LetsRun.com Investigates: What Makes Mark Wetmore So Special?

I was frequent rival/competitor of Mather/Wetmore's Bernards squads in the 70s. Does anyone know if Wetmore was around during the Chris Hallinan era, or did he start later like 1976?

I clearly remember him back as early as Fall 1977 with his omnipresent clipboard in hand- even then could tell he was the quiet, serious training genius behind Mather's quirky, loud frontman routine. They had a pretty decent top 3 that year with Pete Carroll, Sullivan and Buck Logan.

While acknowledging all the accomplishments of Mark Wetmore at the college and pro level, I am pleased the author had the courage to even broach the subject of the Bernards Burnout factor from the 70s/80s era. Everyone in NJ running circles talked about it for year. The data on the college and post-collegiate history of the top Bernards HS guys from that era is pretty consistent. People are disingenuous if they totally dismiss or are offended by even the mere whisper of the word "burnout" in relation to Wetmore's top HS athletes.

wetmore is a fraud wrote:

Chicago Style Pizza wrote:

His focus on relay teams in his high school coaching days is interesting.

I wonder why doesn't he bring his teams to Penn in April? Surely they could normally put together a strong DMR or 4xmile most years.

Colorado does not have a track program, they just cross country

here comes this a**hole again. "they just cross country doe"

bump

Great Swampy wrote:

While acknowledging all the accomplishments of Mark Wetmore at the college and pro level, I am pleased the author had the courage to even broach the subject of the Bernards Burnout factor from the 70s/80s era. Everyone in NJ running circles talked about it for year. The data on the college and post-collegiate history of the top Bernards HS guys from that era is pretty consistent. People are disingenuous if they totally dismiss or are offended by even the mere whisper of the word "burnout" in relation to Wetmore's top HS athletes.

This is an interesting question.

I believe that if you look objectively at the accomplishments of athletes from Bernards' program from that era in their college careers and beyond, forgetting what they did in high school, you would find their accomplishments to be amazing, particularly for a school Bernards' size.

To me, the fact that these kids performed very well in high school cannot be taken as a criticism of the high school program. Yes, perhaps there was less improvement from high school to college for many of these kids than you might find other (less successful) high school programs, but, again, this hardly seems like a criticism of the high school program.

After all, most kids who don't succeed at the high school level don't pursue it all in college. Accelerated success seems better than no success at all.

The same is probably true of many/most top high school programs (York, Fayetteville-Manlius ..)

Do they regret their early success? I think not.

You have all missed the biggest "secret"

His runners PACE themselves better than the other teams. Instead of that 4:45, they are cruising 4:55. They beat the 4:45 guy by 30 seconds.

At NCAAs this year the top five CU runners may average 4:45 over 10K based on the recent Shootout results.

Just found this, don't know if you're still around or not.

Ex-Bernards High runner. Ran with Chris Hallinan.

Chris was a little before Mark's involvement with coaching at BHS, though he and I and someone named McNally were early starts as pre-high school runners (got in trouble for it with Mr. Ferry, the AD).

The kids fun run stuff kinda started while Chris was in high school, with Mark's involvement.

P.S. Went on many of Mark's 20 milers, and even one 30 miler, I think with Buck Logan's brother Joe. Was at college and post-college when many of Mark's "youngsters" were running. Love seeing Brad Hudson posting and Lyle Smith and others I recognize.

Mark Wetmore was my coach starting when I was about 13 years old and he, 24. Mark continued coaching me through high school, and as a summer coach and mentor through my college years. I was his first female standout finishing high school with a 16:50 5k, 4:47 indoor mile, (4:44 at 5th Avenue), a 2:08 800m fastest ever high school leg at Penn Relays, and was selected one the top female runners in NJ of the 20th century.

Mark coached me for free. He even bought me my running shoes until I got sponsored by Adidas at 17. He encouraged all of us to read beat poetry, like Gary Snyder, novels-- Kerouac's, On the Road, Kesey's, Sometimes a Great Notion, and classics like, Old Man and the Sea, and discuss them on our runs.

Mark was innovative, curious, and fun. For many years his car was a van so he could drive all of us to races. He even drove a group out to Colorado to try altitude training. We all went up to Vermont and backpacked for 3 days on the Long Trail listening to Dylan and Neil Young on the road. We lifted weights and did plyometric drills, did hill repeats carrying rocks. Mark was reassuring, and empowered me, a shy kid from a big family whose father had just died, with tremendous confidence and belief in the road ahead.

He established in our town the Mine Mountain Road Department, a multigenerational running club that included parents and siblings. We chartered buses to the New Years Eve Midnight Run in Central Park and the Utica Boilermaker 15k. It was a unique and healthy experience to have a community--a tribe--of running. Mark and the other parents were there for all of us to fill in the gaps in our own lives.

Knowing I was mostly surrounded by males at my level, Mark encouraged me to learn about great female runners like Grete Waitz and Oregon's Leann Warren. He ferreted out articles on women's health and exercise and recipes for healthy shakes. He gave us nicknames that taught us the history of running. Mine sometimes was Mamo Wolde ( look him up if you don't know), or Grete, of course!

Mark attracted great people to him, and we met them all. Arthur Lydiard stayed with Mark at his house and ran with us. The Sunday morning longs runs from Bernards High school drew runners from all over. In the 1990s, I coached Chris Lear, and would tell him Wetmore stories. That sparked Chris' curiosity, and he eventually would embed in Colorado and write the epic, Running with the Buffaloes.

In my work today as a coach and sport psychology consultant, I often quote Mark--just show up to the race, "Business as usual," he would say. "When the gun goes off, go to the back of the pack. Run so slow even your grandmother would be embarrassed." "That which tests the will strengthens the will."

This Thanksgiving I'll gather once again with all of the generations old and young at my town's Pie Run. At least 50 people will show up. Mark established this prediction run on the xc course back in the early 80s. I might see Jason Vigilante--the Princeton coach, who used to show up as a kid at our Sunday runs in battered shoes, and John Sullivan, who ran a 3 flat 3/4 leg when Bernards snagged the Penn Relays DMR. Maybe my big brother Tom will be there, who still runs today, and my 91 year old mom, who jogged with the other moms back in those golden days. We'll gather after at the house of an old teammate for brunch, bring scrap books, talk about the old days, the old ways, and continue loving each other.

I'm not kidding myself or you. I ran too much pre and through puberty. In my 50s now, my body doth protest the miles. Mark was young and evolving. I get that. A significant part of bright spirit today is because of him. My life truly is magnificent. My story is flecked with struggles once I hit college--multiple coaches, sexual harassment, and the general mistreatment of females in the decade after Title IX. I would not have been able to turn all of this life into empowering athletes if it wasn't for Mark and the ground he seeded beneath my feet. The beat goes on--the true nugget of his good influence--it goes on in me today.

You had me searching “mark Wetmore obituary” after this post

Hi Meg, good to see you're doing well.

In case you're wondering, this is Dan Senior.

Not running anymore, mostly hiking and stuff.

Also please say hello from me to Tom. I still remember our track 2 milers. No one else seemed to want to run them in our days. Still remember figuring out how we could make sure Larry got his varsity letter by finishing first in our race.

P.S. Where are they doing Thanksgiving runs? I notice the race course is no longer at the Polo Grounds?

That was also a feature of Ed Mather's runners at Bernards High. Don't know if Mark incorporated that in his training for his runners somehow also.

We'd never be up front at the beginning of the race, because we knew that the folks that went out fast would fade fast too.