Who are some names of least known great distance runners?

Ralph King..just another 13:20 5K guy from the late 70's that no one remembers.

Mark Curp...top notch road racer. I believe had the WR for the 1/2 Marathon..late 70's.

John Sinclair..unbeatable on the roads for a while.

Duncan McDonald..13:20 5k Olympian

many more

McDonald and Curp have already been mentioned. Sinclair is a good name to come up with. But it is "Jon Sinclair." Ralph King is a guy I remember as being a top high school two miler. I didn't realize that he ran the 5k in 13:20.

I don't think Doug Kurtis has been mentioned. 76 sub 2:20

marathons and 40 victories.

Yeah, Doug has already been mentioned along with his chief rival in racking up the most sub 2:20s, Eric-Kjel Stahl.

You're right. Unlike Orville, I'm getting old.

You beat me to a punch with Tagg. I hadn't thought if Plain. Chris Stewart is actually a good friend of mine and has had a very interesting and unusual life in his post competitive years.

How about Chuck Smead? He was a top guy from high school to his early master's years and then seems to have vanished. Jim Pearson and MAx White on the ultra end?

Tom Von Ruden

Tracy Smith

Ron Larrieu

Howell Michael

Reggie Mcafee

Paul Geis

Jerome Liebenerg

Juris Luzins

Phillip Ndoo

John Lawson

Kent MacDonald

Steve Savage

Howell Michael's a great name from the past. He was in a lot of big mile races in the early 1970s, but he never quite broke four minutes. I think he ran for William & Mary. He had a chance to qualify for the 1972 Olympic team in the 1,500 meters, but he was hit by a bicycle a couple of days before the final.

Do you remember Brian McElroy? He was another miler from that era who couldn't quite break four minutes. He ran for Villanova and then transferred to Kansas.

Philip Ndoo died last year. Paul Geis was the last American runner for the University of Oregon to make it to an Olympic final.

So you're friends with Chris Stewart? What did he do after his career was over? I remember his efficient running forum, although he did have a bit of a bounce in his stride. I wonder if he could have gone faster had he reduced the vertical motion?

I thought Chuck Smead was going to be the next marathon superstar. He was consistently running in the low 2:20s in high school. I don't know what his best time was in his twenties, but he never made the big time. Maybe his is a cautionary tale about the risk of running lots of marathons early in life.

Anyone remember Tommy Fulton of Texas Southern? He had an amazing ability to recover from races. He would run three events at one meet. The 880, the mile, and the three mile. He was ranked in the top 10 in the US for the 880 and the mile in 73-74.

And unlike Howell Michael and Brian McElroy, Fulton did run sub-four for the mile.

Here I am using my cultural advantage... There was a guy by the name of Kohei Murakoso who finished 4th in both 5k and 10k at Berlin Olympics, leading the mighty Finns most of the way in both races. To this date, the best showing in track distance events by Japanese. There was another guy, Kanematsu Yamada, who finshed 4th in the marathon in Amsterdam Olympics. He was leading most of the way as well until his knees gave in (running on cubble stone road in nothing more than glorfied socks). He was a heavy smoker by the way. Amsterdam Olympics marked the first Olympic gold medal by a Japanese athlete, Mikio Oda in triple jump. Upon hearing the news, Yamada, smoking a cigarett, simply said; "Okay, now it's my turn..." 4th place was the best showing in the Olympic marathon by Japanese up to that point and, while all the other athletes and officials were overjoyed, he was back in his room, crying for shame. I believe he died, when he was something like 50, from lung cancer.

Talking of Brits this is going well back but is worth reading. Alf Shrubb (1878-1964) during a 1 hour race on 5/11/04 set 7 world records, each mile from 6 to 10, 10,000m and 1 hour. His 1 hour total of 18,742 was a world record for 9 years, but was not beaten by a Brit for 48! yes 48 years and 296 days. His 10 mile British record lasted a mere 24 years and he held the 2 mile record for only 22 years. 4 times English national X-Country champion he twice won the international race. He failed to win gold at 1904 Olympics in St Louis as the Brits didn't send a team. He turned professional in 1906 after allegedly receiving expenses payments and raced in the US against other stars like Dorando Pietri and John Hayes.

Howell Michael did run for W&M. He did break 4 - 3:59 in 1970. Don't know if that was his only sub-4.

Has anyone mentioned Ron Tabb? Herb Lindsay?

satch picks - HARI LARVA- OG 1500 champ- crawled to FINNISH line- HA HA

I cannot believe that no one has yet mentioned Chuck LaBenz or Ken Popejoy or Jim Spivey. They were top American milers in their heyday.

Second half of the alphabet:

Joe Nzau

Yobes Ondieki

Lisa Ondieki

Kirk Pfeffer

Jim Peters

Pete Pfitzinger

Antonio Pinto

Orlando Pizzolato

Priscilla Welch

Martin Mondragon (first halfer...)

malmo (first halfer...)

Wilson Waigwa

Eamonn O'Reilly

Basil Heatly (first halfer...)

Warren Utes

Allison Roe

Carla Buerskens (first halfer...)

German Silva

Geoff Smith

Jenny Spangler

Naoko Takahashi

Ian Thompson

Gert Thys

Ann Trason

Derek Turnbull

Christa Vahlensieck

Eric Wainaina

Jeff Wells

Valentina Yegorova

Again, I apologize if I've duplicated names. There's been a most impressive roll call so far!

No one has mentioned Steve Moneghetti. Monaghetti ran the Berlin marathon in 2:08:16 and finished fourth in the 1989 World Cross Country Championship.

Douglas Wahkiihuri (spelling?) beat Moneghetti and Salah at London in, I believe, 1989. First Kenyan to win Olympic marathon medal. Also won NY (1991?) and Commonwealth Games marathon and Rome World Championships marathon beating, again, Moneghetti and Bordin in 1987. Now he's a TV character in Japan... It was funny to see this Kenyan guy speaking perfect Japanese at Rome WC after-the-race interview.