun experience seeing all these athletes train at a top level over the years. I've been very lucky to have had the opportunity.

Are you one of the guys in the WOW by Flotrack where Kara does a 20 mile workout?

McMillan

Got to do some 800's with Kim Smith one week, about 2 days before a meet. Was just doing an easy 5 around our indoor track and she semi-jokingly invited me along for a couple and I ended up doing something like 6-8 with her. I won't lie, I am a very good pacer and she seemed to enjoy my company and the help with the workout. We made plans to meet up the following week and did a 4x2mile workout together. She was very polite and even made sure it was ok with my coach for me to be doing the workout. She didn't stretch at all which was awesome to me at the time cause I never did either. Also made a few remarks about how some elite runners were just too fragile. Kinda funny now after her mishap at Boston.

Marty Ludwikowski

Ben True

The most famous would probably be Steve Ovett, but it wasn't really a workout. We did a 10 km easy run together during a London marathon exhibition in the early 1990s. We mainly chatted about other runners - he told me a few stories about Henry Rono, whom he described as the most talented runner he had ever seen. He told a story about Henry running a 5K race in Australia on a grass track when he had a a massive beer paunch and was seriously overweight. Henry proceeded to lap the field and miss the world record by only a few seconds.

In terms of a serious workout, it would be either Liz Lynch (later McColgan) or Tegla Loroupe. Liz was feisty, aggressive, and fun to be around. Tegla was tiny with a big smile - and probably the toughest runner I've ever known.

Steve Spence. The man's a machine and is probably the most disciplined and focused athlete I've ever seen when it comes to executing his workouts.

Julie Culley

Rono - easy run

Scott Anderson can get some love on Letsrun right?

This really depends on your definitions. I've run with a whole bunch of fast people - usually on their easy days :). Most of you would have to go to google to figure out who the heck they were, though.

If I had to give a single answer, it'd have to be Rono.

Forrest Gump

Randy Thomas. Mildly famous in the 70s, I think he ran 2:11:50 for third at Boston in '77.

I was a frosh at UMass and Randy was a recently minted grad. December '75 we worked out on an unusually warm day in Amherst.

We ran a few intervals, ending with a 2:02-03 half. I was really pleased to be able to stay with him on the last interval, but even as a dumb kid I knew better than to try and bust by him.

y u worried about randy? Not a threat.