1979 AAU 10k

[dadme]

does anyone have craig virgins' full auto time
for the AAU 10k 10th June 1979 at Walnut.
I can only find references to 27:39.4a .

[The King]

Re: 1979 AAU 10k

>does anyone have craig virgins' full auto time
for the AAU 10k 10th June 1979
>at Walnut.
I can only find references to 27:39.4a .

GBR Athletics.com also gives a time of 27m:39.4a..so I don't know what to think.

[dj]

Re: 1979 AAU 10k

I'll check at home over the weekend, but I believe this was a hand time, not auto.

[gh]

Re: 1979 AAU 10k

That was in an era when races at 800m or longer were reported in 10ths whether auto-timed or not. The race was almost certainly auto-timed, but 100th-second timing was never reported that I know of. If the officials were doing their job right, official results would have read in 10ths with no hint as to 100ths.

Unless somebody in the SoCal Assocation has a pile of old Accutrack polaroids somewhere, I suspect the time is lost to history.

(ps--it's a crying shame that we ever adopted 100ths for logner races... just another way to make the sport look more complicated than it really is)

[Conor Dary]

Re: 1979 AAU 10k

With all due respect to our fearless leader, GH, timing to 100th of a second in a 10,000 is meaningless accuracy, given the construction of a track. This is measuring to 1 part in 100,000 or equivalent difference of .7mm in a 10,000. It would be like measuring the distance from my house to Palo Alto in feet.

Re: 1979 AAU 10k

Conor Dary: You are actually in agreement with GH--look at his last sentence again....

[Conor Dary]

Re: 1979 AAU 10k

LC

I think you are right. I forgot what a joker GH is.

Re: 1979 AAU 10k

Right, you're arguing the same thing. But, Conor, I think your math is wonky. 1/100th of a second can't be the miniscule amount you claim. In a fast 100 meters, 1/100th second equals about 4 inches of distance. In a decent 10,000, I'd have to guess that 1/100th second equals at least 2-1/2 inches or so...that is, a distance that is both "visible" and (on occasion) meaningful.

[Conor Dary]

Re: 1979 AAU 10k

Well, kuha1, that 2.5 inches over 10,000 meters may be meaningful in the same race, however, when you compare times over different tracks an accuracy of 1 in 100,000 is pointless, unless they are making tracks using micrometers.

By the way I first wrote about this 20 years ago in the Letters to the Editor in TandF news.

Pies are square, anyone?

Re: 1979 AAU 10k

Does anyone have the full results of that race?

[gh]

Re: 1979 AAU 10k

What's your question?

Actually, in looking at the results (30 started, 20 finished) there's some good trivia in there. Among the finishers we have (and you need to figure out who they were)

1. a world XC champ
3. a guy who collected pee for a living
4. a guy who once held national age-16 record in 10K
6. a guy whose wife won a spectacular OT victory
8. a guy who started as a wrestler
9. a marathon Olympian
11. a guy who directs a major marathon
17. a guy who held national HS mile record
19. a guy who made a movie and once held national age-14 record in the 10K
dnfs--
i--a dead guy
ii--a guy with an equally-talented brother
iii--a guy who ripped Pre a new one in a T&FN interview
iv--a prominent Div. I cross country coach
v--a guy from Malmo's alma mater

who are they?

(ps--all the trivia off the top of my head, except for confirming what specific age-records were held, so almost 25 years later I make no claims to 100% accuracy in my clues)

Re: 1979 AAU 10k

1. a world XC champ (Virgin)
(2.Rojas)
3. a guy who collected pee for a living
4. a guy who once held national age-16 record in 10K
6. a guy whose wife won a spectacular OT victory (Wysocki)
8. a guy who started as a wrestler (Stemmer)
9. a marathon Olympian (shorter)
11. a guy who directs a major marathon(Pinkowski)
17. a guy who held national HS mile record (Hunt)
19. a guy who made a movie and once held national age-14 record in the 10K
dnfs--
i--a dead guy (Hulst)
ii--a guy with an equally-talented brother (Asuma)
iii--a guy who ripped Pre a new one in a T&FN interview
iv--a prominent Div. I cross country coach
v--a guy from Malmo's alma mater(Stemmer)

Damn this is a tough one!. Just post the results. Did Virgin lap everyone except one or not?

[gh]

Re: 1979 AAU 10k

>> Did Virgin lap everyone except one or not?>>


Yeah, but it was incredible: he ran 27:39.4, Rojas ran 28:24.2 in 2nd. After Virgin passed him, Rojas ran his last lap in about 44-flat to pull as close as he did at the end. :-)

[gh]

Re: 1979 AAU 10k

OK, here's the IDs on the trivia people, which only Malmo attempted to answer:

1. a world XC champ (Virgin)
3. a guy who collected pee for a living (Shorter)
4. a guy who once held national age-16 record in 10K (Perkins)
6. a guy whose wife won a spectacular OT victory (Wysocki)
8. a guy who started as a wrestler (Alitz)
9. a marathon Olympian (Tuttle)
11. a guy who directs a major marathon (Pinkowski)
17. a guy who held national HS mile record (Hunt)
19. a guy who made a movie and once held national age-14 record in the 10K (Kissin)
dnfs--
i--a dead guy (Brown)
ii--a guy with an equally-talented brother (Donakowski)
iii--a guy who ripped Pre a new one in a T&FN interview (Geis)
iv--a prominent Div. I cross country coach (Stintzi)
v--a guy from Malmo's alma mater (Ziegler)

[Conor Dary]

Re: 1979 AAU 10k

Gh, was Billy McChesney in that race? If he was he would have qualified for a couple of these categories.