Gerry Lindgren

[FireweedFarm]

Yea, after high school all he amounted to in college was, well, 3 of 4 national cross country titles, the 3 mile collegiate record, the 6 mile collegiate record, the 3,000 collegiate record, the 5,000 collegiate record, the 10,000 collegiate record, and (how many?) Track and field championships. He really peaked in high school, except he broke the world record for 6 miles and stuff like that later on.

[FireweedFarm]

High School: don't try to imitate Gerry if you're bigger than 5'6" & 118 lbs.

[FireweedFarm]

There's some great controversy about him here. Excellent. Regarding that read about Ron Clark's interview of him, (S.I. circa 1960s) for a book. And who was Ron Clark?

[rickandvirginia]

My uncle Dan Clark ran against him in the 60's. Amazing endurance.

[dorothyfoust]

What is being said is true those who grew up around the time Gerry did in Spokane knew it was true. He had a bad childhood and running was a way to run away from home.

[mapscannotcontainme]

Gerry was an incredible runner to be sure, but you have to take everything he says with a grain of salt. He claims he was running 80 miles at a stretch on training runs which is ridiculous and even more outlandish he claims that he was twice on pace to run sub two hours in a marathon...something that mysteriously nobody else can confirm. He was a running phenom but he's a liar and a coward for deserting his family which sucks because most elite runners i.e. Mills, Shorter are great ambassadors.

[xxxDAPROBLEMxxx]

The 8:40 HS 2 mile was indoors.... The 13:44 5k in HS is unreal, only a couple guys in the nation go sub 14:30 these days.... By the time he got to college his coaches wouldn't let him use his methods anymore, he basically peaked in HS.

[taekwondoyoyolego]

Don't forget about Bill Rodgers

[knightsxc06]

80 miles in a single training run??? The rest i can believe, but i call bullshit on that one.

[rmrooster01]

Think about it. Way back in 1964, In the USA, they didnt know training secrets they know now. So Gerry just ran his brains out! Running in the middle of the night? Insomnia! Gerry Lindgren, Jim Ryun, Prefontaine, and dont forget Billy Mills. Those are the guys us Yanks look up to for distance running. And Frank Shorter for Marathons. When are we gonna have a marathoner that can beat the Kenyans?

[StaleBread12]

He was Good but I think pre is better

[galindaf]

Definitely ahead of his time, and a great runner. I think one could argue that German Fernandez was a better high school runner, at least based on times, but Gerry was an exciting runner, and beat the Russians while in high school at the peak of the Cold War. That meant a lot. Fernandez has yet to accomplish such a thing, or set a world record, or be an Olympian - all things that Lindgren did. Thanks for the vid.

[Hallonsylt]

I don't think German's times were better in comparison to the conditions, or even as good. The shoes and the tracks are faster now.

[Rogerslevel8Gymnast]

the only reason i know who he is because he graduated from my high school in like 64.

Rogers high school.

[brianpcurran]

he was a great runner but horrible husband and parent. he left his wife and kids and disappeared for years until he was found in hawaii.

[cicirunner]

I've never heard of this runner, but he was a freak! Running 300 mile weeks in high school? Waking up in the middle of the night to run 10 miles? It sounds like he devoted all of his time to running. On a 300 mile week assuming he could run a 7 minute pace for the entire thing, that would compute to 35 hours of running in that week. That's almost like a full time job!!!

[ianedwards19]

yea i found all this info about him on letsrun . com

[oldrunner1]

It was his job! He did a lot of his running like that during his high school years. Maybe high school kids nowadays are just slackers.

[cicirunner]

How can running during high school be your job? He was just a dedicated freak!