Marty Liquori

malmo wrote:

XC running wrote:

Didn't he place top 10 at USA XC at least once. That's a pretty good measure of endurance. Had a great career and for that era, fairly long.

Yes. He was one place behind me. My grandfather was really excited. He said, "YOU BEAT MARTY LIQUORI!" I tried to explain to him that to those guys cross country isn't imprtant.

He said, "Wait a minute. When you passed him was he trying to beat you?" "

Well yeah," I conceded.

"And were you trying to beat him?"

"Yeah."

"THEN YOU BEAT MARTY LIQUORI!"

Grandfathers are smart like that.

Cool story!

malmo wrote:

Harvey Glance wrote:

[quote]The Overexplainer wrote:

there really were no men past 30 competing in sprints or distances.

[quote]

Not really true. Viren , Lopes .Yifter, Dixon, Rodgers etc were all past 30 then.

Citing anomalies does not change the point.

Past a certain number means they aren't anomalies. Many more over 30 athletes could be listed. Perhaps only Americans were unable to conquer the job/athlete hurdle.

Vaatainen, Puttemans, Spedding(A Pharmacist!), Walker, Boit, Lismont Quax also managed.

According to math wrote:

18 almost 19, no?

the race was on 20th October, Liquori was aged 19 years and 39 days. but he was still the youngest olympic 1500m finalist up to that point. Ryun was in the same race, won silver, aged 21.

Cheers.

Cottonshirt wrote:

According to math wrote:

18 almost 19, no?

the race was on 20th October, Liquori was aged 19 years and 39 days. but he was still the youngest olympic 1500m finalist up to that point. Ryun was in the same race, won silver, aged 21.

Cheers.

Pretty sure his book mentions being 18 in the final. But the actual dates say otherwise.

He was a great runner and really great racer. And, for all the Pre fan boys, he did MUCH better in the world rankings than Pre ever did -- multiple years and more events.

There is no comparison between careers of Liquori and Pre in my eyes.

Let's also keep it in perspective. While Liquori was dealing with a hamstring, Pre

was trying to overcome a nagging death problem. Much more difficult for most.

Libertarian vegan wrote:

sdfsdfsdfsdfsdfsdfsdfsdf wrote:

I never knew his 10k was so slow. He obviously never ran a fast 10k while fit, he undoubtedly was capable of at least 2 minutes faster in the 10,000 when he ran that 13:15.

I agree, I don't know much about him. However, his 13:15 indicates that he could have easily have gone in the 27 min range for the 10k. It could be that his training was geared more towards the mile?

Does anyone have any info on his training?

Marty Liquori was a terrifc runner, smart and savvy, and he and John Parker wrote a couple of excellent books ("Marty Liquori's Guide for the Elite Runner," also titled "Real Running" at one time, was one of my all-time favorite books on training and racing). He was probbably underappreciated while he was competing, and seems woefully underappreciated today.

But . . . I'm not aware of anything to justify claims that he "undoubtedly was capable of at least 2 minutes faster in the 10,000 when he ran that 13:15," and his 13:15 does not suggest that he "could have easily have [sic] gone in the 27 min range of the 10k." The world record at that time was ove 27:30. Henry Rono brought it down to about 27:22 the next year. Liquori in 1977 was not a better 10,000-meter runner than Henry Rono in 1978 -- much less 15 seconds or more faster. Offhand, I don't recall any of his performances above 5,000m (on any surface) that indicated a then-current ability to run much under 28 minutes for 10,000 meters, nor do his times at shorter distances provide much support for the proposition that he was a low-27 10,000 guy who just never got around to doing it.

World Rankings 5000 meters

1978 2nd Liquori

1977 1st Liquori

1975 3rd Liquori, 9th Prefontaine

1974 6th Prefontaine

1973 5th Prefontaine

1972 4th Prefontaine

1971 10th Prefontaine

World Rankings 1500 meters

1975 5th Liquori

1971 1st Liquori

1970 7th Liquori

1969 1st Liquori

1979 TAC 10000 1st Virgin, 3rd Shorter

1978 AAU 5000 1st Liquori, 2nd Fredericks,

1978 AAU 10000 1st Virgin, 5th Liquori

1977 AAU 5000 1st Liquori, 2nd Fredericks

1977 AAU 10000 1st Shorter

1976 AAU 5000 1st Buerkle, 2nd Liquori

1976 OT 5000 1st Buerkle (7th Fredericks)

1976 OT 10000 1st Shorter (2nd Virgin)

1975 AAU 5000 1st Liquori (2nd Buerkle, 4th Virgin, 5th Fredericks)

1975 AAU 10000 1st Shorter

1975 AAU XC 1st Fredericks (10th Liquori)

1974 AAU 5000 1st Buerkle, 5th Liquori

1974 AAU 10000 1st Shorter, 2nd Buerkle

1973 AAU Mile 1st Hilton, 2nd Liquori

1973 AAU 3 mile 1st Prefontaine, 2nd Buerkle

1972 AAU 3 mile 1st Mike Keough, 2nd Buerkle

1972 AAU 10000 1st Fredericks, 2nd Shorter

1972 OT 5000 1st Prefontaine

1972 OT 10000 1st Shorter (7th Fredericks)

1971 AAU Mile 1st Liquori

1971 AAU 3 mile 1st Prefontaine, 3rd Shorter

1971 AAU 6 mile 1st Shorter

1970 AAU Mile 1st Howell Michael, 3rd Liquori,

1970 AAU 3 mile 1st Shorter, 5th Prefontaine

1970 AAU 6 mile 1st Bacheler, 2nd Shorter

1969 AAU Mile 1st Liquori

Great longevity and smart enough to move up when it was time. Something some of todays milers just don't do. Marty was good racer.

As I pointed out before, Marty was comparable to Dixon in many ways. Rod ran only 28:11 off of 3:33/13:17 backround, but eventually went on to run 2:08 for a huge win in NYCM. I don't think that either he or Liquori ever had much interest in the 10000.

YMMV wrote:

Marty was quite comparable to Rod Dixon on the track, aside from his unfortunate '72/'76 seasons. Had an elegant running style.

Would hardly say Dixon had an elegant running style.

DSB15 wrote:

YMMV wrote:

Marty was quite comparable to Rod Dixon on the track, aside from his unfortunate '72/'76 seasons. Had an elegant running style.

Would hardly say Dixon had an elegant running style.

I was talking about Liquori.

Amazing how many surprise Munich Olympians placed highly at 1971 AAU. Also, further evidence that Dr. Delano Meriwether was the real deal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1971_USA_Outdoor_Track_and_Field_Championships