Coach Jack Heath
Jack Heath Distance Running Blog
Monday, October 6, 2025
Thursday, September 25, 2025
Coach Jack Daniels passes away at 92
The world lost three of its greatest distance running coaches this year in a short span.
3-time Olympian and University of Oregon Coach Bill Dellinger. Adams State Coach Joe Vigil, and Olympian and Cortland College Coach Jack Daniels.
Besides being great coaches, all three were great men.
Here is the New York Times' great profile of Coach Daniels by Jere Longman.
I have in-depth interviews with Coach Daniels and Vigil in my book "Positive Splits."
Positive Splits: Positive Running Stories: Heath, Jack: 9781548655341: Amazon.com: Books
Jack Daniels, Olympian and ‘World’s Best’ Running
Coach, Is Dead at 92
Tutoring Olympians, he created a simple workout formula that
was said to produce the best results with the least effort, earning accolades
across the running world.
The running coach Jack Daniels in 1996. “Before Jack,
nobody knew how fast or slow they should go in training,” one running authority
said. Credit...Robert Houser
Sept. 19, 2025
Jack Daniels, a two-time Olympic medalist in the modern
pentathlon and an exercise physiologist who was once described by Runner’s
World magazine as “the world’s best running coach,” died on Sept. 12 at his
home in Cortland, N.Y. He was 92.
His death was confirmed by his wife, Nancy Daniels.
Over seven decades, Daniels, armed with a Ph.D. in the
subject, researched the physiology of running and coached Olympians and elite
college athletes, as well as recreational runners. Perhaps his greatest
contribution was to simplify and make accessible to coaches and runners of all
levels — from the high school history teacher who doubles as a track coach to
the world-class marathoner — the complicated science of human performance.
A runner or coach does not have to wade into the weeds
trying to understand the nuances of Daniels’s measure of running fitness, which
is based on the amount of oxygen consumption and goes by the acronym VDOT.
The only thing required is the numerical time it took to
finish an all-out race — say, a 5K. That time can be plugged into an online
calculator or compared with charts that Daniels and Jimmy Gilbert, a
mathematician, devised in the 1970s. Daniels published it in 1998 as “Daniels’ Running Formula.”
The formula predicts an individual’s time in races of
various distances, such as a 10-kilometer, a half-marathon and a marathon. It
also establishes optimum paces for training runs of varying levels of
intensity.
Daniels proposed individualized workouts for a runner to
obtain the best possible results with the least amount of effort. A runner
should not run too far or too fast, he suggested, and should avoid so-called
junk, or unnecessary, miles.
“Before Jack, nobody knew how fast or slow they should go in
training,” Amby Burfoot, the winner of the 1968 Boston Marathon and a
former executive editor of Runner’s World, said in an interview. It was Burfoot
who gave Daniels the best-coach appellation in the 1990s.
Critics said Daniels’s formula did not account sufficiently
for individual variation. But others disagreed; Mike Smith, the former head
coach at Northern Arizona University, who now trains Olympic-caliber runners,
described it as “shockingly accurate.”
The criticism hasn’t diminished the formula’s popularity. This year, the
VDOT online
calculator averaged more than a million computations a month from
users in more than 100 countries, said Brian Rosetti, who helped create the
calculator and a coaching
app with Daniels.
Daniels in 1988 with members of the women’s cross-country
team at the State University of New York at Cortland. From 1989 to 1997, he
guided the team to seven national championships. Credit...SUNY/Cortlandt
A coach and scientist of boundless curiosity, Daniels was
responsible for other innovations as well. In the early 1980s, he helped figure
out which running shoes were the fastest by determining that adding 100 grams
(about three and a half ounces) to the weight of a pair of racing shoes
increased the aerobic demand of running by about 1 percent — the equivalent of
an extra minute in completing the 26.2 miles of a marathon.
And when Joan
Benoit Samuelson, the winner of the first women’s Olympic marathon at the
1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles, had arthroscopic knee surgery 17 days before
the U.S. Olympic trials — a setback that could have kept her from qualifying —
Daniels came up with a workaround. At a Nike lab in Eugene, Ore., he rigged a
bicycle so she could sit beneath it and pedal with her hands and arms, keeping
her heart rate and her confidence elevated until she got back on her feet to
win the trials and an eventual gold medal.
During the track competition at the Olympics that year,
Daniels and Nancy Scardina, a former elite runner whom he married in 1985,
counted the strides of 50 Olympians in events from 800 meters to the marathon.
They calculated that roughly 180 steps per minute — with each foot strike
landing toward the runner’s center of gravity, creating a flowing or rolling
motion over the body — was optimal, because it minimized the time the body
spent in the air and reduced the shock of the landing force.
“He was one to think out of the box at all times,” Benoit
Samuelson said in an interview. “He was really ahead of his time.”
Jack Tupper Daniels was born on April 26, 1933, in Detroit,
one of five sons of Robert Daniels, who installed telephone switchboards on
military bases, and Louise (Giblet) Daniels, who ran the household. The family
moved to the San Francisco Bay Area when Jack was six weeks old.
He attended the University of Montana, earning a bachelor’s degree in physical education and mathematics in 1955. In college, he was a standout member of the rifle and swim teams, experiences that served him well when he joined the Army following graduation and won a silver medal in the modern pentathlon team competition at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia. At the 1960 Olympics in Rome, he won a bronze medal in the team event.
Daniels competing at the 1960 Olympics in Rome, where he won a bronze medal.Credit...AP Photo
The pentathlon, meant to recreate a soldier’s challenges on
the battlefield, involves shooting, swimming, fencing, horseback riding and
running. But as Daniels wrote in his memoir, “Luck of the Draw” (2019), he received no expert
coaching in how to train for and run a race during his Olympic preparation. He
came to realize that it was counterproductive to run as fast as possible all
the time — that every workout must have a specific purpose, and that training
needed to be balanced with rest.
He went on to earn a master’s degree in physical education
and exercise physiology from the University of Oklahoma in 1965 and a Ph.D in
exercise physiology from the University of Wisconsin in 1969.
Preparing for the 1968 Olympics in high-altitude Mexico City, Daniels conducted tests on the effects of running in thin air while training in elevated areas like Alamosa, Colo. He would sit on the hood of a car as it drove around a track accompanying runners and use meteorological balloons to collect samples of air that they breathed into tubes. Credit...Bettmann/Getty Images
Ahead of the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, held at an altitude of 7,300
feet, he and his colleagues conducted tests on the effects of running in thin
air. During training in high-altitude areas like Alamosa, Colo., Daniels would
sit on the hood of a car as it drove slowly around a track alongside runners,
like the star miler Jim Ryun, and would use meteorological balloons to collect
samples of air that they breathed into tubes.
In the summer of 1988, he wrote in his memoir, he helped a
relay team of Cortland runners set a national record by running roughly 3,000
miles across the country in 13 days and 18 hours.
The 10 men and five women were divided into three groups,
each group racing in four-hour shifts, said one of the runners, Judy Sparks
Arlington. Daniels, she explained, devised a strategy for runners to alternate
every 400 meters. This enabled them to run faster on each leg of the race than
if they had been running a mile or more.
“Absolutely, it was Jack’s brainchild how we did it,” Sparks
Arlington said.
In 2000, the N.C.A.A. named Daniels the top Division III
women’s cross-country coach of the 20th century.
In addition to his wife, a registered nurse, Daniels is
survived by their daughters, Audra and Sarah Daniels.
In the last week of his life, Daniels wrote a children’s
book to encourage families to walk and jog together.
“Jack’s goal was to get America fit, the world fit,” Nancy
Daniels said. “He wanted every kid to love to exercise.”
Jeré
Longman is a Times reporter on the Obituaries desk who writes the
occasional sports-related story.
A version of this article appears in print on Sept. 21,
2025, Section A, Page 30 of the New York edition with the
headline: Jack Daniels, 92, Olympian and ‘World’s Best Running Coach,’
Dies . Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
Friday, September 19, 2025
Mental Toughness for Runners
Without a doubt, the most common lament I’ve heard from runners in over

I know mental toughness when I see it: Alberto Salazar pulling away from Rudolpho Gomez in a cloud of dust after 24 miles, at sub-5 minute mile pace to win the 1982 New York Marathon. Lasse Viren getting knocked down, lying motionless, and then getting up to set a world record in the 1972 Olympic 10,000 meters. Bill Rodgers winning the 1975 Boston Marathon despite stopping to tie his shoe. These are just some examples that come quickly to mind. I’ve also seen mental toughness displayed from the high school runners I coach, sometimes when least expected: A freshman girl out-kicking senior runners in her first cross-country race, or a senior boy runner running negative splits and getting his best time in hurricane-like conditions. I’ve often wondered where the mental toughness comes from to rise above the ordinary.
Shakespeare may have framed it best when he said, “Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them.” Is the

Think about the races you have run where being mentally tough allowed you to rise above the pedestrian, above your perceived level of fitness to greater accomplishments. Maybe even to beat someone who you believed to be better. Wouldn’t it be great to know how to draw upon that same mental toughness at will? I decided to consult some of our all-time top runners for their views on mental toughness.
What exactly is mental toughness as it relates to running? According to Olympian and author Jeff Galloway: “The brain has two hemispheres that are separated and don’t interconnect. The

By preparing mentally for the challenges you expect, you will empower the right side of the brain to develop mental toughness. As we accumulate stress, the left-brain sends us a stream of messages telling us to “slow down,” “stop and you’ll feel better,” “this isn’t your day,” and even “why are you doing this?”
What is mental toughness?
According to 1983 Boston marathon winner


Bill Rodgers thinks the term “mental toughness” is “a description of how well an athlete prepares for the physical and mental challenges of their sport. I like the great Tanzanian marathoner Juma Ikangaa’s comment, ‘The will to win is nothing without the will to prepare.’” Lynn Jennings has said, “Mental will is a muscle that needs exercise, like the

First, create a competitive advantage through your training. Besides the physiological improvement that comes through investing more time in training, you receive a psychological boost if you do a workout that you believe no one else is doing. Hill workouts, negative-split workouts, and short fast repeats at the end of a long run are some of the ways runners look for a competitive advantage.
Galloway believes that incorporating mile repeats and long slow runs of 30 miles in his training enabled him to beat more talented runners and make the Olympic team. Bill Rodgers: “Most of my daily runs (two a day) were at a moderate pace (6-7 minute miles for me), but I always ran by how I felt. If I felt decent I would run harder for several miles at a time. This was true for 5 to 25 mile runs. I was trying to teach my body to ‘float,’ that is run as effortlessly as possible in some training runs.”
Finally, train with other runners. Jumbo Elliott, long-time Villanova coach, was fond of saying, “Runners make runners.” The synergy of proper training with other runners in a supportive (and not overly competitive) environment can take your training to another level while enabling you to run closer to your potential.
Gerry Lindgren, considered by many to be America’s best high school runner ever, ran a 13:44 5000 meters and an 8:40 two mile in high school and beat two World Class Russian runners,

“I used to do a lot of exercises to increase mental toughness. It was a game I used to play. Every time I went around a curve in training I went to the outside in training runs so I had to run further. I always had to take the hardest longest way to build mental toughness. I chased bikes. I did sprints at certain places in my training runs no matter how I felt. Every time I came to that place I had to sprint! It slowly built up my mental toughness.”
Salazar trained by running hard ¾-mile intervals at the start, middle, and end of his runs. Alberto recalls running against Rudolpho Gomez: “I actually had two races against him in New York—1980 and 1982. The 1982 race was of course the very close race. I remember being scared of his kick, so I tried to soften him up with surges over the last two miles. They worked as I only beat him by a few seconds, and if I’d waited, it might have turned out differently.”

Second, train your mind. Frank Shorter says, “I think simulating racing while interval training is a good way to gain mental toughness. Imagine yourself in the race situation. Then, when you are actually in it, it will seem ‘familiar.’”
I tell the Gloucester Catholic boys and girls cross-country teams I coach that mental toughness is like a muscle that grows stronger through use. Passing someone when you are tired, surging, or starting your kick at a predetermined place—all of these things build mental toughness and make you that much tougher for the next race.
Jeff Galloway recommends fartlek training as a way to enhance mental toughness. Because there are no artificial barriers on time, distance, etc, you reduce the negative messages from the left-brain when things get tough: “Fartlek develops a sense of focus and resource coordination not found in other forms of training. You’ll still get those ‘pings’ from the left side but they won’t bother you as much. Fartlek desensitizes you to the discomfort and uncertainty of pushing and pacing beyond your current limits.”
Bill Rodgers agrees: “I recall using a technique while racing of visualizing an Olympic gold medallist at 10K, who was a terrific competitor; I would emulate his running form to steady myself mentally over the final miles of a race. I think training and racing a lot makes you experienced, i.e. tough as a competitor.”

Salazar says “Back in the ’70s and ’80s, it was felt that one’s mental toughness, resilience, and ability to focus were God given and could not be enhanced. Now, common sense tells us that even the naturally toughest competitors can become more relaxed and more focused through the use of mental and psychological training.”
Relaxation, visualization training, and hypnotherapy are all common psychological training tools. Steve Prefontaine once said: "Most people run a race to see who is fastest. I run a race to see who has the most guts."
Third, make sure you are really giving 100% effort. Larry James, the Olympic 400 meter gold (4x 400 relay, world record) and silver medalist from Villanova and a long-time coach and Athletic Director at Stockton College believes: “You can only give 100%. Whenever I hear

If you are able to give close to 100% effort more often than your competition, you will appear mentally tougher than your competitors. Olympian Paavo Nurmi once said: “Mind is everything—muscles pieces of rubber. All that I am, I am because of my mind.”Fourth, break the race or workout into segments to make it more manageable. For example, author and former AAU champion Tom Osler recommends breaking a race such as a marathon into thirds: “The first third is run easy; the second third you start to get competitive and run at a relaxed pace fast enough to catch runners in front of you. Only the last third is raced at maximum effort.” Osler was also one of the proponents of inserting walking breaks in long runs to make them more manageable.
Our high school runners are taught to start their 5K kick with about a half-mile to go, and to run against the clock. By picking a point in your race in advance where you know you will go hard you are able to embrace discomfort for a manageable amount of time and also to use the element of surprise to appear mentally tough to your competitors.
Also, by not playing it safe emotionally, you will start to perceive yourself as a tough runner. By breaking the race into segments and by concentrating on running as hard as possible in that segment you will increase your mental toughness and test the mental toughness of competitors. Gerry Lindgren would often sprint the first quarter-mile after the four-mile mark of the race

Bill Rodgers: “My friend Andy Palmer used the motto “The Mind is the Athlete” as part of the philosophy he passed on to his athletes. I see talent as physical and mental. I think everyone has the innate ability to be mentally tough; what counts is whether one has the desire to explore that to the best of their individual physical abilities.”
Fifth, use your self-discipline to know when to and when not to push yourself. Knowing that you alone decide when to push and when to hold back can relax you and enable you to ration your energy for use at the right time.
Tom Osler says “the urge to push in extreme weather conditions in pursuit of developing mental toughness is counter-productive.” Osler continues: “You can’t beat Mother Nature. You will run much better, and be able to push harder in a race if you train at the coolest part of the day for example.” Coach and author Roy Benson adds: “Mentally tough runners have the discipline to

Where the mind goes, the body will follow.
It turns out the inscription on our family crest translates to a useful slogan for anyone wishing to call on their own mental toughness: “Espere Mieux”--could be translated to “expect or wait for the best.” If you wait for the right moment and expect the best in each running situation that requires mental toughness, you will be much more prepared when you have your own “cloud of dust” moment. You will emerge from the other side victorious because you expected to do well based on your preparation. After all, your mind has already seen you do it before and expects nothing less.
https://www.amazon.com/Positive-Splits-Running-Stories/dp/1548655341/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=jack+heath&qid=1565713559&s=books&sr=1-3
Wednesday, May 7, 2025
Browning Ross: Distance Running's Founding Father
Browning Ross, Distance Running’s Founding Father
by Dr. Gabe Mirkin


Monday, December 16, 2024
Catching up with Lasse Viren
Catching up with Lasse Viren in Myrskyla, Finland
By Pablo Vigil
Myrskyla, or place of storms; is a beautiful, small Finnish village, with scattered patches of rolling woods, roads, trails, barley,
rye, wheat fields, some rock outcrops. Verdant, pastoral
beauty is everywhere, along with many species
of mushrooms and edible berries. A beautiful white, wooden church is
centrally located, with a
small cemetery and a big, beautiful
lake behind it. Small farms and some small family businesses are there: Viren
Trucking, Safu Fish
Company, as well
as, a famous red granite
quarry. Typical fauna includes
moose, rabbits, deer, small birds…and on rare occasions, a bear/karhu,
or perhaps a wolf/susi.
In essence, a setting analogous to what the American
poet, Robert Frost, or the Finnish writer, Aleksis
Kivi captured in their writings. Aleksis
Kivi’s famous book,
Seven Brothers, could well have taken
place in Myrskyla.
Old, beautiful church in central Myrskyla.
On August 25, 2011, I
had
the grand honor of visiting
Myrskyla for the first time.
This small village is approximately
1 hour northeast of Helsinki, capital of
Finland, and is home to
about 2,000 inhabitants. This summer also happened to be
Myrskyla’s 375th anniversary.
Left
to right: Lasse
Viren, Pablo Vigil, Mayor Asuja
The
main topic on the
agenda was to discuss the possibility of collaboration between Myrskyla and the recreation area organization.
These early runners included Juha Vaatainen
and
2 other Finns. Years later, the Finnish
migration would
continue; for example: Martti
Vainio, Jurgen Salo,
Sinikka Keskitalo, Hakan Spik,
Jari Nurmista, Tuija Toivonen,
Arto Bryggare, Ari Paunonen,
Harri Hanninen, Henrik Sandstrom, Tommy Ekblom, Sari Essayah,
Valentin Konenen.
Recently, Lasse
Viren’s son also
trained in Alamosa.
Runners
such as Gelindo
Bordin and Stefano
Baldini, both Olympic
marathon winners, as
well as Buddy Edelen, Juma
Ikangaa, Laura Fogli,
Jeff Turningheart, Greg Meyer, Chuck Smead, Jim Ryan, John Esquibel,
Tony Niemczak, Rick Roybal, Pat Porter, Deena
Drossin‐Kastor, myself included, have trained here.
Alamosa, Colorado
has really been an international/national revolving
door of phenomenal running and
athletic talent…and continues to the present.
Lasse and his prized cargo truck.
The meeting started and
before long, the only thing I could
focus on was how beautiful
and soft Finnish sounded as
opposed to other languages I was familiar with. During
most of the 20 minute meeting, I sat politely, as
quiet as a mouse, not knowing,
nor
understanding a single Finnish
word.
Obviously, no Finnish
bad words were
spoken, since I would
have definitely recognized them. After the meeting,
I humbly confessed to Lasse
and Mayor Asuja that I neither
spoke nor understood Finnish, with
the exception of 5 popular
bad
words. After saying this, it
suddenly occurred to
me that they might ask
me to elaborate on the 5 Finnish
bad words and to
ask
how I had come to learn
them.
Luckily, they didn’t ask, but out of the corner of my eye I noticed
that my friend,
Henrik, had turned beet red
and looked embarrassed.
He was one of the culprits for my bad Finnish
vocabulary!! After confessing my ignorance of the Finnish
language, Lasse quickly pacified me by looking
at me with a twinkle in his eyes and a half smile
saying, “Finnish
is very easy, even the very small children
speak it!” I admit I did feel
better after this, especially
since this comforting comment
came from Lasse Viren himself.
*“Sisu” allegory,
Myrskyla, Finland
The day had started off
cloudy and overcast
and now the sun was shining brightly
on Myrskyla.
Better
yet, we talked about our children, wild
animals in the area, grandchildren, Lasse’s problems
with his kitchen floor, the roof at
his family’s trucking
business, his phone. He spoke
of his childhood in Myrskyla, driving
a semi‐truck…etc. I confess,
I did ask Lasse one running
question: Did he currently
run for fitness? He confessed
that he had run
maybe 5 times in the last 2 years. This was hard to
believe. He looked
amazingly fit: the same
lean, small torso, extra long, lean legs and
arms, same small,
slender shoulders, long
fingers, big feet. His once long flowing,
sandy‐ brown hair was now very short
and salt and pepper colored.
His once Quaker‐style, sandy‐brown beard was gone, replaced
by
a full, salt and pepper,
short beard, glasses covering his sky‐blue eyes. He wore a pair of worn white Asics training shoes,
semi dress black pants,
a short sleeved, navy
blue, worn “Bolder Boulder 10k” shirt with a
collar. In other words,
despite his alleged lack of training
and appearance, I’m convinced that he could
still do some serious butt kicking…and I wasn’t about to
challenge him!!!!
Lasse, still looking great years later!
After lunch we had coffee, which
is typical of many European
countries. The
Finnish coffee is notoriously strong, compared to most wimpy, American coffee.
Per
capita, Finland consumes
more coffee than any other
nation in the world. Furthermore,
Finnish coffee has been known to wake up
the dead and kill the
living…man, woman,
or karhu!!!!
The possibility of being thrown in jail in Myrskyla for
trespassing quickly flashed through my brain. Luckily, Lasse called out the car window to his brother. I then quickly shook Lasses’ brother’s hand
and took his picture. Also, next door to Lasse’s childhood home was an
old, red, quaint log home, which Lasse told me was where
his grandfather used to live and at one time had a
berry‐juice business. Naturally, I had to have a picture
of Lasse’s grandfather’s home. What
a rare, prized
moment! After this exciting ordeal,
we zipped off to
a nearby beautiful wooded area on
top of a small hill with a
winding, beautiful trail:
Lassen
polku/Lasse’s trail.
This great
trail curves around the rim of a
small hill and wooded
area full of tall,
slim pine trees, lots
of wild mushrooms, and delicious
blueberries, which Lasse and
I couldn’t
stop eating. I
think I got the best of
him by eating the most blueberries.
This trail also winds
around for about 3.5 kilometers
over soft, sandy ground covered
with mossy, forest
vegetation, with some
slightly rocky areas.
All in all, Lassen polku is the kind of
trail that most runners and hikers
drool over, or dream about.
Along
the edge of the rim is also
another trail, that branches
down about 80 meters over 800 meters in length.
Lasse trained here countless times, so he
knew this area like a wild karhu.
On another
side of the trail rim beautiful
cliffs appeared. Meanwhile, the sun shone like wild
honey as we walked along stopping
sporadically to eat wild
blueberries. Along the way, Lasse
also pointed out vestiges of an
old, 300 meter track, now overgrown
with forest vegetation and once used
by Finnish soldiers during WWII to
maintain fitness.
Lasse at Lassen polku/Lasse’s Trail…still looking
like a “lean and mean running machine”.
Finland, fitness/running, are synonymous and nothing new. Per capita, Finland has produced some of the greatest distance runners ever: Wille Ritola, Paavo Nurmi, Juha Vaatainen, Martii Vainio, Hannes Kolehmainen, Pekka Vasala, Tapio Kantanen, Kaarlo Maaninka, are just a few.
As we continued to walk along, Lasse, Mayor Asuja and Henrik stopped periodically to view a detailed forest map of the area. Lasse also told us another interesting story regarding a small plaque and monument in one end of the forest. The gist of the plaque read: This memorial is in gratitude of all the Finnish women and their generous contributions during WWII. During WWII, Finnish women had not only worked as nurses, cooks but also as sentries.
Left to right: Mayor Asuja, Lasse, Henrik Sandstrom at Lassen
polku.
While at Lassen polku, I asked Lasse if he had encountered any
wild life during his training
runs in the woods and trails in the
area. I was imagining
and expecting great stories
of wild bears, or wolves,
or the possiblility of Lasse fighting off
a bear/wolf, then sprinting
off to safety.
What crazy thoughts, but I felt compelled
to asked
Lasse these stupid questions. Lasse
simply answered
that he has only
seen bears in zoos. What???
And what about a wolf/susi??? He
replied, “I have never
seen one and I hope I
never see one!!!!” So much for my stupid
questions and imagination. I got what I deserved,
albeit, disappointing!!
After this, we drove back to
Mayor Asuja’s office where
he presented both Henrik
and me with a beautiful
book about Myrskyla. This special book contains copies of old black
and white
photos taken in the 19th and
20th century,
along with recent ones in color. Both Mayor Asuja and Lasse
signed our books, plus Lasse
autographed several postcards of himself wearing his 4 Olympic
gold medals. I then followed Lasse
to his monster
cargo truck and asked
for one last photo.
The last photo taken, I thanked him for his
generous time and hospitality and… most
of all, his inspiration.
One thing for sure: next time I
visit Myrskyla, I will
definitely insist on
Lasse showing me how to
drive his cargo truck,
after all, he assured me that
driving a big truck was easier than driving a smaller
vehicle. Again, Lasse
seems to have a way
of making many things
look and sound easy…maybe even winning 4 Olympic gold medals??? Furthermore, I think Mayor Asuja and I need to have a meeting ASAP concerning
my idea for a name change
for Myrskyla: I was
thinking of changing
Myrskyla to MyrskyLasse….It
is only a simple change of 3 extra letters!!!
PS: Special kiitos/thanks to Henrik Sandstrom, Mayor Jouka Asuja, and Lasse Viren for my 1st visit to Myrskyla…home of the perfect storm: Lasse Viren!
Kiitos! Kiitos! Hyva! Hyva!...Sisu!!!!!!!
Author contemplating future
“MyrskyLasse” sign change…only 3 extra letters!!!
Author Pablo with Lasse and US Gold Medal Winner Frank Shorter
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Lasse Viren of Finland crosses the finish line to win the gold medal in the 5000m with a time of 13:24.76 during the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, |
Frank Shorter 1972 Olympic Gold Medalist in the Marathon |