RIP Van Townsend: Share Your Respects Here

wejo wrote:

The running world lost one of its great ambassadors this week and LRC lost one its own, Van Townsend.

I share my respects in this article:

http://www.letsrun.com/news/2015/01/remembering-van-townsend/

and ask you to post yours here or to email us.

Im not sure I ever saw Van without a smile or positive attitude.

Every sport has good guys , Van was one of the good guys in running.

Van was my coach/ English teacher @ St. Marks in the 90's. I can honestly say I'm a better person for knowing him. He took a pissed off mostly stupid young kid and channeled my energy into things I loved. I've come back to running over the last couple of years and he has given excellent advice/ support along the way. Incredible guy and the world is a crappier place without him in it.

Sorry for your loss, Brojos. RIP Van Townsend.

I knew Van well when he lived in the Boston area and liked and respected him very much. This loss comes as a shock.

Tom

Van was the sole reason I went to boarding school to run for Baylor. When I met him at a meet the semester before I transferred his passion for running and his athletes was contagious and I couldn't help but want to be a part of that. The best memories of running I have were running for Van at Baylor, he was able to help me develop not just as an athlete but also as a person. We were all motivated by him through his love for the sport and his love for the team. From having to wake me up from sleep walking the night before a race in Boston to consoling me after bombing one of my biggest races due to a disease I'd never heard of, Van was always there. RIP Van.

I grew up in Chattanooga and knew of Van before I started running my senior year of high school. I wasn't even a member of Van's great Baylor teams. But I distinctly remember running against his guys and loving it. I also remember how at the local Thanksgiving Turkey Trot, Van encouraged me to consider a young, up and coming coach for college. That choice turned out to be one of the best things that ever happened to me. Little did I know that Van had mentored that coach when he had graduated college. It's amazing to me how far, how deeply Van's influence has reached. If you ask around, I'm sure most of you knew Van one way or another. He will be missed.

Van was the Kevin Bacon of the running world, except it doesn't take seven degrees to get to him from any other runner -- more like two or three. Thanks to letsrun for featuring him, as it's guys like him who hold our sport together and make it what it is.

Running was the template through which he built a life of concern, care, and support for others. As those who read his stuff know, he was a great writer, but he was too busy writing himself into the hearts of everyone he met to ever write the books he had inside.

The moment I am remembering right now was about 17 years ago, when he was my age now and I was 19. He dragged me on a tempo run on a hot day and paid me back for all the times I had stuck it to him, laughing along with me as I heaved in the bushes after trying to keep up. He was the type of guy who could make you laugh while throwing up.

He will be sorely missed.

I coach at Oak Ridge, and our great rival (from our end) over the decades has been Baylor. Van's 2007 team beat us, and we beat them--it was a fun back and forth. His team was one of the best teams our state has ever produced. I don't know that I've ever known a bigger fan of running and runners, someone who was always interested in the names, the training, the events. And, I swear, I've never known anyone anywhere who knew more people. Van was a great guy.

AE

I've never heard of Van until now. Apparently, he was a rock star in the game of life. To be remembered simply because of you smile or positive attitude?? That my friends, is the way to go out. That is winning the game of life and leaving the game at the very top. RIP to someone I just learned about this morning.

Just remembered two of my favourite Van memories now

St. Marks didn't have indoor track so Van would enter me into meets unattached. One day he brought me down to the old BU Armory and we ran a tough workout with the ageing but still sprightly former Boston champ Jack Fultz. Obviously Van knew him cause he knew everyone!!!

Also remember sitting next to Van and cheering our asses off while seeing Eamon Coughlin become the first 40 yr old to go sub 4- class.

I could always count on Van for a rewarding conversation and superb insights into this most primal sport of ours. He would go out of his way to come find me to talk when we were at the same races or events in New England. I'm sad to learn of his death and wish his family peace and comfort in knowing how highly so many thought of him.

Very sad news to see first thing this morning. Coach Townsend was one of the coaches at the running camp I went to back in high school at Wake Forest University. One of the most down to earth, approachable, and wisest men (not just as a runner, but in general) that I remember from those times. You could tell that running for him wasn't just about times or how high you finished in a race, but about the true sport of it.

I vividly remember the first time I met Van in 1997. I was in 8th grade and ran for a local rival prep school. We had a middle school track meet at Baylor. Before the meet he and Jamey Gifford (former Stanford runner), a senior at the time, were doing a track workout. Being new to running I couldn’t believe two people could run that fast.

I believe I ran 5:32 in the mile that day, losing to a couple of Baylor kids. After the meet, he walked up to me decked out in full bright Adidas gear and said, in a distinctly non-southern voice, “great run, come to Baylor.” I didn’t go to Baylor and for the next 4 years was routinely destroyed by his team.

He was a fixture at local road races. To me he was a running rock star junky, always ready to talk (you would listen) shop.

He also convinced me to run higher mileage. He argued there was a big difference between 50mpw runnners and 70mpw runners. I set all my PRs after my first winter of 70 mile weeks.

I have so many flash memories of Van, like when Oliver set the school 800m record, to laughing at my size when I was finishing a local 5k last March. Tim Ensign loves reminiscing about the time he in Van were in a classic duel and Van collapsed right at the finish line and ended up in the ER. I've heard it a thousand times.

But, on most of our interactions he would jump right into discussing running, sometimes even mid-story, and it went something like this:

“Hey, so yeah, great race at NAIA nationals. 4.14, is that a PR? How is Rodney doing?”

“Van, I’m Joseph, you are thinking of my brother Daniel,” I replied.

“Oh, right, you look so much alike. Did you see Simon ran 3.46 as a frosh?”

RIP to the "Peter Pan" of running

Van The Man was how we knew Van when he lived and ran in the Boston area. Van was always a delight to run into, you just had to square off a half hour or so and hope you got a word in edgewise because Van was extremely passionate about the sport, its purity, its pitfalls, its inherent humor, all delivered with that infectious smile.

He would phone from Tennessee on occasion, mostly about Oliver's exploits, some crazy workout he was trying, and yes, that his health wasn't the best.

There's been a photo on my office desk I've had for almost two decades. I'm asking Colleen De Reuck a question or two after the Falmouth Road Race and Van is right there, listening attentively. As I remember, it wasn't long after the photo was taken that Van was doing the inteview. He couldn't be silenced, or so we thought. A great loss.

R.I.P Van. Great guy. Met him at a race in Chattanooga in 2006. Just a superb human being. Always had great things to say and was a real trooper. The Chattanooga Track Club will be honoring his loss tomorrow.

Van was pure class. A joy to be around. Yes, I will miss him - even though I only met him a few times, but, strangely, because what made him unique was his sheer love of life and running, I suspect that I will be able to conjure his presence, his company, and his smile, at will...every time I'm having a great run, or meet one of the rare people cast from the same mold as him.

I think I'm going to go for a run here in Boston this Saturday when his wake is taking place, and at some point I'm going to look skywards and say: "This one's for you, Van. You're still the Man."

If anyone else in Boston wants to go for a slow run along the Charles this Saturday to celebrate his life - and their own, feel free to post a place to meet and the time, and I'll see you there.

Thanks, Van.

Giles

You'll be missed, mbio.

A few of us from Tennessee were standing outside of the gate at the Olympic Trials in 2012 waiting for the 10,000 final, which if you can remember, was a nasty, rainy, cold night. One of the former TN high school athletes who was working for USATF was asking if we needed tickets under the stands, which were covered. I immediately agreed since my ticket was in the curve out in the rain. He asked Van the Man if he wanted a ticket, and Van said "Nah, I'm good." "You sure?" "Yeah, I'll get it taken care of."

Fast forward to the race, and we look down a few laps in, and Van is standing on the track in about lane 8, just leaning against the fence, chatting with the officials and watching the race. I don't even think the coaches were allowed on the track during the race. Van knew so many people that I don't think he even needed tickets for the trials.

People just said "Oh, it's Van the Man!" and waved him into wherever he wanted to go!

I met Van in 1999 as an 8th grader transfering to Baylor that next fall. I remember an intimidating 6'4" skeleton of a man with more energy than he knew what to do with. Van wrote me a training plan on the back of a scrap of paper, which had me running up to 45min! (Who is this mad man!) Little did I know how many miles, smiles, crazy trips and conversations we would share. I still have and cherish that piece of paper. Really going to miss Van.