What's your Prefontaine number?

never raced........mother in law was in same class in high school, I have Elfriede's sugar cookie recipe.

said88 wrote:

kartelite wrote:

Baumann was DNF in that race, so technically I think it's a little questionable to count that as "beating," since then you're subject to count rabbits or people who were going to beat someone else but got injured as getting beat. Not saying 38-year-old Baumann would have beat Bekele, but as a firm rule it's questionable.

Baumann stopped running because he has had no chance anymore to finish in the top-10 - no injury or something.

Bekele and Baumann have also raced 2000 in Nürnberg where Bekele has had a DNF.

I wasn't making any insinuation Baumann would have a chance at beating Bekele, just that as a hard-line rule it probably shouldn't count (such as when Bekele DNFs and some guy jogs a 32min 10k).

And it makes it a lot more interesting when you have the stipulation that one runner has to have beaten the guy who beat the guy, etc. who beat Pre. Not just raced against, since that doesn't mean much of anything. Even if you were a 5:10 HS miler, at some point you probably beat some freshman who turned into a 4:30 miler, who beat some guy who turned into a decent college runner, who at some point beat an All-American, etc., so by all this transitivity you never had to have been that good an actual runner to have a finite Pre number. The fun is in working it out.

2

My ex-GF raced against Lynn Jennings at Fresh Pond in Cambridge And in Portsmouth, NH road race, and I was much closer to her (wink, wink) than Jennings, at least I think so, so where does that leave me?

My number is 1. I was a teammate of Pre's. Never came close to beating him. Once stayed close on some hill reps. 40+ years later, having been a teammate of his still gets me more notariety than anything I did myself. Oh well....

I raced Ed Mendoza (on the track).

Mendoza raced Frank Shorter (on the track).

Frank Shorter raced Pre (on the track).

So that makes me a 3 (?).

if you are old it's pretty easy to have a low number.

Isn't there another thread for exactly what you're proposing/asking?

I read that race really left a bad taste in his mouth. Or maybe it was because he forgot to brush his teeth that day.

said88 wrote:

Baumann stopped running because he has had no chance anymore to finish in the top-10 - no injury or something.

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How about Vat 69... his favorite vodka.

OP back again.

It's definitely an interesting idea to switch the rule to saying that x has to beat y for you to link through x to y. I'd be open to changing to that interpretation if most people agree. In that case it would be reasonable to open this to cross country and road races.

Thanks for the help on linking to Kennedy. That gets me to 4 under the current rules: Pre - Walker - Baumann - Kennedy - me. As it happens, that equals my Erdos number of 4.

Er... wrote:

I read that race really left a bad taste in his mouth. Or maybe it was because he forgot to brush his teeth that day.

said88 wrote:

Baumann stopped running because he has had no chance anymore to finish in the top-10 - no injury or something.

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You must be a professional comedian - what a choke. Ha. Ha.

The Nandrolone was found in his toothpaste - that's a fact. After a long time where they were looking for the reason fo him always beeing "positive" at certain times. Yes, he could be the one who manipulated it. But for me the full story seems to be true, almost certainly. And I'm not at all a a Baumann fan.

muller's ratchet wrote:

OP back again.

It's definitely an interesting idea to switch the rule to saying that x has to beat y for you to link through x to y. I'd be open to changing to that interpretation if most people agree. In that case it would be reasonable to open this to cross country and road races.

Thanks for the help on linking to Kennedy. That gets me to 4 under the current rules: Pre - Walker - Baumann - Kennedy - me. As it happens, that equals my Erdos number of 4.

current rules - with the new interpretation that x has to beat y? If so, having beaten Bob Kennedy and to have an Erdos number of 4 would make me jealous... That would be some combination!

2) I raced Dave Harper (WSU) on the roads (I lost), who raced Pre in XC (and maybe track) (and lost).

Don't know what my number would be for Track only. Probably 7 or 8.

Don't think I have any route to beating someone who beat someone who beat pre. Maybe someone who beat Viren will track back or Liquori or Malmo (Malmo did not beat Pre, but I think he beat Liquori), but maybe.

I was an average D2 runner and I can get there in 5 (four if I cheat and count XC). I think a lot of you more accomplished runners arent trying hard enough.

Raced Brad Sumner once indoors.

Sumner gets me to Steve Holman

Steve Holman gets me to Steve Scott

Steve Scott gets me to John Walker

Walker gets Pre

I have a couple of routes on the track:

I raced several SD runners who ran against Thom Hunt, who ran against Terry Cotton, who ran against Ed Mendoza who ran against Pre at an indoor 2-mile.

I ran against Mark Conover, who ran against some one, who ran against some one, who ran against Gary Tuttle, who ran against Pre (not sure how many someones between Conover and Tuttle, but I'm sure it exists).

Probably have a few other routes on the track as well...

> current rules - with the new interpretation that x has to beat y? If so, having beaten Bob Kennedy and to have an Erdos number of 4 would make me jealous... That would be some combination!

sorry that was unclear. I never beat Kennedy - not even close

Do relays count?

If so, do you have to have run the same leg?

Also, does anyone know if Eamonn Coghlan ever beat Pre?

I don't know if this has been brought up already, but I think that drinking a beer with a person should count in place of a running in a track race. Has to actually be a shared social experience with the person, not just drinking a beer in the same bar as the person or something like that.

By those rules, I'm a 2, which I feel good about since Pre died 11 years before I was born.