John Aldridge was the name of my landlord in college when I shared a house with four other people (including Chris Lennon) at 14 1/2 Roosevelt Avenue on the north side of Binghamton. John Aldridge is also the name my accountant here in Charlottesville. It turns out that John Aldridge the accountant is also John Aldridge the quarter-miler, and man, what a quarter-miler he was.
In 1965 he set the Wheaton (IL) College indoor record at 48.9. I don't know what kind of track he ran that on, but back then there were not many good indoor tracks, so that was a very nice time. In the 1965 outdoor season John ran 47.7, a Wheaton record, and that was on a cinder track. With today's equipment, track surfaces, and training, who know how fast John would have been. The Gold Medal time in the 1964 Olympics for the 400 meters was 45.1.
John was an accomplished Master runner and is contemplating another comeback. Now I have yet another person to look up to, which should take some of the pressure off of Mark.
2 comments:
interesting! Does he still run, or is he more mature than us, and gave it up? You should ask him to run 220s with you!
John still does some running and is considering getting back into interval training.
When the weather turns nice, I am planning on asking him to train on the track with me.
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