Beginners and Beyond

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Who have you met famous in the running world?? (Read 384 times)

tessasnewlife


    No but do know a famous swimmer- killed it at Masters this past year. He is actually my tri trainer.

    xor


      I was at the post race festivities for the RIP Lewis and Clark Marathon (now rnr St Louis, sort of. But they have nothing in common) in 2007.  Dick Beardsley had a booth.  Nobody was visiting.  I hung out.  We ate fruit.  We also watched the other guy who had a booth.  Dean.  He had a line going down the street... lots of people touching his pecs and calves and stuff. 

       

      Ew.

       

      Dick > Dean.

       


      sugnim

        I ran my 1st half marathon mountain race with Mica True's widow, and Mike Foote lives in my hometown & works at our LRS.  We also have a runner who fights bears with her bare fists & lives to tell the tale on national news in our town.

        Nevrgivup


          Hahaha. Some of these that have been mentioned, I'd never know they were famous unless you told me. Must be a lot of old school runners. I would love to meet Shalane and Kara. I'd also love to meet Meb. I saw a lot of elites passing through the medical tent while volunteering at Boston this year. 

           

          BTW- Dean does have an enormous head, and Lily I think its cool that you met the girls who created runningskirts. Its always nice to have someone to fall back on for fashion tips. Wink

          Running is my mental-Ctrl-Alt-Del. 

            I met Meb at a race - the Capital Challenge in DC.  My company had a team and we all had our picture taken with him.  I was too nervous to ask him for a solo pic...he is just so tiny and cute...I didn't want to geek out (this is not a "runners" race....and most people didn't have a clue who he was!!)  Anyway, he was the best cheerleader on the course.  He ran with former Senator Richard Lugar. from Indiana  They crossed the line around at the 45 minute mark. 

             

            happylily - I would be thrilled to meet Cindy and Christy.  They are amazing runners/businesswomen! 

            Slymoon Runs


            race obsessed

              Not a single person. Honestly, if I did meet someone I wouldn't have much to say. "Hi, how you doin' "

              CeeDotA


                I've met Lauren Fleshman, Nick Symmonds, and Meb Keflizighi at various events.

                Current PRs:

                5K: 27:06 (11/10/12) | 5M: 44:03 (6/1/13) | 10K: 1:00:48 (7/4/12)

                15K: 1:27:53 (3/17/13) | 10M: 1:30:25 (4/13/13) | HM: 1:59:55 (4/28/13)

                Next race: Ashland 4th of July 10K

                wcrunner2


                Are we there, yet?

                  Having been around the running world since 1960 I've had opportunies to meet a few running personalities. I think the first one I ever met whose name would still be recognizable the most is Hal Higdon whom I met at UCTC summer track meets. About the same time I also met Ira Murchison. In my second running life I've met a number of noted people including Frank Shorter, Bill Rodgers, Amy Burfoot, Jim Fixx, both Johnny Kelley the Elder and Johnny Kelley the Younger, Katherine Switzer, Nina Kuscik, Shalane Flanagan's parents before they were married, Eamon Coughlan, Jeff Galloway, Arthur Lydiard, and I'm sure a bunch of others whom I've forgotten. Back in the 60s and 70s it was much easier to rub shoulders with the elite than it is today. It wasn't unusual for some of the top runners in New England to show up at a local road race and be lined up right in front of me.

                   2024 Races:

                        03/09 - Livingston Oval Ultra 6-Hour, 22.88 miles

                        05/11 - D3 50K
                        05/25 - What the Duck 12-Hour

                        06/17 - 6 Days in the Dome 12-Hour.

                   

                   

                       

                    Go to any major marathon expo (especially the RnR ones) and you're bound to meet several famous runners.  More often than not, Bart Yasso, Higdon and John "the clown prince of mediocrity" Bingham will be hawking their books.  Meb will be running around, sporting his SONY headphones (one of his sponsors), The Hanson twins...er team (not the band Hanson), will be hawking the Hanson training seminars....although that would be epic if you went to a marathon, expecting to see a seminar on running, but instead the band Hanson, was singing that mmmBop song.  'Best quote I heard was when Khalid Khannouchi was giving a speech after he set the world record in Chicago (1999)... "America is the only place that I've ever been, where you are a celebrity for just running". 

                     

                    Khannouchi was actually one of the biggest snobs of them all.  Obviously he knew what he was at the expo to do (sign autographs, take pictures, etc.) but seemed like he was bothered by the whole thing.

                     

                    Best person... German Silva.  He was so incognito, that most people actually thought he was one of the workers at the New Balance table, rather than the person people wanted to talk to.  Despite the criticism he takes for 'Gallowalking', Galloway is a down to earth guy as well, and blends into a crowd well, meaning if you didn't know who you were looking to meet, you'd have to ask which person he was.

                    racecat


                    Goddess of the Cuisine

                      You should post that picture of you and Dean's enormous head.

                       

                      I met Shorter last year when he was a speaker at a race expo. I went to the marathon Olympic trials in Houston this year and met Meb Keflezighi and Abdi Abdirahman as we were staying in the same hotel. I met Wallace Spearmon in the USATF area. If you have the chance I highly recommend checking out the trials. Runners, runners, runners and a ton of people involved in the running world were there. It was pretty cool. Plus I PR'd at the Houston half-marathon that weekend which was nice.

                       

                      I took this picture in 3D.

                      In transit, arriving on time. 


                      Jess runs for bacon

                        Okay, I'm warning you, do not laugh at me...Big grin I met Cindy and Christy, the famous Canadian twin sisters who created runningskirts.com. Big grin Maybe not as inspiring as Sister Madonna Buder, but Cindy and Christy are mothers, successful business owners and they run sub-1:25 HMs. Cindy's goal for the full is a sub-3:05. Not bad for busy moms/business owners! Whenever I have a question for runningskirts, I always get one of them to assist me. They are great gals.

                         They were so cool! One of their hubs interviewed me after my first half (if you go on youtube and check their channel, look for the one "first time with skirt" or something like that. Very very cool gals. Fast as all hell too, watched them cream a ton of people together at RW. The aforementioned hubs finished the half in a skirt too.

                         

                        SRL, I would much rather spend time with Dick Beardsley than Dean Karnazes. That bums me out that no one was going to his booth.

                        scottydawg


                        Barking Mad To Run

                          KarenM and I met "The Penguin" John Bingham at Mile 24 of the Honolulu Marathon in 2000.  He was up there on the Diamond Head road cheering  in and encouraging on all the back of the pack people for their last 2 miles to go - like very slow me, lol.  Really nice guy.

                           

                          I met Amby Burfoot once at an expo.  Also a very nice guy.  And I met Bill Rodgers at another one.   Super nice guy, very approachable.

                           

                          At the Beach to Beacon 10K in Maine, I got to meet Joan Benoit Samuelson and she also let me and the folks I was with have a group photo with her.  Very gracious and talented lady, very outgoing.

                           

                          When I was in the military, I was stationed in Hawaii at the same time Dave Scott was over there, doing the Ironman Triathlons, and I got to meet him a few times.

                          "Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." Theodore Roosevelt

                             

                            I took this picture in 3D.

                             

                             

                            +1  

                             

                            lol.

                             

                             

                             

                            xor


                               

                              SRL, I would much rather spend time with Dick Beardsley than Dean Karnazes. That bums me out that no one was going to his booth.

                               

                              Not one single person.

                               


                              Jess runs for bacon

                                Not one single person.

                                 

                                Wow, that's shitty. If I ever see him I will make it a point to fawn all over him in an attempt to redeem some of humanity.

                                 

                                Or at least that would be my excuse to fan-girl out.

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