The best races for me were the mid-80's middle distance battles between (mainly) the UK athletes, Cram, Coe, Ovett and to an extent Peter Elliot. I'm talking 800m and 1500m. I think it was in summer 1985 Cram broke something like 5x World records in 6 weeks. The period I mention includes the '84 and '88 Olympics, in which although I cannot remember the specifics, the heats and finals were top drawer if you like that distance. I think during this period Carloz Lopez regained the World AAA Cross Country World title over (I think) 10,000m, he was 39 if I remember correctly.