February 12, 1952 - February 15, 2024
Henry Rono was one of the most devastating runners ever to lace them up, and now he is gone at age 72, the same week as the young Kelvin Kiptum, age 24 the world record holder in the marathon. Rono came on the scene shortly after Kipchoge Keino stepped off the world stage. Had he been a bit younger or a bit older he might have been better known, because in his best years Kenya boycotted the Olympics in 1976 and 1980 to protest New Zealand's sending a rugby team to South Africa. He ran faster hung over than most men ran sober or juiced with PED's. Or so legend has it. He didn't deny this in his autobiography. His mom ran a shabeen or illegal alcohol speakeasy in Kenya, so he grew up in that milieu.
Eventually Henry found his way to the US and got hooked up in John Chapin's program at Washington State where he won numerous NCAA championships and also happened to break four world records in 81 days in 1978. 10,000 meters (27:22), 5000 meters (13:08), 3000 meters steeplechase (8:05.4), and 3000 meters (7:32.1. Those records have long since been broken. But no one has ever shown such versatility in such a short period of time.
The current records are 10,000 (26.11) Joshua Cheptegai, 5000 (12:35) Cheptegai, 3000 Steeplechase (7:52.11) Lamecha Girma, 3000 (7:20.67) Daniel Komen
Yes, today's times are significantly faster, but it's been 44 years since Henry Rono set those times. I think Rono belongs in a small group of all time great Kenyan runners along with David Rudisha, Eliud Kipchoge, Daniel Komen, Kip Keino, and arguably fifty others.
I was fortunate to see him run one time, but he had a terrible day at the NCAA national cross country meet in 1978 in Madison, Wisconsin. It was horrible weather and he apparently took a wrong turn in the race and never made even into the top hundred runners. Possibly finished 237th. I did get a picture of him in that race and he autographed it when I met him in Cincinnati in the 1990's. He laughed about how bad he was that day. Bob Roncker held a book signing for Henry at his running store. Only two people showed up. He was already a forgotten man. He once got accused of participating in a bank robbery in the Eastern US and spent some time in jail, but he was fortunately acquitted. The last I heard of him he was coaching First Nations runners in a community college somewhere in the Southwest US.
The following is a description of Henry's book on the Amazon page.
In a span of 81 days in 1978, Henry Rono broke four world records, committing the most ferocious assault on the track-and-field record books by a middle-distance runner in the history of the sport. This is what Henry Rono is known for. However, it is not who Henry Rono is. Henry Rono was born a poor Nandi in Kenya's Rift Valley. After an accident when he was two, doctors believed he would never again walk. This would be the first of countless obstacles Rono would have to overcome in order to pursue his two life goals: to first become the greatest runner in the world and then to become the best teacher he could be. Rono's first goal was accomplished in 1978, when he was considered not only the greatest track-and-field athlete in the world, but also by many to be the world's greatest athlete period. His second and greater goal, to become a teacher, was more difficult in coming. Once Rono became a star, coaches, agents, meet directors, and corrupt Kenyan athletic officials (whose boycotts of the 1976 and 1980 Olympics turned Rono's dreams of Olympic gold into Olympic smoke rings), wanted him to serve as their personal moneymaker, and so they did everything they could to discourage Rono's pursuit of an education and dream of teaching. The corruption and discouragement Rono encountered, as well as his alienation and exile from his homeland and family, pushed him to 20 years of alcoholism and even occasional homelessness. This is the life story of Henry Rono, whose descent from triumph to abyss, and whose subsequent ascent from abyss to triumph, are perhaps steeper than those of any track-and field athlete in history.
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