Henry Rono?

Several years ago I read a sad story about Henry. He was working at an airport in New Mexico as a luggage handler. It told about his drinking problem and how he was struggling with it. Does anyone remember this story and what is the most recent news?

Yes...I remember this article. I think it was in the "Competitor magazine"-I think I still have it.

I vaguely recall that he was invited to some event recognizing him and a few other past runners. This could have been 5-7 years ago. He was still doing the same thing, as I recall.

He was an amazing runner in his day. Didn’t he hold all of the World Records from 3,000-10,000 at his prime (including the steeple)?

I will try to be helpfull and remind everyone once again that Henry told me that the secret to his success was hill training. Lot's of long hills as well as short hill reps.

Listen to Henry and hit the hills.

its interesting that the kenyan phenoms from the past like Rono or Kip Keino had very strong upperbodys compared to the top-kenyans who are around these days.

A few years ago I ran against Henry in a match race involving two local clubs. You can imagine our surprise at seeing Him there.

He had been hitting the bottle unfortunately and was essentially at the bottom & making an effort to turn his life around.

He wore a singlet that read "Henry Rono Kenya".

He was searching for races that paid prize money. All I could think of was a washed-up boxer trying to find bouts that would pay.

Sad.

He was hanging around the indoor track here in Albe a few weeks ago.

Seemed sober to me. Been pretty visible at things the last couple of years here.

The race was held in the Sport Arena indoor track in San Diego. His the nices guy in the world....and maybe his happy w/ his life.

That's very good news to hear.

Henry IS a personable guy (he was very friendly to all of us that day), perhaps he has things under control now.

That's great.

Supposedly Cosmas N'Deti had some 'issues' too once upon a time, then he became a devout Christian and became a multi-time Boston winner.

Both are tributes in their own way if Henry's back in form.

By Mark Zeigler

STAFF WRITER

February 27, 2000

Some weeks back, a photograph on the front page of the Albuquerque Journal appeared with a story about survivors of a grisly van crash returning home to Mexico.

The photo caption began: Henry Rono, a skycap at the Albuquerque International Sunport, helps ...

That was all: Henry Rono, skycap.

Not: Henry Rono, maybe the greatest distance runner the world has ever known. Not: Henry Rono, who broke world records at four distances over 81 days.

Not: Henry Rono, the Nandi tribesman from Kenya who attended Washington State in the late 1970s and still holds numerous collegiate records.

Not long after that, Rono was talking to a Moroccan runner who trains in Albuquerque and was jetting off to a race. Rono's boss at the airport happened to walk by.

The Moroccan motioned toward Rono and asked the boss: "Do you know who this is?"

The boss: "Yeah, a skycap."

The Moroccan: "Go home tonight, get on the Internet and type in H-e-n-r-y R-o-n-o."

The next day, the boss pulled aside Rono and said: "You were the highest-paid track athlete of your time. What are you doing here?"

Rono hoisted a bag onto the carousel. "I'm working, you know," Rono told him. "I'm doing my job, just like everyone else."

Everyone has his favorite story of Rono, who last night received the Running Legend Award at the annual Competitor Magazine banquet at SeaWorld.

Tracy Sundlun's story is from the 1978 NCAA track championships in Eugene, Ore. Sundlun was a coach at USC and had a long jumper on the runway, defending NCAA champion Larry Doubley. Rono was on the track, running a preliminary heat of the 5,000 meters.

Rono already had run the prelims of the 3,000 steeplechase and set the NCAA meet record. He was comfortably ahead in the 5,000 and essentially running it as a workout, jogging the curves, sprinting the straights.

Rono rounded the turn at the same moment Doubley began charging down the long jump runway. Rono blew past him, Sundlun swears.

"It was like a Peugeot," Sundlun says. "All of a sudden his hips went back and his knees went up and vooooooom. He was just toying with everybody."

Rono set the NCAA meet record that day in the 5,000 as well. Both records still stand.

"I've always said that two people were put on this earth by God to run," says Sundlun, who once managed Rono and now works for Elite Racing in San Diego. "One is Mary Decker. The other is Henry Rono. If you ever watched him, he was just on another planet."

Eighty-one days, four distances, four world records. Rono did it running alone out front, without challengers to push him, without pace-setting rabbits.

He set the 5,000 world record at a dual meet at Cal. He set the steeplechase world record before a couple of hundred people at the University of Washington.

It all seemed too good to be true, and it was. Sadly, lamentably, tragically, it was.

Kenya's boycotts of the 1976 and 1980 Summer Olympics robbed Rono of a world stage and enduring fame. Kenyan track and government officials tugged him in different directions, all the while trying to siphon off his newfound wealth.

And there was his own innocence. Rono had no financial manager, no investments, no retirement portfolio.

"I took it personal, some of those things," Rono says. "I started drinking."

Started, and couldn't stop.

"I appreciate what I did in those years, what I did in running," Rono says. "I did well. I just didn't know how to manage it. Maybe it was an African guy coming to the Western world for the first time -- it's hard to handle that life. I've learned a lot. I've learned a lot about life, about reality."

By the early 1980s, he was drinking heavily and gaining weight. But even then, his legs did not betray him. In September 1981, he got drunk the night before a race in Olso. He woke up the next morning and ran for an hour to sweat out the alcohol. He went back to the hotel, ate lunch and took a nap.

That night, he ran the 5,000 and broke the world record.

Soon, though, he was missing races and disappearing for long stretches. He was in and out of rehabilitation clinics, in and out of friend's homes across the East Coast.

He had blown hundreds of thousands of dollars. He carried 220 pounds on a 5-foot-8 frame that once had 140.

Six years ago, he was in Washington, D.C. In a homeless shelter.

"That's the lowest you can go," Rono says. "After that, the only place you can go is up. If you go down, you're dead."

He moved to Portland, Ore., where he got a job parking cars for $5.75 an hour. From there he moved to Albuquerque and the job as a skycap.

He works full time at the airport, part time as a substitute teacher, serves as an assistant high school track coach and is taking two computer classes at night.

He is running again, every day at 5 a.m. for an hour or more. His weight is down to 190. He says he hasn't had a drink in two years.

"The key is to keep busy," Rono says. "You come home, you're tired, you sleep . . . I have to keep busy. I'm scared to go back on the street again."

A month ago at the Sports Arena, Rono, now 48, ran a celebrity mile at the San Diego Indoor Games. He was lapped by the leaders and finished last.

Rono didn't care. He crossed the line and smiled. He knew what he has been through, where he has been. He knew that the greatest accomplishment in his life is not 81 days in 1978, but six years at the end of the 1990s.

Not Henry Rono, runner. But Henry Rono, skycap.

"People look at me and they, 'Henry Rono achieved this and Henry Rono had all this money,'" he says. "You may have money and you may have fame, but you are not free. You have no control of yourself.

"I'm free now."

Copyright 2000 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.

Thanks for posting the article. I did read it back in 2000 but it brings back fond memories- I will need to confirm the year (on the back of the pics) but I believe it was 1978 or 1979 at the U of Wash. track. Saw Henry run the 5 and the 3 steeple. What a treat! Still remember how effortless his stride was. Wish I could scan the pics and post for you all to see. Anyone who actually saw him run will know what I'm talking about.

thanks for posting this article.

Rono was "the man".

Next time I'm in Albeq. I'm going to try to find him.

One of the greatest races I ever saw: Rono-Salazar at the NCAA XC meet at Lehigh (I think 79 or 80?). Just incredible.

I remember that article well. Someone needs to do an update.

I remember watching Rono one of the last years that they ran the NCAA Indoor at Cobo Hall; might have been 1977. His drive to the finish in the last few laps in the 2-mile was a something that had to be seen to be believed. I have a friend who is a casual track fan who went with me to that meet that reminds me of it regularly even today.

Back in the mid to late 80's I was up at Fresh Pond on a snowy Sat. am. Wanted a fast race and hooked up in a prety good duel with this guy. we did the little dog leg at the 2 mile mark and I put on a move. He comes back on me and slips and falls. Wipes out really bad. I get him by about 2 seconds, but then find out he's doing the 5 and I had stopped at the 2.5.

When he's done I patch up his arm, knees and shoulder with a first aid kit from the car. We warm down together and continue to talk for another hour or so. Turns out it's Henry and he's staying in Boston with a Brit (who can't recall Neill? who at one time lead Boston until Cleveland Circle) Most of what Henry talked about was his bad rep for some things going down in NJ. He was very critical of UW, Chaplin and Nike. He claimed they controlled everyting he did. Yold him when and where to race, etc 76 and 80 were the straws that broke the poor guys back..Truly remarkable man and a day I will never forget.

Usher wrote:

I remember watching Rono one of the last years that they ran the NCAA Indoor at Cobo Hall; might have been 1977. His drive to the finish in the last few laps in the 2-mile was a something that had to be seen to be believed. I have a friend who is a casual track fan who went with me to that meet that reminds me of it regularly even today.

8:24 on a track that was like running on a lumber yard. He came back and ran 4:00 in the mile on the same afternoon.

Henry is well and healthy and running every day.He is a full time middle school teacher and turning 53 on feb 12.

I have known henry for 19 years and talk with him every day

here in albuquerque where i run my coaching business.I to was in awe years ago.I first met him at the asbury park 10k

classic in new jersey where i lived at the time.We became friends and he came to live with me and train in montclair.

He ran 31;08 that day and the next day i took him over to central park ny with members of my club and we cranked out 24 miles 6 loops.Lots more great story's but don't have time now.

ray,

The Brit was likely Bernie Allen, who befriended Henry in those years. Bernie was living in Jamaica Plain and Henry stayed with him, then briefly at my place in Newburyportwhile I was away, then had his own place in JP or thereabouts for a short time. I took him out to Springfield in May of 198something and we ran the Agawam Five. He met some Kenyans who were living in Albany there and decided, on the spot, to go live with them. He told me he wouldn't be riding back with us as he was going to go to live in Albany. I asked him what he'd do about getting his things from Boston to his new place. "Oh," he said, holding up two smallish bags, "it's all here." He had all his worldly possessions in two small suitcases.

I loved the feel of that Detroit track back then. As I recall I set a lot of PR's there over the years.

Thanks for that story; it says it all. It also lets me know who the 'former elite' runner was whom a local source told me was working as at an airport.

Hopefully all will be well for Henry from now on.