Boston Billy and Sammy Lelei could they have WR'ed in the marathon

hate to break it to you, and I think Rodgers is the man, but his PR was 2:09.27. Of course, considering that he was only a half-decent DIII two-miler in college -- and most of our current runners have tremendous college pedigree -- some people just have the gift.

"Some people are motivated to be millionaires, I was motivated to run." --Boston Billy

HP - you're very right about lelei being a funny character. that guy has totally checked out of the running scene. he is the uncle of a friend of mine running the US, and he asked for me to bring him "a big bottle of advil" when i went to kenya. i met him for lunch in eldoret one day to make the drop, and just listening to him was pretty funny. for one he asked me "is there any money for fat old guys like me to get in shape and run?" the guy looks more like the current tony gwynn than a champion marathoner, but he acted like getting in shape to run again would be easy enough. later we ran into sammy kipketer, and after i talked to kipketer for a few minutes lelei asked me "who was that?" after i told him he was like "oh, i've heard of him i think." he's very frank about the fact that he was running for the money - not for the love of the sport. as for what he's up to these days, he's used his money to build apartments north of eldoret and has a bunch of little kids who thought it was pretty funny to pull the hair on my arms. as for the record, i certainly think he could have gotten the record at the time - but probably not KK's mark.

Maybe Hodgie is the best one to comment on Billy, but I always thought he would have busted a low 2:08 if he ever focused on a flat race in his prime and focused less on running every weekend 10K offered to him. I imagine some people on here would call him the ultimate road whore, but man, what a career he had. Tom Fleming once called him a "genetic freak" based on the amount he ran, the length of his career, and his seemingly indestructable body.

Only kk can touch this, BR's 9 best: 2:09:28, 2:09:56, 2:10:10, 2:10:14, 2:10:35, 2:10:55, 2:11:26, 2:11:29, 2:11:42.

Been thinking about this one all morning. While 2:05 may have been a stretch for a young Bill Rodgers, the guy's competitive fire would have made a race between him and KK one hell of a match. If we could use a time machine and get the two of them together I wouldn't be surprised if Billy would win. Obviously it's all speculation, but what the hell...

Monty

Boston Billy did run that Marathon against a relay team in Japan and ran under 2:09. The course turned out to be a little short but his pace might have still had him under his recognized PB for the full distance.

I really doubt he would have been up to the sort of times Khannouchi has run. His regular speed workouts of repeat miles were rarely done at much faster than KK has run for 26 in a row.

I don't really care about what kind of times he could have ran. This tells me all I need to know:

Year W/US rank

75 1/1

76 6/3

77 1/1

78 2/1

79 1/1

80 x/5

81 7/3

82 x/5

83 x/x

84 x/9

85 x/x

86 x/6

3 #1s, a #2 and a #6 in 5 years ... much chance we'll see that good again out of an American-born guy ... not much

I'm still waiting for the great white hope.

In my opinion BR was the consummate pro athlete. I believe he was much more concerned with winning an Olympic medal or another Boston over obtaining a WR. Could he have run much faster? Yes. How fast?

I don't believe his race schedule hurt his big picture at all. He was very successful at incorporating those races into his overall running plan. I think he genuinely enjoyed barnstorming the country & bringing his athletic show to a town near you.

Bill was also versatile running well in XC and going to Europe on a couple of occasions to compete on the track.

Many, criticised Paul Cummings as well for his supposed over racing but I honestly believe he would never have compromised his hopes for an Olympic medal in the LA Olympic 10k, for a few $$$ at a road race.

He was alot like Bill in this aspect. They just enjoyed competing and coming home with a check.

From 77-79, Rodgers was just the best ... by far.

No he was the DaMan.

Don't forget that in 1975, before BR won his first boston he finished 6th in the world x-c championships outkicking John walker.

yo get on light beer now, he scored 3RD nOT 6th. he ran 3rd @ Wcc, then ran 2:09:56 in 75 in Boston. Ypur on light shit fdrom now on ok. ike