This is a great thread as I'm a big Bill McChesney fan, heck I'm a fan of their whole family, which has done so much for distance running, especially in Oregon.
I think Les's critique is off and I think he wanted to tie it into his writing of the good, bad, and ugly. I thought it was a reach. Just last week at a football game, an entire defensive unit was trying to get the fans to stand up in the middle of the game.
I also like the passion Billy had after losing that race. Hey, I'm glad he had high standards. That's good stuff.
I enjoy this thread ... as always on letsrun.com's message board, there is too much negativity, but I think the good has outweighed the bad here.
* Next time I'm in Eugene I'm going to go to the library and copy a photo of a great Register-Guard photo of Dirk Lakeman and Billy hitting the tape in a mile. But what was it, district meet? State? I may need a date on this. It's a great photo and I believe Lakeman is at 4:04 and change, and Billy at 4:05 ... right?