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I don’t know why I do it, but for some reason I expect today’s distance kids to know history and the legendary runners of ancient times, ya know way back in 1980. Most of ’em never heard of the runners legends are made of, but such is life after Twitter.

I was hanging with the Royal distance guys at the Best of the Basin meet in Quincy last week. I like these guys – Rudy Flores, Alex Ramirez, Cole Christensen, Jose Morales, Ronaldo Garcia and Silver Beltran.

I saw Beltran and Flores run a little bit at the 1A state cross country meet so I gravitated toward them on the infield. Silver was third in the 400 meters, getting in some speed work, and was second in the 1600.

And of course, I had to do it.

“Ever heard of Sebastian Coe? Most of these guys never heard of Arturo Barrios. Why would they know Lord Coe, a Brit? But I did my best to educate Generation Next of legendary runners.

Lord Coe won four Olympic medals, including the 1500-meter gold medal at the Olympic Games in 1980 and 1984. He set eight outdoor and three indoor world records in middle-distance track events – including, in 1979, setting three world records in the space of 41 days. The world record in the 800 remained unbroken until 1997.

A friend of mine from Boulder, Colo., used to race against American legend Steve Prefontaine and sends me videos every now and then, including the UK 800-meter record in 1978 when Coe clocked 1 minute, 43.95 at the Ivo Van Damme memorial meet in Brussels on Aug. 18, 1978 (www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4rclWdVMas).

I wanted him to see world class at its finest and I was busy thumbing through my phone looking for the video when I come across a post from Derek & the Dominos.com. “Ever heard of Derek & the Dominos?” I ask, setting myself up for failure.

“Nope” How about Eric Clapton? Another blank stare. I’ve never met anybody that never heard of Eric Clapton, but if he would have asked me about any musicians from this century, I probably couldn’t name one.

Never did find the video, but I thought I’d try one more legend. “How about Billy Mills? Ever heard of him?” Silver smiled and shook his head yes, not particularly knowing the full story that Mills was a Lakota guy from the Pine Ridge Reservation that stunned the world at the Tokyo Games and is the only American ever to win the gold medal in the Olympic 10,000 meters.

I showed him a little bit of video from that race on Youtube.com and didn’t feel quite as old.

Beltran and the boys raced well in the 2A meet and I look forward to seeing them do great things down the road at the 1A state meet.