All time best runners in Minnesota?

Need criteria.

From Minnesota? Lindgren, Leer, Blankenship, Mead. Possible addition could be Joe Klecker as he leaves college.

In highschool? We have the national freshman mile record. Stillwater guy obviously.

Lots of wasted potential at the U of M but that's covered on Letsrun every few months.

Dick Beardsley, Barney Klecker

Have to add the Heath Brothers.

Leonard 'Buddy' Edelen (22 Sept 1937) AR 10,000m May 1960, WR marathon 1963

Tom Heinonen (1 July 1945) 5 time all American while at Un. of Minnesota

Gary Bjorklund (22 Apr 1951) Olympic 10,000m 1976, held MN state HS 1 mile record for 39 years

Ray Flynn of Ireland (22 Jan 1957) ran the fastest mile in Minnesota, 3:55.52 Minneapolis, MN 10 Aug 1985

cheers.

Criteria wrote:

Need criteria.

From Minnesota? Lindgren, Leer, Blankenship, Mead. Possible addition could be Joe Klecker as he leaves college.

In highschool? We have the national freshman mile record. Stillwater guy obviously.

Lots of wasted potential at the U of M but that's covered on Letsrun every few months.

Gerry Lindgren was not born in MN and did not grow up there.

Sorry to say that Mead is great, but he can't be claimed as a Minnesotan. He lived there just part of his junior year and all of senior year. That he ran at U of Minn is immaterial. Where you run in college has nothing to do with where you grew up. It is like saying that Luke Watson is an Indiana native. Mead lived less than 2 of his first 18 yrs in Minnesota. I could say that he was a product of Minnesota culture and society if he had spent age 10-18 there.

The best runners, among a bunch of great ones, are (in no particular order):

Garry Bjorklund -- led the nation in the Mile (4:05.9) in '69 - 3 time BIG 10 XC champ - NCAA Champ at 6 miles (MR - 27:43) - 3 time BIG 10 2M and 3M (outdoor) winner - Olympian at 10k in '76 - 27:49 in Stockholm in '76 - 27:46 in '84 in Walnut. 9 times under 28:30 in the track 10k. 2:10:20 marathoner.

Steve Plasencia -- just like BJ, so many honors they are hard to track all of them down. Ran at the top level from age 14 to 45. Except Plas ran a 3:58.34 mile. 2 time Olympian at 10k ('88 and '92). 13:19 / 27:45 / 2:12:51. National Masters Record in the 5000m of 14:02.

Dick Beardlsey -- 13 consecutive personal bests in the marathon - peaking with 2:11:48 , 2:09:37, 2:08:53.

Buddy Edelen -- although he was born in KY and graduated from a SD high school, I believe he lived in Minneapolis most of his life. First American to run below 2:20 (2:18:57) for 4th at Fukuoka in 1962. First human to run under 2:15 (2:14:28) for the WR in 1963. After his WR in 1963, Edelen also won the Košice Peace Marathon in Slovakia in a CR of 2:15:09; that record would stand for fifteen years. In 1964, Edelen won the U.S. Olympic Trials marathon by nearly twenty minutes, and went on to finish 6th in the marathon at the Tokyo Olympic games. He had solid track times of 13:54, 29:53, and ran several 10M track races in the high-48s and 49s.

I know several great women, but not well enough to say who is "best".

"Buddy Edelen -- although he was born in KY and graduated from a SD high school,"

-so by your Mead criteria, he's not a true Minnesotan. Quit flip-flopping, dude.

Steve Benson

Fascinating stats.

Some questions

1. Did G.B. and other elites train through Minnesotan winters ?

2. How bad are the Minn. winters for training (dry cold)?

3.In summer, Minnesota has, I imagine, lots,of trails in the woods. Are mosquitos a problem in summer ?

4. What did G.B. do after his running career finished ?

Thank you.

Ghost in China

Bob Kempanien. Dartmouth, two time Olympic Marathoner, I think during med school.

Carrie Tollefson

I’m a high schooler from Minnesota and I don’t know about 1 and 4 but this year we had a lot of snow so sometimes I was forced to move my tempo run around so I wasn’t running in a foot deep of snow, but it’s pretty to run in the winter I think

#2 it’s has a lot of trails I like to run on the river road which is a trail alongside the mission tiver but there are a ton of others and I’ve been on a decent amount, don’t know because I started running in August with no previous experience but I wouldn’t think it’s too bad

The Coen brothers

Gary Bjorklund

Ghost,

1. Bundle up and get out there. The extra clothing makes you stronger. No secret here. Decent indoor running options for those with access to indoor tracks, and the Vikings stadium is open to public for running. Treadmill obviously an option, but most people just go outside.

2. Terribly cold! Winter is not as snowy as many people imagine, just cold, dark, and long. Snow removal is on point so you can easily run as soon as a snowstorm is over, at least in Mpls/St Paul.

3. Mosquitoes aren't bad when you're running because they can't fly with you. But black flies will eat you alive in certain places. In the Twin Cities there's decent flying insect mitigation so it's usually not bad but outside the Cities all bets are off.

4. I don't know.

Lots of great suggestions already. Plasencia, Bjorklund, Beardsley, Blankenship all in the mix. G. Heath is close for times, range and longeivity. Mead and Kempainen probably on the fringe as well.

I include Mead as a MN native because although his HS time in MN was fairly short, he also lived in MN when he initially arrived in the USA as a ~10 year old and also did 4-5 years at U of M so we're looking at >8 years total which I think is more than he lived anywhere to that point besides maybe Somalia.

Carrie Tollefson and Kara Goucher top the women's list, probably by a wide margin. Kara's WC medal takes it.

Ghost1 wrote:

Fascinating stats.

Some questions

1. Did G.B. and other elites train through Minnesotan winters ?

2. How bad are the Minn. winters for training (dry cold)?

3.In summer, Minnesota has, I imagine, lots,of trails in the woods. Are mosquitos a problem in summer ?

4. What did G.B. do after his running career finished ?

Thank you.

Ghost in China

1) yes, you train through the winter. There's a balance between conquering the mental side of it, i.e. crushed that tempo in the frigid cold and wind, but you have to learn to be flexible with training. If it dumps snow and roads aren't cleared, you're getting your workout in that day.

2) Dry air is fine, just layer up. The wind chill can be quite not fun at times. You modify your routes if needed.

3) trails are great. mosquitos definitely get you running in the evening or in a wooded area. Often when running though it's fine. Stop for a pee break or stretch though and you get eaten alive.

4) not a clue.

No one has mentioned Reed Fischer yet. Obviously not a GOAT status, but on the elite scene on the roads and one of the current best half marathoners the US has to offer.

Jaret Carpenter currently at Purdue is another to look out for in the future.

All of the above

Isn't Steve Holman from Minnesota? He should be high on the list

MN had a distance runner on these U.S. Olympic teams: 1964 (Buddy Edelen) 1968 (Van Nelson, Ron Daws), 1976 (Garry Bjorklund), 1988 (Steve Plasencia), 1992 (Steve Plasencia, Janis Klecker, Bob Kempainen), 1996 (Bob Kempainen), 2004 (Carrie Tollefson), 2008 (Kara Goucher), 2012 (Kara Goucher)

In terms of HS runners, most all runners from section 6aa would be on the list I'd say. Lots of other runners in the state aside from 6aa that are worth mentioning as well though. Its always been a very competitive field in distance