Rich Kimball, Eric Hulst, Ralph Serna, Thom Hunt

Mileage. Tinman

I know they ran a lot of mileage. I was actually looking more for interesting tidbits, like the story I heard about Hulst running with a metal vest he filled with bullets from a shooting range. I was looking for other anecdotes like that.

serna was not a high mileage guy in hs

hulst used to run with weights in his hands

I hear Richard Kimball got most of his training in running from U.S. Marshalls.

no, it was chasing the one-armed man

CA had a booming age-group running scene in the 70's. I'd definitely include Mitch Kingery in your list.

Kingery ran 2:23 marathon in HS and never got much publicity for it. Imagine if a HS kid ran a 2:23 today.

Nevermind. It's not gonna happen.

2;23 as a hs sophomore

Talk about records that have been on the books for a long time. Mitch Kingery's course record (14:28) at the fabled 2.95 Crystal Springs Cross Country Course still stands from 1973. There have been many great runners that have run on this famous course and yet the record still stands 32 years later.

Here's some tidbits from "How High School Runners Train", by Greg Brock in 1976.

Hulst: Eric became interested in cross country as a means of getting in shape for tennis. He ran 9:04 his first year in 9th grade and dropped tennis. "Len Miller (his coach) was a great influence when I first started running. He believed that anything was possible and therefore I did also. By the end of 9th grade I was running 10 miles each morning." Eric lifted weights 3 x week and did up to 10 sets of pushups in warmups. He ran many hills and on his morning 10 mile runs he carried a 2.5lb weight in each hand. Ran 100+ mile weeks with 2-3 track sessions during racing season.

Kimball: 70-80 mpw. Here's a sample of his spring training: Mon - 8 miles hard. Tue - AM 3-4 miles. PM - Meet: mile, 2 mile, 880 and anchor mile relay. Wed - 20x repeat hills and 5 miles or 20x440 (62-65) w/45 sec rest, last one in 56-58. Thu - Same as Tuesday. Fri - AM 3-4 miles. PM - 5 easy Sat - Race, then 5 miles Sun - 8-10 miles easy in hills

Serna: No weight training or double workouts. Took Sundays off. Moderate mileage. Sample of his spring training: Mon - 1320 (70-75-80); 2.5 miles on road; 1320 (80-75-70); 8x330 in 45 w/2:00 rest. Tue - 3 miles at 16-17:00; rest 15 mins; 2x5x440 (60-63) w/110 jog at 15min between sets; 880 in 2:00-2:05; Wed - 3-5 miles easy and 10x110. Thu - Meet Fri - If meet on Sat, 5 miles at 6:00 pace else 8-10 miles at 6:00 pace. Sat - Meet or 10 miles at 52-55 min. Sun - no workout

Hunt: Developed his own training schedule. Very little weight work. "Basically, I do only long distance work with a little fartlek thrown in. I do track workouts very seldom, usually only when I feel I have to loosen up." Spring training sample: Mon thru Fri AM - 4-7 miles easy. Mon PM - 6-10 miles at 6-7:00. Tue PM - 6 miles in hills. Wed PM - 8-12 miles at 5:45-6:30 Thu PM - 4-7 miles easy. Fri PM - Race Sat PM - 10-12 miles at 5:45-6:30. Sun - 15-20 miles at 6:00-7:00 pace.

Does anyone know what Mitch Kingery is doing now? I was always in awe of the guy, yet he never seems to have gotten much media.

Other high school kids ran fast in HS back then too. Vern Campbell ran 2:28 on a tough course in Anchorage (course record for many years?). He didn't even run in college - well, at least until he was in his 40s, when he went to grad school.

Pete Romero of California was awesome in the 60's. His PR's are 1:52, 4:06 and 8:42. He did a lot of mieage and a lot of speed often running 3 workouts a day. Someone told me he used to do 100 x 100m all the time for example. Crazy!

wtf wrote:

no, it was chasing the one-armed man

At least he didn't kill his wife.

I know his Coach from Junior College and he told he that Mitch currently lives in Redwood City, I don't know what he does for a living.

I too am in awe of his performances and would like to meet him someday to discuss his Cross Country exploits at Crystal Springs.

I have heard that he was a big mileage runner in High School, well in excess of 100 miles per week.

Most of today's high school distance runners have no clue of what it is like to put in the high mileage that we did in the middle seventies. 100-140 mile weeks, 20 x 440, 2-3 workouts a day, 5-10 miles on the morning of a regular dual meet and 6-7 mile after race cool down, was normal to us. Southern California Kids in the seventies also did a couple of marathons a year, you rarely see anyone younger than twenty running a competitive marathon now. Gerry Lindgren, Frank Shorter, Lasse Viren, we emulated those guys.

When I got to college though, my coach was flabergasted at the amount of mileage I was doing and disappointed with my lack of sprint speed or proper sprint form, we worked on that a lot.

When you talk about those greats from California in the middle seventies don't forget the guys that were pushing them, like Brian Hunsaker, Mark Spilsbury, and Bill St. John. Eric Hulst was a monster, the only one pushing him was Eric Hulst.

interestingly, former hs indoor mile record holder thom hunt also ran a 2;24 marathon in hs

That's incredible. Just think about that range...4:02.7 indoor mile to a 2:24 marathon.

Its amazing too that there were 4 guys in the same state all running 8:46 or faster within a 3 year period. The only state I can think of that comes close to that type of record is Illinois, which had 4 guys at 8:51 or faster within 7 years (Merrick ran 8:43 in '71, Virgin 8:40 in '73, Cracker 8:51 in '75 and Graves 8:51 in '77) And Indiana had the three guys on the same team all breaking 9:00 in '75 or '76.