I'm hoping to interview him this week.
Obviously, I'm going to ask him what accomplishment in his career does he view as the best, but what else should I ask?
Let's hear it.
I'm hoping to interview him this week.
Obviously, I'm going to ask him what accomplishment in his career does he view as the best, but what else should I ask?
Let's hear it.
400m and mile PB
Is he a big fan of Sage?
Some details on his diet (rumor is he is vegetarian).
Training details, speed work, mileage, tempos, doubles etc. How did his mileage vary from when he was first running, transition to the marathon to ultras?
What was his strategy at the first Spartathlon, particularly the trail section? A seminal event for which there are no other accounts (?).
Did he scout the course? Did he struggle (because he certainly made it look easy)?
Had he previously trained on trails and, if so, which were his favorites?
Why did you cheat?
rojo wrote:
I'm hoping to interview him this week.
Obviously, I'm going to ask him what accomplishment in his career does he view as the best, but what else should I ask?
Let's hear it.
Some people I know in the ultra community respect him as a great athlete but also tell tales of him being a terrible person.
I’m sure he doesn’t care what others think but curious if you will get a sense of that during your interview
Tron wrote:
Some people I know in the ultra community respect him as a great athlete but also tell tales of him being a terrible person.
I’m sure he doesn’t care what others think but curious if you will get a sense of that during your interview
Let's hear the tales.
Why do you think he is a terrible person
YMMV wrote:
Some details on his diet (rumor is he is vegetarian).
He was vegetarian during the main years of his ultrarunning but I heard that he changed that in the last decade.
Forrest Gump here wrote:
Tron wrote:
Some people I know in the ultra community respect him as a great athlete but also tell tales of him being a terrible person.
I’m sure he doesn’t care what others think but curious if you will get a sense of that during your interview
Let's hear the tales.
Why do you think he is a terrible person
Im not an ultra runner, don’t know him or know the tales. I know one said at ATY a few years ago they lost their respect for him but I know no details
This is awesome Rojo!
Off the top of my head...
How many hours of sleep do you normally get at night?
Which fragrances would you use to help fight sleepiness in long ultras? (he might not want to give away these secrets)
What kind of interval training`do you like to do, if any?
Do you have any recommendations for strength training for runners who are getting into ultramarathons?
At what age did you run your first ultramarathon distance?
What do you think of the recent boom in popularity of ultra running?
Did you ever train on trails?
What music did you like to listen to while running?
Tron wrote:
rojo wrote:
I'm hoping to interview him this week.
Obviously, I'm going to ask him what accomplishment in his career does he view as the best, but what else should I ask?
Let's hear it.
Some people I know in the ultra community respect him as a great athlete but also tell tales of him being a terrible person.
I’m sure he doesn’t care what others think but curious if you will get a sense of that during your interview
Tales like this:
"First of all we would like to thank Laura and Garry Jeanson for their warm hospitality prion to the race and Michael and Kimberley Miller (who also took part in the 72h race) for their warm hospitality after the race! We owe them great gratitude.
On the last couple of weeks of his preparation Yiannis Kouros got a flu during a training in Athens Olympic Complex due to a very cold wind of that day. As the days were passing his health situation became worse and effected a lot his final condition. At the arrival in Phoenix on Dec. 24, one of his baggage with the most important and necessary running gear (racing shoes, basic clothes of every kind and other equipment) did not arrive, resulting to many troubles, wasting time to look for the bag and putting the crew and him in a feeling of frustration. Having only a few days to acclimatize to the extremities of this period weather, plus having the flu going on it was hard to face all these problems without loses.
Seen the track, the night before the race Yiannis was very disappointed as he realized it was bumpy, with lots of small rocks, dust and humidity all around the course -especially near the resting tents where was full of grass. That meant there is no any opportunity to achieve any high performance as he was planning to try to achieve. It is clear that if Yiannis knew the course in details he will never come to waste his effort for non opportunity of hi performance.
The organization was very good and the settings of the kitchen, the electronic control tents arrangement and WC were also well set.
Then, the period of the year with so much cold and humidity during the night and the heat from the other hand during the day time (that forced him to ask for ice to put on his head, in order to avoid sun-stroke) was not ideal, but not promising at all to survive from new flu and other illness created by such weather extremities.
The negative issues did not stop hear. As the race started with so much stress and many goods missing from our staff, one serious problem was created from a member of the crew, who did a mistake in the dosology of Yiannis's drinks that even from the first day -especially after 20hours a huge edema was created in all his body and especially on his bones, joins and arms that he couldn't move properly.
Later on more mistakes from another crew member who was unable to find the specific gear that Yiannis was asking, brought him so much frustration and made him so upset that he lost his voice and started to get Pharigitis. After that, there was not even a single moment without coughing for the entire event. All these problems effected his pace and created a general drop of his running tempo.
Many times he was in danger to fall down because of the continues coughing and from sleep deprivation. Actually, it happens twice that he fall down.
In the last night a new trouble came as his nose was bleeding without stop for the entire night.
Despite all these odds Yiannis was focused to complete the race with maximum possible mileage in under such bad conditions for him.
However, on top of that he had to face something that disappointed him a lot. He never expected that the American runner will show such an antisportive behavior with antiathletic spirit, so that he was feeling pleased to see Yiannis suffering. Yiannis told him straight and directly all that he psych-out from his reaction: He told him that it seems he didn't had a goal to achieve in miles/klms etc. His only goal was to take advantage of Yiannis' situation to be sick, his lack of sleep and his lack of his running gear-as his bag never came.
His reactions and with the tactic running on his back was based on whatever Yiannis was doing. For istance if Yiannis had decided to stop on 480 mile mark, he would stop just after that mark, and, if Yiannis had decided to stop on 500mile mark, he would stop on 500 plus a few miles more. It was obvious that he was happy to see Yiannis suffering and therefore he was gaining energy from that feeling with antisportive inspiration, considering Yiannis as his enemy and with only whom he had to fight-not for performance. Performance came automatically as Yiannis was pushing to stay up till the last moment, as he did."
I too would be a little upset if my competitor just wanted to win a tad more than me.
I've had that experience in a looped event and once I noticed they were targeting my win I kind of gave in made a joke about it and tried to have fun with it and carried on conversations about it with the other runner. Acknowledging what their tactic was, which essentially do the least amount of miles to beat me and using psychological stoppages when I stopped. I could see how Yannis travel, sickness and lack of english language could make it more frustrating and confusing for everyone involved.
Joe, the American that beat Yannis in AZ over 6 days gets choked up talking about Yannis competitiveness.
Obviously things didn't go well for Kouros in that particular race but he managed to get the 2rd best M55 result in (at that time, now 3rd)
I don't think it's fair to judge runners reactions when they are battling their demons during a race. And Joe Fejes a got 9 years young used a rare chance to get a race win in against Kouros. It's a race, we compete against each other. Kouros was not happy about it but I don't think that makes him a terrible person.
What the most ridiculous challenge you've *thought* about doing?
Diarrhea + pooping stories?
Ask him when did he realize that he did not have the talent for football (soccer) after being cut from school teams year after year , and even failing at soccer in less competitive adult leagues.
They talk about how one of the biggest differences between the ultramarathon and "normal" distance running is race day planning and logistics. What did his logistical planning consist of? How was it different from his competitors, did he have any idiosyncracies, personal innovations?