5000m

Jon Sinclair

/ runningincolorado
photo: anaerobic.net

photo: anaerobic.net

Jon Sinclair’s career has been marked by consistency and longevity as a road racer with more wins and placings than any other male runner in modern road racing history. While at Colorado State University, Jon Sinclair set several long distance records, competed on two NCAA Cross Country teams along with the NCAA indoor nationals, and in 1979 he won two All-American awards. From 1981 to 1993, Jon Sinclair won 25 long distance road races. In 1984 he was the USA National 10,000 meter track champion and a finalist for the 5,000 meters in the 1984 Olympics along with being a finalist in the marathon in the 1988 and 1992 Olympics. He is the current U.S. record holder for the 12km on the roads and former U.S. record holder for the 5km on the roads. Among numerous international team-racing achievements, Jon Sinclair is the all time cumulative men’s point leader in the Runner’s World Road Race Rankings. In 1995, he co-founded Anaerobic Management, an internet based coaching business.

photo: anaerobic.net

photo: anaerobic.net

Frank Shorter

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photo: wikipedia

photo: wikipedia

Frank Shorter is an American former long-distance runner and is credited with igniting the running boom in the United States of the 1970s. Frank Shorter is the only American athlete to win two medals in the Olympic marathon event. He won the gold medal in the marathon at the 1972 Summer Olympics, after finishing fifth in the Olympic 10,000m final. He also won the silver medal in the marathon at the 1976 Summer Olympics.

Shorter first achieved distinction by winning the 1969 NCAA 10,000m title during his senior year at Yale. He won his first U.S. national titles in 1970 in the 5000m and 10,000m events. He also was the U.S. national 10,000m champion in 1971, 1974, 1975 and 1977. Shorter won the U.S. National Cross Country Championships four times (1970, 1971, 1972, 1973). He was the U.S. Olympic Trials Champion in both the 10,000m run and the marathon in both 1972 and 1976. He also won both the 10,000m and the marathon at the 1971 Pan American Games. Shorter was a four-time winner of the Fukuoka Marathon (1971, 1972, 1973, 1974). A long-time resident of Boulder, Colorado, Frank co-founded the Bolder Boulder in 1979.

photo: dailycamera.com

photo: dailycamera.com

Ted Castaneda

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Photo: pikespeaksports.us

Photo: pikespeaksports.us

Ted Castaneda’s career as a distance runner started during his prep years at Colorado Springs’ Palmer High School. From there he went on to the University of Colorado in Boulder, where he earned All-America honors four times in track and once in cross-country. His best times include a 3:58.5 mile, an 8:29 two-mile, a 28:30 in the 10k, and a 2-hour, 15-minute marathon. He also competed in two U.S. Olympic Trials (5,000m and 10,000m in 1976, marathon in 1980). Castaneda has served as head coach of the men’s cross country team at Colorado College since 1980, when he also started as a volunteer assistant with the track and field program. He took over as head coach for women’s cross-country in 1993 and for track and field in 1994. During his coaching tenure, 22 cross-country and track athletes have earned All-America honors.

10,000m race at the 1976 Olympic trials (#39). Photo: juanjosemartinez.com

10,000m race at the 1976 Olympic trials (#39). Photo: juanjosemartinez.com

Arturo Barrios

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photo: jkrunning.de

photo: jkrunning.de

Arturo Barrios rose to fame in the early ’80s setting his first world record in 1986 in the 10,000m road race. 1987 saw Barrios set the world record for the four-mile road race. Between 1987 and 1990, Arturo won the San Francisco Bay to Breakers race, considered the largest footrace in the world, four consecutive times. Arturo competed in the 1988 Olympic games, placing fifth in the 10,000m. In 1989 he broke the world record for the 10,000m track race by over five seconds with a time of 27:08:32. Arturo continued his remarkable running in 1991 when he set a new world record in the 20,000m on a track at 56:55:06. During that race, Barrios also became the first man to run a half marathon in less than an hour. The following year, Barrios returned to the Olympics in Barcelona to compete in the 10,000m and placed fifth. The Mexican National record holder in the 5,000m and 10,000m, Barrios is still active in the running community.

photo: Getty

photo: Getty

PattiSue Plumer

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photo: gostanford.com

PattiSue Plumer is a retired American long-distance runner who ran twice in the Olympics. She ran first in 1988 in Seoul, South Korea where she finished 13th in the 3,000m. In 1992 in Barcelona, Spain she ran in the 1,500m, finishing 10th, and the 3,000m, finishing 5th. On July 3, 1989 she set the American record in the 5,000m at 14:59.99, and was the first woman to beat one of Mary Decker’s sweep of all distance running American records during the 1980s. She won the 1990 Fifth Avenue Mile, setting a course record which remains unbeaten. Patti Sue attended Stanford University, where she won the 1984 NCAA Women’s Outdoor Track and Field Championship at 5000m and the NCAA Women’s Indoor Track and Field Championships at two-m,iles in 1983. She won multiple national titles at 3,000m and 5,000m and was a three-time runner-up in the 1,500 meters. She received her Juris Doctor (J.D.) from Stanford Law School and worked as a lawyer for several years. She now coaches cross-country and track at Stanford University in Northern California.

Leading in the 1988 Olympics

Leading in the 1988 Olympics

Herb Lindsay

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photo: Flint Journal

photo: Flint Journal

Herb Lindsay is an American long distance runner. After graduating from Michigan State in 1977, Lindsay taught elementary school physical education in Okemos, Michigan. He kept running, hoping to make the 1980 Olympics, but it seemed unlikely. Eventually, against the advice of family and friends, he moved to Boulder, took a part-time job and began to concentrate on his training. He finished ninth in the Olympic Trials 10000m and did not make the team. In the 1979 Pan American Games, Herb won a silver medal in the 5,000m. In 1980, he won the Cascade Runoff 15K, setting the American record. Herb was also one of the founding members of the Association of Road Racing Athletes‎ and was inducted into the RRCA Hall of Fame in 2002.

 

herb_lindsay_rr

Adam Goucher

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photo: usatf.org

photo: usatf.org

Adam Goucher is an American Olympic track and field athlete. While attending the University of Colorado, Adam won two NCAA indoor track titles in the 3,000m and an outdoor NCAA track title in the 5,000m. After three top ten finishes, he finally won the NCAA Division I cross-country title. In 2000, he made his first Olympic team, placing first in the Olympic trials in the 5000m. He was 13th in the 5000m at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, despite serious battles with back troubles. In 2008, he attended the US Olympic Trials in hopes of qualifying in the 5k and 10k. His time of 13:56.25 in the semifinal of the 5k was enough to advance to the finals, but after holding the lead for several laps, he dropped out of the race with two laps remaining. He finished seventh in the 10k final, failing to qualify for the Olympics, but besting his previous 10k personal record. He currently resides in Portland, Oregon, with his wife, Kara Goucher, also a professional runner, and their son, Colton Mirko.

photo: trackfocus.com

photo: trackfocus.com

Elva Dryer

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photo: usatf.org

photo: usatf.org

Elva Dryer (neè Martinez) is a three-time qualifying track and field Olympian: placing 3rd in the 5,000m at the 2000 Olympic trials; second in the 10,000m at the 2004 Olympic trials, finishing 19th in the event; and 15th in the 10,000m at the 2008 Olympic trials. During her college career at Western State, Elva won two NCAA D-II cross country titles, and was national champ in the 3,000m four times, the only person to achieve that feat. Dryer was the top American finisher at the 2007 ING New York City Marathon, placing 6th (2:35:15). She married Russ Dryer, a former All-American cross-country runner and fellow Western State alum, and he has coached her ever since. Elva’s hobbies include crocheting and reading.

Photo: Victah Sailer@Photo Run

Photo: Victah Sailer@Photo Run

Shayne Culpepper

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photo: usatf.org

photo: usatf.org

Shayne Culpepper (neè Willie) is a middle distance track and field athlete who has won multiple national titles and qualified twice for the Olympics: in 2000 in the 1,500m and in 2004 in the 5,000m. After winning the 2004 5,000m Olympic trials, she competed again at the 2004 Summer Olympics and placed 13th in the 5k at the first round, not allowing her to go on to the finals. Now retired, Shayne and her husband Alan Culpepper, fellow Olympian and CU alum, spend their time enjoying life with their four children and leading an after-school running program at Boulder’s Douglass Elementary School.

photo: coloradanmagazine.org

photo: coloradanmagazine.org