When Men Were Men And Women Were OK With It

 Came across this post from Jim Ryun's son on the internet thingie.  It points out a more innocent time in the track and field world.  Kinda miss that...

(My) Dad (Jim Ryun) always seems to dig up fun stories at camp. This morning he was sharing with the campers about how, after the 1972 Olympic Trials, he showed up for a workout at the University of Kansas track.

Coach Timmons met him there.

"Jim, we're going to work on a little speed today. 2x800m. Here's what I want. Nothing faster than 1:50 on the first one. Take a couple of laps, then run the second one faster. And I'm leaving, so let me know how it goes."

Dad, entirely solo, ran 1:50 on the nose. Took two laps, ran the second one in 1:49. A couple weeks later, he ran a 3:52 mile and won by 14 seconds.

Here's a video of a motivational speech by Jim Ryun at my daughter's National XC (USCAA) meet. Daughter the Elder was lucky enough to be presented with her Academic All-American certificate by Jim himself.