Monday, March 5, 2007

Tough Dudes

I wanted to write and give congrats to some tough dudes on their runs this weekend.

First great job to Greg Crowther on his 50K National title and taking the $500 bucks for winning and the course record bonus.

Great job to Dick Beardsley who after 12 (or so) serious spinal surgeries, knee surgeries, car accidents, and farm machinery mishaps ran a solid 2:45 at the napa valley marathon at the age of 50.

Good work to Patrick Russell on this weekends 37 miler at 6:26 pace. Man, April's 100K National Championships is going to be a super heavyweight fight with Greg, Patrick, and Scott Jurek all set to battle.

7 comments:

Steve Pero said...

Hi Greg....

It's nice to see Beardsley battle back to fine running form after battling with his drug issues. If you haven't read the book "Duel in the Sun" you should. I like Dickie a lot more than Salazar after reading that book....

Congrats to Greg, also!

Steve

Anonymous said...

I, too, was really psyched to read about Dick Beardsley's race. We met him many years ago in MN - he used to speak before Twin Cities and Grandma's marathons almost every year. Super-inspiring, really articulate, and just a very nice, down-to-earth guy. He's had quite a few things to deal with over the years, that's for sure...

Thanks for the blog, Greg!

I am a runner. "We are what we repeatedly do" said...

Dick Beardsley is an amazing guy. I have never met him, but I was standing on the corner watching him and Salazar sprint it out in Boston when I was just a little kid. I just finished his autobiography (unfortunately titled- Staying the course...bringing up Bush-isms) but it is a fantastic read. The fact that he is still racing fast despite all his has gone through is amazing.

Anonymous said...

Cool that you saw him run! That's SO fabulous! (I went to a Duke Ellington concert and lived 3 blocks from Hank Aaron as a kid, but didn't see any famous runners.) That's so cool that you have that memory forever!!

Wendell and I met him in the early 90s when we were still doing road marathons and just getting into ultras.

It IS amazing that he's still able to run that fast - really!

I'll have to pick up his book - and maybe I'll just tape something over the title on the cover.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the note about the autobiography - I just bought it on eBay.

Steve Pero said...

Hi Greg...

I didn't see him and Salazar race that day because i was in the race! I'll have to get his autobiography....like i said, Duel in the Sun is also an awesome read.

Steve

Anonymous said...

Thanks for this, Greg!