Place your bets now: Will Lyndon Herzberg show in Des Moines?

According to the Status of Entries page for the masters men’s 100-meter dash at USA open nationals this weekend, Lyndon Herzberg, the supposed world-record holder for M55, is entered and declared for the Des Moines race. I’ve tried several ways to reach him for comment on his checkered past (entering crazy-ass seed times but not showing for races), but the best I could do was elicit a reply from his girlfriend, Lynn Preston. In her first note, sent Saturday, she wrote: “Thank you for writing. I don’t know all of Lyndon’s track details. He is a man of many talents.”

Less than an hour later (apparently after reading my blog), Lynn wrote: “You can say what you want about Lyndon, but my two sons and I have lived with Lyndon since 1999 and we know that Lyndon is a man of integrity. Just remember that people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.”

Thank goodness I live in a 1955 wood-frame house!

I asked her (nicely) to have Lyndon write me to clear up this possible case of identity theft. All I get is crickets.

So without further ado, let’s test your skills at forecasting the future:


Also check out this recent thread on letsrun.com talking about Lyndon’s history on that message board.

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June 22, 2010

28 Responses

  1. Bubba Sparks - June 22, 2010

    I voted but it didn’t have the choice I found most likely;
    Will show but withdraw just before or during race wtih injury.

    Ken you and I know who I’m referring to from our “investigations” back in the early to mid 90s with a WR holder of some repute that no one saw compete at that level.

  2. No-Show-Bro - June 22, 2010

    I also would thoroughly check the indentification of any runner claiming to be Mr. Herzberg and that he is over 55 at Des Moines. Ms. Preston seems to have Lyndon “Casper” Herzberg’s back when she says, “I’ve known and lived with him since 1999” line, but seems to have no clue as to what he does in his spare time. My landlord for the last 10 years knows more about my track and field marks and Masters career than Mrs. Preston does about her close, live-in friend. Ms. Preston there is not an ounce of integrity in entering T&F races since at least 2004, with outragously fast times and not showing up to them and proving you did them, or can do them. All you have to do is look at previous posts here on Masterstrack about Lyndon’s no show meets from around the country and look them up yourself. You seem to be a very intelligent and capable woman with the computer as seen by your stellar on-line resume so it should be no problem for you to find out for yourself.

  3. bobfelcher - June 22, 2010

    I know its frustrating but guys have been lying since they were kids about their times and obviously as an adult he has a problem so maybe we should leave it alone. There are A LOT of sick people in this world and they need help. Back in HS when guys made up times, eventually they had to deal with reality when their performance on the track was nowhere near their boasting. Off hand i can think of a half dozen guys on my own team who were pure bs’s who were eventually dropped from the team. A couple quick examples, a transfer from back East 51 second 440 in 9th grade could not break 60. THREE guys who had all broken 10 for 100 yds and could not break 11, a sub 2 minute half miler who never came close(2;15 maybe)
    We forget HS was full of these guys because we all moved on, most probably grew up but some obviously have mental problems and still exist. While we should not allow them to hijack the record book, i think the more exposure you give them the more they will seek.

  4. Roger Pierce - June 22, 2010

    Tell you what….I would love to be there to watch Lonnie Hooker kick his ass in Des Moines. Oh yes and the rest of the field will probably do the same.
    This guy, and the entire amount of attention he is getting is absurd…

  5. Glory Days - June 22, 2010

    Am I missing something? Did this guy cheat in a race? Take illegal substances? Take money from your pocket or food from your plate? Tell you your kids dress funny?

    Who cares? He’s problaby sitting back and lauging at the fuss he’s created.

  6. Mellow Johnny - June 22, 2010

    Speaking of entries, how we looking for Sacto, PT?

  7. B Money - June 22, 2010

    No show…too slow, bro!

  8. Tom Crowe - June 22, 2010

    Food for thought,
    For this reason only… make these guys pay a large entry fee (Or their suitors/sponsors) which they get back if you come within 10% of what you claim!…. You would get less of these carnival act type athlete registering! Better yet make them take out an insurance policy for the money they put down (like the hole in one sponsored holes at fundrasing golf tournaments do) to make sure their guy shows up and takes it like a champ! Give the guy a tax reciept for the donation to masters track and we all win! Check this out on the 2010 US Masters Championship website….. some guy from Califorina in the 45-49 age group claiming he’s a 25 footer and a 54 footer in the long jump and triple jump! …. Out of what cannon will he be shot out of! That makes this guy in Des Moines look like a saint!

  9. peter taylor - June 22, 2010

    Yes, Mellow Johnny, you are indeed tricky about moving the discussion to our favorite topic (Sacramento). And yet I must sympathize; we don’t have a specific post on which we can discuss the big meet. So, I will mention the topic of this posting first.

    As far as Lyndon Herzberg (if that is really his name) is concerned, I will bet you $100, Mellow Johnny, that he doesn’t finish in the top 3 in Des Moines. All you have to do is put up $1 if you say he will be in the first 3. As a high school teacher in Oregon, you know those are pretty good odds.

    As far as the big meet (Sacramento, July 22-25) is concerned, we have hit a dead spot. At 8 PM yesterday (Monday), we had an estimated 616 entrants, but at 2 PM this afternoon (Tuesday), the estimate was just 682. I certainly expected over 700 at this point. We need to pick up the pace a little bit.

  10. Sacramento blog entry please - June 22, 2010

    Ken, how about letting Peter Taylor,Mellow Johnny and others have a blog entry on Sacramento? That way lots of people can chime in with info and opinions so unrelated blog entries won’t be hijacked.

  11. Rusty - June 22, 2010

    The LJ/TJ marks of 25 and 54 are a little out of context. He actually did have marks close to that when he was in college (at California – Berkley). Recently, he had 18 and 41-8 on May 30 in a PAC association meet. Solid marks with solid background. Maybe he put down his all-time bests instead of recent marks.

  12. Ken Stone - June 22, 2010

    Rusty, how does one explain the 11.26 attributed to his name in a meet just last month?
    http://www.hornetsports.com/assets/sports/track/SSOResults10B.htm

  13. Mellow Johnny - June 22, 2010

    Great call, “Sacramento blog entry please.” I’m all for it. I try to post on items that are most closely related to anything that has to do with Nats, but most closely in this class is about as close as futbol is to football.

    As for the bet there, PT, it’s a suckers bet no doubt. Nonetheless, I’ll take the bet and you can consider my $1 as a donation to the officials/announcers fund 🙂

  14. Andrew Hecker - June 22, 2010

    OK Tom, I looked the guy up and yes his marks are not legitimate, currently. Here are his results at PAUSATF a couple of weeks ago: http://www.pausatf.org/data/2010/tfpachampswrap.html basically 18′ and 40′ in what looks like a family affair. However he does look like he once did those kind of marks in the past: http://graphics.fansonly.com/photos/schools/cal/sports/c-otrack/auto_pdf/pdf-06TF36to45-041906.pdf I’ll try to give him credit for ignorance on his entry. He’s not trying to displace his way into a meet that he doesn’t belong in. But if somebody else loses a chance to compete in the Exhibition, even through being discouraged to spend the money to go to Des Moines, then fraud is much more criminal. That also goes for people who put fraudulent seeds into your average local meet. If a fraudulent fast time pushes someone else, deserving, out of a heat; a good race, its disruptive to our etiquette.

    Looking at the Open National Championships entry information, I can’t resist pointing out that their normal entries closed a week ago for a meet that starts tomorrow. What is so special about the Masters Championships that we have our deadline a month before our meet? I’ve been asking this question for 23 years and all I see are the people in charge holding their ears and humming. And why are entries running slow? Somebody is shooting themselves in the foot.

  15. Andrew Hecker - June 22, 2010

    Looks like somebody else looked it up while I was writing, Ken’s link is interesting in two respects. Lyndon ran in the same heat as Aaron Thigpen and would have been a step behind him–into a wind. But Aaron, a known entity; Masters, had no “SR” next to his unattached entry. Why did Lyndon, in the same race?

    Second thing I note is this race was held on the same track we will be running on in a month. Negative wind for Lyndon’s race, maybe 10 minutes or less later, +3.2

  16. Jeff Davison - June 22, 2010

    I have seen Lyndon practice and I have seen him compete . . . I do not know his best time, but he IS fast . . and he is very selective in the meets that he competes in.

    If I remember correctly “a couple” of years ago he ran a fast 200 meter heat time at the Home Depot Center in Carson (Masters Meet), and chose not to run the final. As I said above he is very selective when he runs.

  17. Jeff Davison - June 22, 2010

    Correction: 2005 Home Depot Center in Carson he ran a 11.23 100 meter dash in the heats, then selected not to run the final.

  18. al cestero - June 22, 2010

    i think he should be the subject of his own reality series… “fast..or not ” with all of the attention that this guy has generated, it’s a no brainer. it could run between ” real housewives of new york” and ” king of dirt” he’s got people from both camps talking. and he’s got a name that is uncommon, and according to jeff, an air of mystique…what more could the public want..?

  19. Tom Phillips - June 23, 2010

    Al,

    Honesty?

  20. No-Sho-Bro - June 23, 2010

    Al, we talk about this because it’s now out in the open. Who ever this dude is, he wanted to be under the radar for all these years…Not anymore… My bet is he uses another name from here on out after Nationals, or he keeps using his name to stick it to the rest of us. Another of his infamous no-shows to add to his long list was in 2007 at the BYU Cougar Indoor meet on 1/12/07 were he was entered in the 60 m. dash. (http://www.byucougars.com/uploads/pdf/track_field/0000008634.pdf ) This man also changes his age in competition as well, at the 2009 Self-Transcendence Masters track and field meet held at CSU, Long Beach, Ca. on 9/20/09. Herzberg is listed on both the 50 yard dash and 100 meter dash as a 45-49 year old. Here is the website with the results, http://us.srichinmoyraces.org/node/4634 . His fellow races at the meet, Timothy Doss and Art Morrow were both within their proper age group, of course except for Herzberg. So with that in mind, it is not out of the question to think there is a possiblity that someone else ran under the Herzberg name in that race.

  21. al cestero - June 23, 2010

    i don’t think i’ve ever come across someone running or entering under another name. when i entered nationals for the first time back in 1984, i had to provide id. then again in 1986….in 2004 i had to provide my birth certificate…(verified)..same as ’07…..’09… so what’s the point of whatever this guy is doing ? i’ve always said that track and field is the only pure sport…that is…the proof is in the pudding. we’ve all seen crazy seed times and distances…but the piper always gets paid in the end

  22. buzooti - June 23, 2010

    “we’ve all seen crazy seed times and distances…but the piper always gets paid in the end”

    Amen!

  23. peter taylor - June 26, 2010

    Race goes off at 1:50 PM today (Saturday, June 26). My prediction for the first 4, in this order:

    Lonnie Hooker
    Reggie Pendland
    Robert Thomas
    Ron Potocnik

    We will see; I can’t wait. I hope Mr. Herzberg doesn’t finish in the first 3; if he does, I am in trouble.

  24. peter taylor - June 26, 2010

    Lyndon Herzberg did not start. Robert Thomas won it, with Eric Merriweather second and Ron Potocnik third. Lonnie Hooker and Reggie Pendland were nonstarters as well.

  25. Bubba Sparks - June 26, 2010

    Did he declare or do they not do that?

  26. peter taylor - June 26, 2010

    Bubba, I am going to go out on a limb and say it was a “group declaration” that occurred several days before the race. I say that because the entire field was shown as “declared” and yet only 3 men ran. Of course, I know nothing, but I will bet that Mr. Herzberg did not fly to Des Moines and did not personally “declare.”

  27. Pole Vault Power - June 28, 2010

    Declarations are done online, but I don’t know if the masters have to “declare” like the open athletes do, my guess is not, that the person in charge of the masters events does it for them.

  28. Roger Pierce - June 29, 2010

    How about this….it seems that Masters have a difficult time getting a full field to these events in the Open Championships, and I personally feel that limiting it to the fastest 40 year olds is not in any way making it representative of Masters track.
    Just once…..just once….could we have a distance handicap race which invited 8-10 athletes with the fastest age graded performances ( men and women) set in verifiable competition.
    What we would have in all liklihood would be very exciting races representing the very best of all ages from both genders.But more than that, I believe it would be one of the most popular races of the entire meet for the athletes and the fans alike.
    People would be chosen on their actual achievements in actual races…and… we should pay their way to the meet!!!!
    It is time for USATF to step up to the plate ( or get in to the starting blocks )and at least make an attempt to make Track in this country more interesting to a wider range of people if it really wants to promote Track and capture their imaginations.
    An Age Graded Distance Handicap race could be just the ticket to fire up and inspire us all.
    By the way, it is possible using the Age Graded Tables to have a race with athletes of any age mixed together, (Open and Masters)….why not do it and offer money to the winners. I just can’t see an event like that doing anything but drawing attention to the entire spectrum of all ages in Track and Field and making for one hell of an exciting race which would be talked about for a long time……Just a thought.

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