Technically the Canadian record holder, and the last Canadian to hold the world record. In his prime less than 40 years ago. Yet he gets very little talk on here. Why doesn't letsrun talk about him more? Is his Bavarian-ness really that off-putting
Technically the Canadian record holder, and the last Canadian to hold the world record. In his prime less than 40 years ago. Yet he gets very little talk on here. Why doesn't letsrun talk about him more? Is his Bavarian-ness really that off-putting
Nice touch.
I think:
Peter Buniak ran 10 miles in 48:48.0 in Montreal on May 9, 1968. Peter Buniak changed his name to Jerome Drayton in the spring of 1969.
Jerome Drayton ran 10,000 in a Canadian record 29:08.0 in Tokyo on Sept 27, 1969. He ran 2:11.13 for a marathon in Tokyo on Dec 7, 1969 and 2:10.09 in Fukuoka in 1975. I believe both were Canadian Records..
He ran many other fast races. Jerome Drayton still holds the Canadian Marathon record of 2:10.09.
You are wrong on Drayton's 10,000 time. He ran around 28:00 and just over, not 29:00.
Ghost in China,
Apply today, good conditions and low stress.
[quote]Ghost wrote:
You are wrong on Drayton's 10,000 time. He ran around 28:00 and just over, not 29:00.
Ghost in China,
Thank you Ghost! Drayton ran many 10,000 metre races including 28:13:74 in Stockholm in June 30, 1975.
According to Chris Pickard's booklet of Canadian records as of January 1970, Jerome Drayton ran 29:08.0 in Tokyo on Sept 27, 1969. It also shows that Jerry Tighe ran 29:36.8 in that race.
Drayton set the Canadian 10,000 meter record four times, the first time being 29:17.2 in Toronto in August, 1968 and the last being 28:25.8 in Hamilton. The 28:13 that he ran in Stockholm would have been another Canadian record but Dan Shaughnessy was eight seconds ahead of him that night.
He wore sunglasses on the roads which was actually ahead of it's time, he's the first elite I'd ever noticed doing so and I followed as a fanboy would.
The race in Hamilton was in June, 1970.
Drayton: 2:10:09 PR (1975) Still the Canadian record.
Rupp: 2:10:05 PR (2016)
Rupp barely beat the Canadian record! With better technology, shoes, and training.
Drayton is the greatest blue collar runner of all time. Shame he didn't go sub 2:10.
I met Drayton in 77 or 78. He was visiting his girlfriend. Kind of a quiet guy.
Actually the real shame is that he got a cold shortly before the Montreal Olympic marathon, contributing to his disappointing 6th place finish. He should have been contending for a medal, maybe even gold.
I wouldn't call him a blue collar runner. Well, to be honest I wouldn't call anyone that since I think it's a ridiculous term. True, he worked full time while running at the highest level, but he was a provincial civil servant with an office job. Put in his 40 hour work weeks but it's not like he was an air force mechanic or anything like that.
Jerome? wrote:
Technically the Canadian record holder, and the last Canadian to hold the world record. In his prime less than 40 years ago. Yet he gets very little talk on here. Why doesn't letsrun talk about him more? Is his Bavarian-ness really that off-putting
Id love to hear more about this guy as well as most if not all runners. More than the superficial tidbits, I'm interested in answers and questions that don't get asked. Not just the statistics of performance and training but the athletes' own perspectives and " ethnographies." How do they view their lives? What are their own assumptions? How do they feel when they are setting goals and going about training? What inspires them? I mean, really specific stuff. These questions, targeted at specific aspects and times of their lives. You just don't see read or hear journalists really asking this psychological and artistic stuff, but I feel this is part of the soul and substance of running and being a runner in the world. Perhaps one cannot ask questions without the associated linguistics and that one develops these "linguistics" from asking the same questions to their own lives.
He's a very quiet guy. We used to see him at provincial cross-country and track meets, usually by himself, off to the side of the crowds, wearing sunglasses and maybe holding an umbrella in case of rain. I never spoke to him but I saw many more accomplished young runners chatting pleasantly with him and by all accounts he was engaging and amiable.
I remember reading a piece on him in the Toronto Globe and Mail in the late 70s, when he supposedly said that he was still aiming to break 4:00 for the mile and he hoped to race Bill Rodgers over 10,000m and break the world record in the race. I was only a kid but knew that neither of those goals was within his reach by then.
He won the Ottawa Marathon in the late 70s and gave a really awful interview afterwards, still in his sunglasses, complaining about the fact that there was no competition and he was "totally bored" out there. The local CBC guy said they thought since he was so far out in front maybe he'd go for the course record and Drayton again said, "I was just totally bored."
Still, 3 x Fukuoka winner, Boston winner--guy was the real deal. Had he raced more marathons he probably would be talked about more.
For some reason I have a vague memory that maybe he and Shorter didn't get along. Does anybody remember that? I think he and Rodgers did.
CBC interviewed the winner of a small local marathon? Did they show the race on TV. Wow, things have changed.
'Drayton says he pushed his training up to 190 miles [300k] a week after hearing that four-time Olympic champion Lasse Viren, a 10,000m specialist, was hitting 210 miles [336k] a week. “Of course he wasn’t working at the time, so he could run three times a day,†Drayton says. “I started off slowly, working up to 190. It became uncomfortable mentally after 140 miles a week because of the work situation. I sat at a computer at work. I had done 10 miles in the morning. I kept sitting there thinking ‘Oh God, I have to do another 18 miles tonight.’ Saturdays and Sundays I looked forward to because you got an extra eight hours of personal life.â€'
Jerome? wrote:
Technically the Canadian record holder, and the last Canadian to hold the world record. In his prime less than 40 years ago. Yet he gets very little talk on here. Why doesn't letsrun talk about him more? Is his Bavarian-ness really that off-putting
How often does Letsrun talk about Bill Rodgers and Frank Shorter? Not that often, and they are far more relevant to the Letsrun audience than Drayton.
How often does Letsrun talk about Ron Hill or Derek Clayton? How about Ron Clarke who was way more accomplished than Drayton?
Er... wrote:
I wouldn't call him a blue collar runner. Well, to be honest I wouldn't call anyone that since I think it's a ridiculous term. True, he worked full time while running at the highest level, but he was a provincial civil servant with an office job. Put in his 40 hour work weeks but it's not like he was an air force mechanic or anything like that.
Blue collar runner has nothing to do with his occupation. Blue collar means that he doesn't run full time and actually has a full time job (the type of job is irrelevant). Blue collar runner also means that he doesn't use fancy, advanced technology in his training.
fred wrote:
I met Drayton in 77 or 78. He was visiting his girlfriend. Kind of a quiet guy.
I think that's why he doesn't get talked about. In Bill Rodgers' Marathon Man, he talks about racing Drayton when Rodgers took his first Boston victory. Drayton was super quiet, and wouldn't talk to Rodgers during the race.
When Drayton crossed the finish line, he just went home. No friends, no girlfriend were there to congratulate him at the finish line. His life story in Rodgers eyes is a bit depressing. Basically he discovered running as a way to cope with the tough foster-care, unstable life he had, so he poured on the miles from a pretty young age, and eschewed other pursuits.
What's gotta suck is being someone like Reid Coolsaet and not being able to break that old old old old record.
All good points or Paul Cummings?!