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CONTENTS DECEMBER 2010 // issue 382 FEATURES_
48 CHASING AMY
Tenacious Amy Begley runs to the top tier of track by Brian Metzler
THE ULTIMATE HUMAN RACE 54 Why the Comrades Marathon should be on your must-do list by Adam W. Chase + The Dream List: Races and places that shouldn’t be missed
HOW THEY TRAINED 64 What we can learn from training methods of the past by Roger Robinson TO THE GROUND 68 CONNECTED New trail shoes follow the path of natural running by Brian Metzler
46 COLUMNS_
PAGE by Greg McMillan, M.S. 22 PERFORMANCE Full Spectrum Tempo Training: Boost the top factor in performance PERSONAL RECORD by Rachel Toor 24 The Competitive Urge: Remembering what challenges us OF THE RUN by David Clifford 82 AART magnificent moment in the Canadian Death Race DEPARTMENTS_ EDITOR’S NOTE LETTERS SHORTS OWNER’S MANUAL
36 38 46 72
COLLEGE
48
MASTERS TRAILS RACING
HIGH SCHOOL
From Top:
Karen Chow
Peter Baker Studios
Courtesy of Comrades Marathon
06 08 11 27 34
COVER ART Two-time U.S. 10,000m champion Amy Begley trains on the track at Nike’s world headquarters in Beaverton, Ore. design by Teri Gosse / photo by Peter Baker
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54
ON THE COVER 22 Effective Tempo Runs 27 Get Race-Ready Fast // 54 The Dream List 68 Light and Fast Trail Shoes // 48 Amy Begley
Photo: Tim Kemple
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A fun and inspiring read! Running Times Magazine December 2010, Issue 382 • runningtimes.com EDITORIAL & DESIGN Jonathan Beverly
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The Credit Union Cherry Blossom Ten Mile Run
❀ Since 1973 runners have greeted the arrival of spring by running amidst the legendary Japanese cherry trees at the Credit Union Cherry Blossom Ten Mile Run and 5K Run-Walk. ❀ A lottery system will reduce the stress of getting into the event. Lottery applications can be completed online at www.cherryblossom.org anytime between Wednesday, December 1 at 10:00 A.M. and Friday, December 10 at 11:59 P.M. Entrants will be selected electronically. The status of each applicant will be posted on the website by 10 A.M. on Tuesday, December 14. The field is limited to 15,000 finishers. ❀ Join with Credit Union Miracle Day to raise funds for the Children’s Miracle Network. Click on the “Become an Online Fundraiser” link at www.cherryblossom.org and learn how to receive a guaranteed entry. SUPPORTING SPONSORS
BENEFITS
EDITOR’S NOTE WHEN WE STARTED WORKING on our feature package for this year-end issue, anchored by ADAM CHASE’S description of his Comrades Marathon run, we were calling it the “bucket list.” The more we worked on it, however, the more I became dissatisfied with that name, not only because it’s cliché and we do our best to avoid the fatuous phrase in RT, but because I began to realize that I’m opposed to the concept of a “bucket list” for several reasons:
01
The stipulation that these are things you do “before you die” places them in a strange limbo where they’re too big to pursue now, when we’re busy still living our daily lives, but may likely be too difficult when we know we’re going to die and have had several rounds of chemo. Not to mention we don’t know when death will come, and may not be lucky enough to have a chance to pursue our dream list after we’ve gotten notice that it’s imminent. If these things are worth doing, let’s do them, or at least make plans for when we’ll do them.
02
That said, if I diligently pursued and managed to complete such a list, whatever its length or ambitiousness, I can’t imagine I would be ready to say, “OK, that’s all I need, that’s all that’s worth doing.” In the words of country singer TERRI CLARK, “I wanna do it all.” There are too many great experiences out there, even in the running world, to limit the “best” or “must do” to one list.
03
Related to the fact that the world is bigger and more wonderful than I can imagine and compile into a list, I’ve found that many of those great experiences come when I’m pursuing other life paths and leap when I see an opportunity. They may not be the experiences on the list, but they may just be better. Just one example: Last summer, while vacationing in Costa Rica, I got up early one day and ran for an hour on trails through a green, dripping, muddy, hilly, streamcrossed rain forest wearing Vibram FiveFingers. Rarely have I felt so close to nature, so feral in my running. It was a oncein-a-lifetime experience, one worthy of a “bucket list,” yet I hadn’t come to Costa Rica to do this, nor chosen the hotel because it backed up to these trails — running the trails was a bonus that I seized by doing what I do most days.
04
Which brings me to my fi nal, and maybe most important reason: Many life-best experiences lack the obvious pizzazz to make a bucket list. If we focus too much on big experiences “before we die” we may miss the true joys of the days of that life. Were I to make a bucket list, I’m confident doing a 6-mile run through fields of wild sunflowers accompanied by three dogs wouldn’t make the cut, but I wouldn’t have missed doing that today, and were I to die next week, I don’t believe I’d regret that I was running in the fields behind my house rather than up some awesome mountain somewhere in the world.
CONTRIBUTORS A
DAM CHASE, who has served as Running Times’ trail editor for nearly a decade, says he didn’t give himself a lot of time between finishing Comrades and getting to the airport for his flight home to Colorado from South Africa. While he did ensure that he had time to shower, he almost regretted it because the woman sitting directly behind him had drenched herself in malodorous perfume and it would have been nice to fight the pollution with his own stench. The discomfort of that didn’t dispel the satisfaction of running one of the world’s great races, one that Chase had dreamed of doing for at least a decade. Chase competed in cross country at Haverford College before getting into marathons and longer distances while studying law at the University of Colorado, now 26 years ago. These days, he’s a practicing tax lawyer and speaker, as well as serving as president of the American Trail Running Association and continuing to compete regularly in trail events around the country and the globe.
T
IM GARGIULO says he didn’t grow up wanting to be a professional athlete, at least not a professional runner. During college, law school and for fi ve subsequent years, however, he traveled the country and the world taking part in cross country, track and road races, including the 5,000m final in the 1996 U.S. Olympic trials in Atlanta. Gargiulo retired from competition at age 30 and practiced as an attorney for a little over eight years. Now certified as a personal trainer and USATF-certified track coach, he works as a freelance writer. For assistance with his article on crash training in this month’s Owner’s Manual department, Gargiulo turned to a former competitor, STEVE SISSON, now the women’s cross country coach at Sisson’s alma mater, the University of Texas. “Steve had a lot of insight, having coached both elite athletes and the more casual runners,” Gargiulo says. “I was able to draw on both Steve’s and my experiences in putting together a set of workouts for people who for one reason or another end up a little behind in their training, yet still want to get out there and compete.”
That said, some experiences in the running world are special, lifemarking, uniquely worthwhile, surpassingly enjoyable. Comrades is one of those — and Adam’s story should give you reason to seriously consider putting it on your calendar — as are many “classic” races closer to home, such as Boston and New York, if you haven’t had the opportunity to run them yet. We also list a few of our lifefavorite running experiences, or ones we dream of having — a list not of things to do before you die, or that you “must do” to somehow be a complete runner, but to inspire you to dream about, plan, save and train toward, and seize when opportunity gives you the chance. Here’s wishing you a lifetime of such experiences. • JONATHAN BEVERLY Editor-in-Chief
06 /
RUNNINGTIMES_DECEMBER 2010
PR O M O T I O N
Time Management by Chris Carmichael, Lance Armstrong’s personal coach and CEO of Carmichael Training Systems Sometimes it’s hard to squeeze a run into your busy day, and when unanticipated delays cut into your already-limited training time, people often wonder if shortened runs are worth the effort. The answer is yes, so lace up your shoes and get out there! Focus on intensity. If you have only 20-30 minutes, do a quick warm-up and then go race pace or faster for 2 minutes, slow to a moderate pace for 2 minutes and repeat for at least 12 minutes. You’ll do more for your fitness than running those 12 minutes at a steady and slower pace. For severely timecrunched runners, hill sprints and stair/stadium climbs are a great way to get in a killer workout. Warm up, then complete repeats that last 1-4 minutes. These are great for leg strength and the ability to surge and recover during races. Running gear can be stashed anywhere, so keep a bag with clothes, shoes, and snacks ready to go. Toss it in your car, leave it in your office—if it’s ready to go then you can be ready for a run in no time.
Want more training tips and a chance to WIN great gear? Visit runningtimes.com/AquaphorTraining
Healing Help for Peak Performance Hard training can be hard on the skin. Aquaphor Healing Ointment helps you prevent the skin irritations that prevent peak performance. It’s recommended and trusted by Chris Carmichael.
Use Aquaphor before every run to prevent: Blisters Fight friction and painful blisters by applying Aquaphor to your feet and ankles Chafing Apply Aquaphor anywhere your shirt or shorts rub or irritate your skin Windburn Take the bite out of the wind and apply Aquaphor to prevent chapped lips, or to soothe and help heal cracked, very dry skin
LETTERS among others) showed that antioxidant sup- competitiveness of the field and the terrain plements can actually inhibit training effects that you run, while at that same time very (but antioxidants from food didn’t). There community minded. As a runner with a dog I are also recent reports (Mackey et al., 2007, was very pleased with how welcoming other Journal of Applied Physiology, Mikkelsen runners were to all the dogs in the field. But I et al., 2008, Journal of Applied Physiology, was disappointed not to see the name of the M i k kel s en 2 0 0 7, Jour n al of Appli e d “Top Dog” from this year’s race, my chocoPhysiology) that show that NSAIDS like ibu- late lab, Grady. profen can also blunt the good responses to — CLAY WARNER / BECKLEY, WV training. Just because products are sold over the counter doesn’t mean they can be taken without consideration, and the use of drugs THEY REALLY LIKE US in particular needs to be weighed carefully I simply want to say thank you for consisin terms of benefits vs. side effects. tently putting out great monthly editions of MORE PERSPECTIVE — RANDAL FOSTER / AMES, IA Running Times. I have only been a subscriber for a few months, but learn so much from ON PILLS I’m glad you had the “Don’t Pop Pills” sidebar each month’s articles that I’m able to apply in your magazine this month. Inflammation TOP DOG something to nearly every day’s workouts, be is not such a bad thing, since it’s manage- I was very happy to see the “Dirty Dogs and it pre-run exercises, specific training, or postable inflammation (overload) and recovery Muddy Paws” article in the September issue. run recovery tips. Running Times, I think, is that’s responsible for our training effect. As an experienced trail runner, the Dirty Dog a great magazine for the serious runner of all It’s important for training athletes to think is one of the best races that I’ve run in a while. abilities who runs for the sake of running and about what they put in their bodies, includ- I can agree that it is “Fast + Ferocious” in the continuously wants to improve. ing over-the-counter medications and supplements. Recent reports (Ristow et al., 2009, Proceedings of the National Academy KEEP THE CONVERSATION GOING. of the Sciences, Gomez-Cabrera et al. 2008, Join us on our blogs. Go to runningtimes.com/blogs/member. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition,
For t hem We r un
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ANTI-ANTI-INFL AMMATORIES • LUK A S VERZBICA S
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Joel Wolpert
Running Times has very much kept me energized and excited about my running, and I wanted to pass along my appreciation for a high-quality magazine.
really worried about this kid. I was reading about how he took five hours of extra English classes over the summer while training as hard as ever so he can graduate ahead of time and go to college a year early. It’s one — ROBERT M. TRACHTENBERG / PROVIDENCE, RI thing to have the physical abilities of a worldclass athlete in the body of a young man, and I followed PETE MAGILL from his blog over another thing to be a young man facing the to your mag. I subscribed to RT at his sug- emotional and psychological tasks of a grown gestion (from his blog). Now, it’s my favorite man. There are certain parts of the human read. I like the mix. It’s fun to read about up- body that take time to mature and throwing and-coming runners, elites and masters all a person into the scenario of trying to live up in one mag. I also like the fact that it’s geared to what might be unrealistic expectations is toward non-beginners. Too much fluff in dangerous. He may be the greatest talent in other publications. the history of Illinois, and I’m not sure anyone Warner and Grady, definitely not dogging it. — LANCE LOGAN / DUVALL, WA would argue that he may be the greatest U.S. As a masters runner who has been runtalent since BOB KENNEDY. I would love to ning for over 30 years, I still love training, see this kid run and break records for years to competing, and holding my own against IS THE KID ALL RIGHT? come, but I’m really worried about him growyounger runners, and Running Times helps I’ve been following stories about LUKAS ing up too fast. keep me motivated and the workouts fresh. VERZBICAS since I read the one you pub- — RICH KOLASA / I’ve been running since I was about 13, and lished (May 2010), and I have to say, I am CLARENDON HILLS, IL was fortunate to grow up in the same hometown, and have the same high school cross WRITE TO US. country coach, albeit about 15 years later, as BILL RODGERS (who always spoke to Send your emails to editor@runningtimes.com with your address included. our team each year), which meant the 1970s Letters may be edited for clarity and brevity. running boom hit our town hard, thankfully.
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SHORTS
JUSTIN RICKS • QUOTE WORTHY
FAST
and
BY BRIAN METZLER
Light
ASPIRING MARATHONER GOES FROM THE DRIVE-THRU TO DRIVEN ONCE AGAIN JUSTIN RICKS ADMITS he’s probably half the man he was three
From Top:
Denise Ricks
Steve Diapola
and a half years ago. Well, not quite exactly half, if you do the math, Ricks’ story isn’t unique — how many borbut he’s defi nitely become twice the runner derline-obsessive distance runners do you he was back then. know who’ve let go of the running lifestyle? A standout high school runner a decade — but it’s noteworthy because he turned his ago, Ricks was logging 80- to 90-mile weeks life around in time to run PRs and make longand running the mile in the 4:30s. In the term goals seem possible again. spring of 2007, however, Ricks was stumWith a newfound motivation and more bling around with more than 245 pounds mileage than he’d ever run, Ricks started to on his once slender 6-foot-3 frame, often los- run pretty well in ultradistance races in 2008, ing his breath after a few steps of chasing his winning the Greenland Trail 50K near Denver young children. Fast-forward to Dec. 5 and in a course record (3:23:11) and taking 13t in the super-fit Ricks, now 80 pounds lighter, the U.S. 50-mile championships (7:43.39) at will be on the starting line of the California the White River Trail Run near Seattle. That International Marathon with the hopes of success continued last year, when he took breaking 2:19 and earning a place in the 2012 fi fth in the Pikes Peak Marathon, broke the U.S. Olympic trials marathon. Greenland’s 25K course record (1:36:27) and Th is is a story about a once fast and dedi- clocked a course-record 2:32:30 amid windy cated runner who got sidetracked with the conditions at the American Discovery Trail realities of life — working long hours, start- Marathon in Colorado Springs. ing a family, too much time commuting, With those kinds of results, he had hoped developing bad eating habits, etc. — and to run a fast time at the Houston Marathon suddenly found himself as the butt of play- last January, but a stress fracture foiled ful jokes among a family of runners. that plan. Instead, after getting healthy, he “I was in the mode of eating what I wanted focused on ramping up his mileage for the and doing whatever I wanted,” says Ricks, TransRockies Run3, a 59-mile solo stage 30. “Once I got that big, I would never get race through the heart of the Rockies in on a scale. It was horrible and I knew it was late August. After dominating that event wrong. When I’d bend over and tie my shoes (winning in 7 hours, 10 minutes — 45 minand come back up and was more than a lit- utes ahead of 2:24 marathoner and Ironman tle winded, I said to myself, ‘OK, this has got triathlete TIM SURFACE), he spent the fall to stop. I’m a runner and have always been a fi ne-tuning for Cal-International. runner, but I let myself go, and now I’ve got Ricks has understood the rigors of longto get back.’” distance running since he was a youngster,
Fit and fast, Ricks won the TransRockies Run3 event in Colorado last summer.
evidenced by the time as a 12-year-old he paced his dad, Thomas, for 33 miles of the Arkansas Traveller 100-mile race. As a selfmotivated teen, he became a standout runner at Wasson High School in Colorado Springs, logging big miles and often doing extra work Continued on page 12
QUOTEWORTHY “There has to be one best way of running. It’s got to be like a law of physics. Dathan can’t be a heel-striker and expect to run as good as the best forefoot runners. You can be efficient for a while with bad form — maybe with a low shuffle stride — but eventually that’s not good for your body.” —NIKE OREGON PROJECT COACH ALBERTO SALAZAR, EXPLAINING WHY HE HELPED DATHAN RITZENHEIN CHANGE HIS RUNNING FORM LAST SUMMER RUN R UNN UN NIN NI IN INGT TIM IM M ES ES
/ 11
SHORTS
JUSTIN RICKS • SUMMER OF SPEED • SHOWCA SE R ACE
12 /
AGE
RECORD
RUNNER
DATE
LOCATION ION
800m
75–79
3:25.73
Suzi MacLeod
July 24
Sacramento, mento, CA
800m
60–64
2:10.78
Nolan Shaheed
April 16
Walnut, CA
1500m
60–64
4:31.93
Nolan Shaheed
May 1
Costa Mesa, CA
3,000m
60–64
10:11.24
Douglas Winn
June 12
Portland, OR
5,000m
HS
15:48.91
Emily Sisson
July 21
Moncton, NB, Canada
5,000m
55–59
16:14.55
Rick Becker
July 22
Sacramento, CA
10,000m
45–49
31:14.21
Paul Aufdemberge
April 23
Hillsdale, MI
3,000m steeple
Junior
10:00.88
Shelby Greany
June 12
Eugene, OR
3,000m steeple
55–59
10:39.56
Dale Campbell
April 16
Azusa, CA
RUNNINGTIMES_DECEMBER 2010
Dec. 11, Charlotte, N.C.
T
he USATF National Club Cross Country Championships is one of the best and perhaps most unsung events on the American running calendar. Every December, Ame more than 1,000 harriers of all ages show up mor from all corners of the country, lace up with long spikes and get after it old-school style on what w always seems to be a filthy, muddy course. In last year’s open races, elite develcour opment group ZAP Fitness/Reebok (NC) opm outdueled Boulder Running Company/adidas (CO) on the men’s side, while Boulder Running Company/adidas (CO) edged McMillan Elite/ adidas (AZ). But this event is just as much about you and your local buddies running your guts out for bragging rights against runners from top clubs like the Atlanta Track Club, Greater Lowell Road Runners, Club Northwest, Tamalpa Runners and Compex Racing. For more, go to usatf.org.
101° West Photography
EVENT
USATF CLUB CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS
Michael Scott
SUMMER OF SPEED
American distance records continued to fall in 2010, with BERNARD LAGAT setting etting new marks in the 3,000m (7:29.00) and 5,000m (12:54.12), CHRIS SOLINSKY taking down the 10,000m mark (26:59.60) and MOLLY HUDDLE’S breakthrough in the 5,000m ,000m (14:44.76). Here are a few more new U.S. marks set on the outdoor track this year. ear.
SHOWCASE RACE
Brian Metzler/Zephyr Media
Nolan Shaheed
shed a lot of weight quickly and within six months was running 100 miles per week. Ricks knows he wasted a chunk of his running career with inactivity and poor eating habits, but he’s only looking forward now. He’s back to being the best runner in the family, and that means his father, Thomas, a longtime trail ultrarunner who has run Pikes Peak and the Leadville 100, brother, Jamison, who ran for a year at Western State College, and his other five siblings that ran in high school, can stop the snickering. “I want to run faster and hopefully get a chance to run at the trials, but really I’m just happy to be healthy,” he says. “I guess now I see both sides and I don’t want to ever be on that other side ever again. But if I didn’t get to be that way, maybe I would have never gotten back to this side. I felt horrible every day. Now if I don’t run every day, I feel bad.” •
Clockwise from Top Left:
having two kids in the fi rst two years out of school, combined with working full-time, they suddenly didn’t have time to run with regularity anymore. Then, as Denise stayed home with the kids and Justin was promoted to a district manager with an expense account, each ballooned in weight. “If we didn’t leave a restaurant with a lot of food on the table, it just meant we didn’t order enough,” Ricks says with a chuckle, admitting that people are astonished to see his driver’s license photo. “The worst for him was the $1 Big Macs every Monday,” Denise adds. “He’d eat five of them every time.” That was rock bottom and they knew it. He recalls watching a video made during his cross country season his senior year in high school. “In my interview, I said, ‘I’m going to Ricks is running Cal-International on Dec. 5. run forever, no matter what happens,’” he FAST Continued from page 11 recalls. “I thought to myself, ‘What was I on mountain trails near Pikes Peak. He was thinking for those five years that I didn’t run?’ the runner-up in both the state cross coun- I love to run, and I’ve always loved to run.” try meet and the 3,200m on the track as a The couple made a pact to get fit by makjunior and finished third in state in the ing time for running and eating a healthy 3,200m (10:04) and second in the mile (4:31) diet. Their primary catalysts were their son, as a senior. Malachi, now 8, and daughter, Kylah, 7. “We He kept at it during his freshman year at just wanted to teach them about a healthy the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs, lifestyle,” he recalls. “Not just running, but but took a year off as a sophomore, then got biking, hiking, swimming, just being active hurt and, for several reasons, found himself all the time.” losing interest. “It just wasn’t for me,” he says. They stopped buying candy and donuts, “I still ran some on my own, but running in ate a vegetarian diet for a year and even tried school just didn’t work out.” going vegan before eventually returning to a After school, he took a sales job with an moderate, well-balanced diet. Denise started equipment rental company in Alamosa and running once the kids were in school fullmarried college sweetheart Denise, who also time, lost 40 pounds fairly quickly and now briefly ran on the track team in college. Each looks like she could run a fast 5K. Runningg believed in fitness and a healthy lifestyle, but three times a day on most days, Justin also
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By Adam W. Chase and Nancy Hobbs When the first edition came outt in 2001, it was probably ahead off its time. Trail running was such a niche sport back then only a few w races sold out. In the updated verrsion of the book, authors Chasee (RT ’s trail editor) and Hobbss include incl lude d valuable valuable l input about training, racing, gear, r footwear, navigation, nutrition and safety, as well as insights about running with dogs, black toenails, running partners and strength training. It also includes valuable racing, training and nutritional advice from ROCH HORTON, KAMI SEMICK and KRISSY MOEHL. For beginners to experienced trail fiends, there isn’t a more complete book on trail running. Falcon Guides
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RUNNINGTIMES_DECEMBER 2010
By Don Fink Running a mar athon when you’re 47 is a heck of a lot different than when you’re 27. Fink, a top-tier masters triathlete, smartly outlines programs designed for runners over 40. Among his key training strategies are llowering oweri running volume with the use of aerobic cross-training for active recovery and the use of bike-run transition sessions, otherwise known as “brick” workouts, that maximize the physical fatigue on the legs while running without all of the negative impacts of running. He also dedicates chapters to core and functional strength, nutrition and mental training. Lyons Press
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SHORTS
MAR ATHON MAN CHUCK ENGLE
NEWSMAKERS BY JIM GERWECK
MARATHONMAN
THE
CHUCK ENGLE RUNS 26.2-MILERS FAST AND FREQUENTLY CHUCK ENGLE’S Facebook nickname is “MarathonJunkie,” Besides training with the team, Engle began running with some and it’s certainly apropos: He’s definitely a guy who never older guys who ran road races, sometimes logging 20 to 24 miles in a met a 26-miler he didn’t like (or run). single day. “One guy told me I should try running a marathon,” says
For an interview with Doug Kurtis, go to runningtimes.com/dec10. 16 /
RUNNINGTIMES_DECEMBER 2010
Engle, who made his debut at the Tupelo race in 2000. “I just showed up, didn’t even pre-enter, just got on the starting line and took off like a shot,” he recalls. “The race started at 5 a.m. so it was still pretty cool, and I felt great.” Engle hit the halfway point in 1:13, almost 5 minutes better than his half marathon PR. “Then on the way back the sun came up and the temperatures started to rise,” he says. “It hit me like the devil’s pitchfork — my world came unglued. I watched my mile splits go from 5:40s to 6:20s to 7:30s, and there was nothing I could do about it.” In spite of the meltdown, Engle fi nished in a course record 2:34:33.
By 2003 Engle had taken a job with the Mississippi YMCA and wound up running 29 marathons that year “just to see if I could,” averaging around 2:37. In 2005 he met JOHN ELLIOT of marathonguide.com, who asked him how many he thought he could run in a year. Fifty seemed like a nice round number, so 2006 was devoted to averaging nearly a marathon a week, and after he ran the fi rst seven under 3 hours, that became an additional goal. “Honestly, the logistics of getting to all the races, and being able to enter the ones that often close out, was tougher than the actual act of running them,” he says. The following year Engle backed off on quantity to see just how fast he could go if he focused on just a few efforts. He spent some time training with fellow Ohioan and Olympic trials qualifier JIM JURCEVICH, but when he returned to Tupelo ran 3 minutes slower than in his debut for the distance. He unexpectedly got his PR of 2:31:01 at the Air Force Marathon in Dayton, just four days after running a 3:17 in Kansas while “so sick I contemplated dropping out several times every mile.” He also won marathons on consecutive days for the fi rst time that year. In 2008 the back-to-back racing continued and even Continued on page 18
Courtesy of marathonguide.com
“I was always competitive, and I knew there might be people peop e better bet than me, but no one who would outwork outw me.”
Photo:
While there may be people who have run more of them, and there are certainly those who have run faster, if quantity and quality are considered together, Engle’s the champ, hands down. The 39-year-old resident of Dublin, Ohio, has run more sub-3:00 marathons than anyone besides Michigan masters runner DOUG KURTIS (the two of them are vying to be the fi rst to hit the century mark there), cranking out 50 of them in 2008 alone. And he’s No. 2 in marathon victories in the world (fi rst American), many in courserecord times, most of them sub-3:00. But according to Engle, none of this is any part of some grand scheme to secure a place in Guinness World Records or some hall of fame. Like some real-life Forrest Gump, Engle simply likes to run. It started back when he was in middle school and got pancaked by a guy twice his size the fi rst day of football practice. “The coach told me, ‘Nice effort son, but maybe you’d be better off in another sport,’” Engle recalls. Already a proficient if scrappy wrestler, he went out for the cross country team, as much to stay in shape for wrestling as anything else. “Then I started to realize I was more in control of the outcome in running,” he says. “I was always competitive, and I knew there might be people better than me, but no one who would outwork me.” His success in running continued when he matriculated to University of Mount Union in Alliance, Ohio, but in his sophomore year he got a slap in the face that changed the course of his athletic life going forward. “I’d qualified for the national championships in the steeple, and my times made me a shot for getting All-American, but I started to slack off and enjoy the college life a bit too much,” he says. When it came time to go to nationals, his coach delivered the shocking news: He hadn’t entered Engle, feeling he didn’t deserve to go. “‘You settled for mediocrity this year,’ he told me,” Engle recalls. “From that day forward I got serious, and never missed a national championship the rest of my college career,” which included earning All-American accolades three times. After graduation, Engle moved to Mississippi as a graduate assistant coach. “I was hard on my athletes, maybe too much so,” he says. “I didn’t want to see them make the mistakes I made in college.”
SHORTS MARATHON
CHUCK ENGLE • WHAT’S NE W AT RUNNINGTIMES.COM
Continued from page 16
escalated to two triples in the second half of the year. The fi rst came on Labor Day weekend when he fi nished second in Pocatello, then won Tupelo for the seventh time before closing out his holiday of marathons with another runner-up fi nish at the Heart of America Marathon in Missouri. In three days he raced almost 79 miles, flying 4,400 miles and driving another 1,400 to do so. Still, it’s rare for Engle to top 100 miles during a week unless he races more than once in a seven-day span. He ran almost four dozen marathons in 2009 but the Bank of America Chicago race may have been the straw that broke the camel’s back. It was Engle’s 200t lifetime marathon and very nearly his last. Fighting an injury, he popped pain pills the week before the race and limped home with a 4:43 fi nish. “I realized my body was telling me it was time to take some time off.” In spite of that slow time, his average for 52 consecutive races was 2:47. Engle’s been back at it in 2010. “I got some good races under my belt this year,” he says. Although some have criticized Engle for cherry picking low-key marathons that are won in less than world-class times, he doesn’t let that bother him. “I’m competitive, but my goal is to run as many as I can, not win as many.” While he runs the big ones like Boston and Chicago, he fi nds he’s attracted to the smaller, more idiosyncratic events in out-of-the-way (and often hard to get to) places, races that have character, directed by people with whom he’s formed a personal bond. A look at his remaining dance card for the year bears that out. “Philly, Flying Monkey in Nashville, Malibu, Sedona,” he ticks off the list of possible events. And he plans on ending his year as he usually does, at the Run for the Ranch in Springfi eld, Mo. “It’s a post-Christmas, pre-New Year’s tradition, and it’s almost always mind-numbingly cold,” he says. By then, he’ll probably be over the triple-digit mark in marathon wins and looking forward to new goals, new races in 2011. Anything to get this Marathon Junkie his running fi x. •
A JUNKIE’S WEEK CHUCK ENGLE runs several marathons every month and most of them under 2:50. How does he do it? “My weekly mileage has gradually grown over the years from 35 miles at the beginning of high school to 50 when I graduated,” CHUCK ENGLE says. “I became excited about hitting my first 100-mile week in college but never got there.” Engle is no slave to training logs or workout plans. “Any days that I’m questioning the run, feel a twinge, I get on the bike and ride,” he says, using a 3-to-1 mileage ratio to figure his running equivalent.
WHAT’S NEW AT RUNNINGTIMES.COM Sun:
Usually a race day, preceded by a 2- to 3-mile warm-up and typically followed by 1 mile after.
Mon:
7–10 miles at easy pace in the morning, followed by endurance plyometrics — basically ballistic stretching drills in the afternoon. “I think they’re the key to me staying flexible,” he says.
Tues:
A longer afternoon run with speed work thrown in, usually half mile to mile repeats at significantly faster than marathon pace.
Ô TRAILS:
Tips from champion trail runner IAN TORRENCE on mentally surviving the inevitable tough patches of a long trail run. Ô YOUNG RUNNERS:
Tips for the college recruitment process from a former track and cross country coach for Columbia University.
Weds: Slow runs of 10 miles in the morning, followed by another 10 at night, with a heart rate max of 65 percent. Thurs: Off/cross-training: bike, swim or both.
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RUNNINGTIMES_DECEMBER 2010
Fri:
If Engle’s racing that weekend he’ll do a 5- to 7-miler with a middle couple miles of pickups. If there’s no race scheduled he’ll run slightly longer and hammer for 100 yards multiple times during the run.
Sat:
Travel to a Sunday race, or a Saturday marathon, which moves the following week’s plan back one day.
Courtesy Little Rock Marathon
Here’s a typical week for him:
Brian Metzler/Zephyr Media
Learn how and why to do “moderate” workouts instead of always alternating hard and easy days.
From Left:
Ô TRAINING:
I’M IN. WE’RE IN.
GET IN.
The excitement. The adrenaline. You can’t be a part of it if you’re not in it. Apply Monday, November 8, 2010, for the ING New York City Marathon 2011 and get ready for an experience of a lifetime. To apply for the ING New York City Marathon 2011, visit nyrr.org.
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move as millions thrive as one WHILE MILLONS OF HUMANS FINISH MARATHONS, ALMOST NO OTHER ANIMALS RUN LONG DISTANCE. WHEN IT COMES TO SPRINTING, WE HUMANS LAG FAR BEHIND THE CHEETAH, EVEN THE ELEPHANT... BUT WE EXCEL AT DISTANCE RUNNING. IN FACT, WE’RE THE BEST DISTANCE RUNNERS IN THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. WHY IS THIS? COULD IT BE THAT DISTANCE RUNNING MADE US HUMAN? - AMBY BURFOOT, RUNNER’S WORLD EDITOR AT LARGE
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. Open only to legal residents of the fifty (50) United States and the District of Columbia, who are 21 years of age or older are eligible to enter. The Sweepstakes Period ends on November 20, 2010, at 11:59 p.m. EDT. To enter and for Official Rules visit www.natgeotv.com/migrations. Void where prohibited by law.
runnersworld.com/GreatMigrations
TRAINING TO BOOST THE TOP FACTOR IN PERFORMANCE
sprint zone
lactate 30K
FOR YEARS, scientists worked to determine the top
15K
8K
2K
physiological factor in distance running success. As they dug deeper and deeper, the answer became clear: the pace at your lactate threshold.
easy mara run
While the term “lactate threshold” is less common among researchers these days, the fact remains that, as you run faster, you produce more lactate. At some point, the lactate begins to accumulate at a faster and faster rate. The graph at the right indicates a typical lactate profi le for a runner. The faster you can run at the point where the curve begins to turn upward quickly, the faster you’ll race. The purpose of “lactate threshold” training, then, is to move your lactate curve to the right so that you can run faster before reaching this “threshold.” Toward that end, the weekly tempo run, done at the pace of your lactate threshold, became popular. While frequent tempo runs can improve your lactate profi le, I’ve found that variety in this type of training results in better performance improvement. I call it full-spectrum lactate threshold training.
than most runners run tempo runs. (Most runners push a little too hard on tempo runs.) Like the low-end workout, start with a warm-up and fi nish with a cool-down. Run continuously at this “comfortably hard” pace. If you start approaching 10K pace on these longer, continuous runs, then you’re doing them too fast.
A CLOSE LOOK AT THE CURVE If you look closely at the lactate curve in the chart at the right, you’ll see the full spectrum of the lactate threshold training zone. On the low end of the zone, the pace is roughly the pace you can race for 2 to 3 hours. In the middle of the zone is the pace you can race for 1 to 1.5 hours. At the fast end of the zone is the pace you can race for 30 to 45 minutes. I’ve found that, if you break your lactate threshold training into workouts from each zone, your body adapts faster and better. Your lactate curve shifts more quickly to the right and improved racing performance follows. Here are the three lactate threshold (LT) training zones and their associated workouts.
LOW-END LT TRAINING In looking at the low-end zone, you’ll notice that it’s the pace most of us can run for just shy of the marathon. So, doing some workouts at your marathon pace or slightly faster (even if you aren’t training for a marathon) is very beneficial. These workouts are long, steady runs lasting 45 to 90 minutes. Start with 10 to 30 minutes of easy running, then pick up the pace to around your marathon pace. Hold it there for 45 to 90 minutes, then cool down for 10 to 30 minutes.
MIDDLE ZONE LT TRAINING Middle zone pace is what most of us can race for a half marathon. These workouts are also continuous runs, but last only 20 to 40 minutes, like a typical tempo run. Run this workout a bit more controlled 22 /
speed zone
Full Spectrum Lactate Threshold Training
stamina zone
BY GREG MCMILL AN, M.S.
endurance zone
PERFORMANCE PAGE
RUNNINGTIMES_DECEMBER 2010
1/2m
10K 5K 3K
mile
800m
RACE PACE
HIGH-END LT TRAINING High-end zone pace is roughly 10K pace. Workouts for this zone are what many coaches call “tempo intervals.” They’re repeats with a recovery interval but are much more controlled than traditional track workouts at 5K pace or faster. Because the tendency is to run a bit too fast, the recovery interval is minimal (usually one-fourth or one-fi fth of the length of the repeat). For example, if you’re doing mile repeats as tempo intervals and your 10K pace is 6:00 per mile, then you’ll take only 60 to 90 seconds for your recovery jog. Th is ensures that you don’t run too fast but keep the pace in the correct lactate threshold zone. With tempo intervals, try to get in 3 to 6 miles of running at 10K pace. •
COACH’S NOTES
As I mention frequently in this column, variety is a key ingredient in successful training. Working the lactate threshold across the full spectrum results in faster and better adaptations. Doing a variety of LT workouts also allows you to learn more about yourself. Sprinkle in these LT workouts throughout the year but at least twice per year, do a focused training phase where, for four to six weeks, you perform a weekly LT workout. Lastly, remember to control yourself with LT training. The “tough” of the workout should come from the duration of the workout, not the speed. In this case, it’s more important to go slower and do more volume of running than faster but shorter.
GREG MCMILLAN is an exercise physiologist and USATF-certified coach who helps runners via his website mcmillanrunning.com.
Competitive
Urge
IN JUNE I won a marathon. Memorial Day weekend I went to Idaho to watch friends compete in an XTERRA triathlon. I hung out with Mo, an excellent athlete who was sidelined by pregnancy. We cheered and hooted, sat in the sun, talked about books. I kept saying how much better it was to spectate than it was to compete. The run course ended on a long grassy uphill. I said to Mo that I would not want to finish a race that way, that likely I’d slow down and crawl across the line. She said if I saw a ponytail bobbing ahead of me, my real self would kick in and I would kill myself to pass her. Mo believed that I, like most athletes, could not overcome my competitive urge. Wrongo, Ringo, I said. Those days are over. While I was never particularly fast, I no longer race to win, or even to place. At this point I have achieved all the running goals I set out to accomplish. Age and other inevitabilities are working against me, and I’m enjoying a twilight time of running only for fun, free from the pressure of thinking about my times or who is beating me. To Mo I heard myself uttering a phrase that makes your bones creak: When I was your age,
I told her, with fierce earnestness, all I cared about was achievement, excellence, being the best I could be. I’ve come to value other things, I said, with the smug maturity of someone who has been (relatively) successful in life. Each time she sees me Mo asks for my marathon PR. I suspect she’ll stop when she beats it. While hanging around and spectating on Saturday, I found out that there was a trail marathon at the same state park the next day. How could I resist? It didn’t matter that I hadn’t run farther than 12 miles for the past six months. The singletracks were beautiful, around a submarine-deep lake. I could do what I’d told Mo I do — just go out there and have fun. As soon as the gun went off I realized I was a big fat liar. I’d sized up the other runners at the line and knew I had to win. Around 5 miles in there was a short out-and-back. I was shocked to see another woman no more than a few minutes behind me. I’d assumed I’d built a strong lead. So for the rest of the race I ran scared. When I got tired and wanted to back off, I kept pushing. I’d forgotten how stressful it is to be in the lead. I crossed the line fi rst. The next runner was more than a half hour behind me. I won. Or, as I am wont to say, modestly, humbly, I WON! I WON! I WON! I didn’t run well or fast. And I was happy I won only because the alternative was to feel like a loser. That day there was a half marathon, the full 26.2-miler, a 50K and a 50-miler. All my friends, runners who can kick my butt without breathing hard, were doing the longer races. There were only four people in the marathon, all women 40–49 years old. So you see, claiming victory is an exaggeration. But the experience provided an important lesson. I have friends whose goal in every workout is to destroy each other and themselves, friends who think if you can’t run fast you don’t deserve to buy shoes. You’re missing something, I tell them. No one cares about your times any more. Why do you care if other people are slow? But maybe I have been missing out. There is something profound about having to work so hard you hurt. I used to know that the only way to get better at something is to be with people who challenge you; that racing yourself into shape is efficient, and that humiliation can be a powerful motivator. While I tell myself that it’s OK to be less competitive, to take it easy, too much of that puts you at risk of stagnating. I believed what I told Mo — that I was done with all striving — at the moment I was saying it. But the next day, sore and tired, I was happy to fi nd that I hadn’t matured as much as I thought I had. For a long time my closest friends and I have been making January 1 resolutions. We give the coming year a title, meant to reflect ongoing effort. I’ve had the Year of the Dollar (disaster — still didn’t make money), the Year of Moisturizing (success! It continues!), and The Year of Losing Electrons (trying to be more positive — don’t ask). I am resolving that 2011 will be the Year of Doing Things That Suck. I will seek to put myself in situations where I am the dumbest person in the room, the least capable at whatever I’m doing, and the slowest runner in the group. In middle age, when we’ve achieved certain measures of success, it’s easy to get lazy and complacent. It’s good to remember the importance of doing things that challenge us. • RACHEL TOOR teaches writing at Eastern Washington University in Spokane. Her latest book is Personal Record: A Love Affair with Running.
24 /
RUNNINGTIMES_DECEMBER 2010
Nate Dyer
The
BY R ACHEL TOOR
Illustrator:
PERSONAL RECORD
OWNER’S MANUAL
Short Road to
GET TING R ACE-RE ADY ON BORROWED TIME
BY TIM GARGIULO
SUCCESS CRASH TRAINING ISN’T IDEAL, BUT IT CAN WORK
SO YOU HAVE A BIG RACE coming up, the one that you’ve had circled on your calendar and imprinted on your mind for the past several months. The goal that has spurred you to climb out of your warm, comfortable bed way too early to get in your workout, that’s kept you focused through intervals or hill workouts that you were convinced would never quite end is finally visible on the horizon. In fact, it might be even closer than that. It might feel like it’s looming just around the corner. Problem is, you’re no longer quite sure that you’re going to be able to be ready for it. Injury, illness, life, something has kept you from getting in enough of your prescribed runs and workouts. Now the race you’ve been focusing on is just weeks away and you feel woefully unprepared, but you still want to run it. What to do?
Illustration:
Nick Hensley
First, take a few deep breaths and understand that all is not lost. In spite of the setbacks, if you still have four to six weeks until the race, you can, by doing the right workouts, get yourself ready not just to complete the race, but to compete and compete well. Be warned, however, that because your preparation for the competition will be less than ideal, you’ll need to adjust your original expectations for the race.
can do is prepare themselves for the stresses that they are going to have [in the race] and make the experience as good and as positive an experience as possible,” he says. Whether you’re preparing for a 5K, 10K or something in the 15K to half marathon range, your training objectives are twofold. (If your waylaid race is a marathon, your best bet is to do it as a long run at training pace and refocus on another marathon you can prepare properly for.) The fi rst is to increase PREPARING THE the amount of mileage done at a higher level of quality, generally done through tempo UNPREPARED BODY The focus of your training will be attempting runs, to stimulate your cardiovascular systo “simulate to [the] body what the race might tem. The second is to mix in some speed work hold,” according to STEVE SISSON, coach of as you get closer to the race to fi re up your the University of Texas women’s cross coun- fast-twitch muscle fibers. If you have six weeks until your goal race, try team as well as Team Rogue Elite, an elite athlete training group based in Austin, Texas. the basic training structure should be as Sisson says that runners need to get to a point follows: The fi rst four weeks would be the in their training where they’re getting an idea quality work phase; the following week of what the race is going to feel like so that would be the race-preparation phase; and it’s less of a shock on race day. “What they the fi nal week would be the sharpening, rest
and recovery phase. In a four-week situation, two and a half weeks would be devoted to quality work, while race preparation would be scaled back to a maximum of two quick workouts with one last sharpening workout added in near the end, if possible, and only the last three to four days before the race being designated for rest and recovery. During the quality work phase you’ll need to be doing at least two, if not three, hard workouts each week. At least one of them should be a long tempo run (as in, usually longer than your goal race). Tempo runs are important because they require you to concentrate on keeping up a steady, strong pace for a prolonged time, just like you’ll have to do in your race. Sisson recommends that if you’re training for a 5K, your weekly tempo run should be at least 4 miles long. If you’re pointing toward a 10K, put in at least a 7-mile tempo run, and if you’re working toward a 15K to half marathon, get in at least an 11-mile tempo run. The pace used for these runs should be what he describes as “comfortably hard.” Th is will obviously be different for everyone and might even vary from one workout to the next, but you can use 25 to 30 seconds slower than your 5K race pace as a guide for the tempo runs of 20–25 minutes, adding approximately 5 seconds per mile for every 10 additional minutes
If you still have four to six weeks until the race, you can, by doing the right workouts, get yourself ready. of tempo run. (Example: If your 5K pace is 5:30/mile, a 20-minute tempo run would be at approximately 5:55–6:00/mile, while an hour tempo run would be at approximately 6:15–6:20/mile.) Continued on page 28 RUNNINGTIMES
/ 27
OWNER’S MANUAL SUCCESS
Continued from page 27
The other hard workout to include in each of the quality-work weeks is a fartlek. Fartleks, which are a combination of fast and slow running, can be indispensable in a situation where training time is limited, because they address both the higher-quality and speed training objectives during the course of a single workout. Consequently, they’re one of the most efficient ways to elevate your fitness level quickly. The purpose of the fartlek is to get your body used to running at or just below race pace for a sustained, albeit limited, amount of time. Additionally,
INTELLIGENT CR A SH TR AINING
CRASH TRAINING PLANS 5K WEEK A
4–5 sets of 4–5 minutes hard with 3- to 4-minute recovery jogs (5–7 miles total with warm-up and cool-down)
02 4- to 5-mile tempo run
3 X 1.5–2 miles hard with 5-minute recovery jogs (6–8 miles total with warm-up and cool-down)
03 4- to 5-mile tempo run
4–5 sets of 4–5 minutes hard with 3- to 4-minute recovery jogs (5–7 miles total with warm-up and cool-down)
01
The purpose of 04 4- to 5-mile tempo run these workouts is 4 X 200m at race pace or a little 05 faster (200m jog recovery) to train your body 3 X 1,000m at just under race pace (2-minute jog recovery) to continue to run 2 X 400m again at race pace or a fast even when it’s little faster (400m jog recovery) already fatigued. they “get the body to understand what its paces and rhythms are,” says Sisson. The workouts in the race-preparation phase are more easily done on a track, but if you don’t have access to one, they can also be done on the road. The purpose of these workouts is to train your body to continue to run fast even when it’s already fatigued. These workouts are made up of a series of intervals, all relatively short (i.e., none more than 1,000m) but they’re run at race pace or, preferably, a little faster. See “Crash Training Plans” for more about these and the other workouts described here. Finally, if everything has gone to plan, you should have enough time before the race to do one last sharpening workout. It should be something light and quick that doesn’t leave you feeling taxed. The purpose here is to get a little quick leg turnover going, to start “feeling fast.” If you do this workout, do so three to four days before the race with those last several days being set aside solely for easy running, the only possible addition to those runs being a few very easy strides at the end of them. Whether you do that last sharpening workout should be determined by what your body is telling you as that last week of training progresses. If you fi nd that your energy level is low and your legs don’t seem to have a whole lot of spring in them, it’s better to simply drop this last workout. Continued on page 30 28 /
RUNNINGTIMES_DECEMBER 2010
B
4- to 5-mile tempo run
3 X 1 mile of 200m fast, 200m jog recovery (5 miles total with warm-up and cool-down) 4 X 200m at race pace or faster (200m jog recovery) 2 X 400m at race pace or faster (400m jog recovery) 1 X 800m at just under race pace (800m jog recovery) 2 X 400m at race pace or faster (400m jog recovery) 4 X 200m at race pace or faster (200m jog recovery)
(at least 200m 06 10walk,X 200m full recovery)
10K WEEK A
01
5- to 6-mile tempo run
B 5–6 sets of 4–5 minutes hard with 3- to 4-minute recovery jogs (7–9 miles total with warm-up and cool-down)
02 6- to 7-mile tempo run
4 X 1.5–2 miles hard with 5-minute recovery jogs (8–10 miles total with warm-up and cool-down)
03 7- to 8-mile tempo run
5–6 sets of 4–5 minutes hard with 3- to 4-minute recovery jogs (7–9 miles total with warm-up and cool-down)
04 7- to 8-mile tempo run X 200m at race pace or a little 05 5faster (200m jog recovery)
3 X 2 miles of 200m fast, 200m jog recovery (8 miles total with warm-up and cool-down) 5 X 200m at race pace or faster (200m jog recovery)
4 X 1,000m at just under race pace (2-minute jog recovery)
3 X 400m at race pace or faster (400m jog recovery)
3 X 400m again at race pace or a little faster (400m jog recovery)
1 X 800m at just under race pace (800m jog recovery) 3 X 400m at race pace or faster (400m jog recovery) 5 X 200m at race pace or faster (200m jog recovery)
( at least 200m 06 10walk,X 200m full recovery)
OWNER’S MANUAL SUCCESS
Continued from page 28
W it h t he physica l work completed, there’s one last thing you’ll need to attend to — your head. Running a race when you know going in that your preparation was less than what it should have been can be daunting. Having the right mindset for this situation is as important, if not more, than the physical training that you did to get yourself there. Again, when your race preparation hasn’t been ideal, the expectations that you have for your performance need to be adjusted. “You need to temper your goals with reality,” says Sisson, “and that way you can have a much more positive experience in the race.” However, this doesn’t mean that you can’t take away just as much, and perhaps even more, from this experience than you would have had your training been everything you expected it to be. You’ll have gained something from this process that’s not easily obtained: the knowledge that you can persevere through adversity and still make the most of a situation even when the circumstances you are faced with are less than idyllic. •
RACING YOUR BEST
CR A SH TR AINING • MID-R ACE ADJUSTMENTS
15K WEEK A
01
8- to 9-mile tempo run
B 6–7 sets of 4–5 minutes hard with 3- to 4-minute recovery jogs (8–10 miles total with warm-up and cool-down)
02 9- to 10-mile tempo run
5 X 1.5–2 miles hard with 5-minute recovery jogs (10–12 miles total with warm-up and cool-down)
03 10- to 11-mile tempo run
6–7 sets of 4–5 minutes hard with 3- to 4-minute recovery jogs (8–10 miles total with warm-up and cool-down)
04 11- to 12-mile tempo run X 200m at race pace or a little 05 6faster (200m jog recovery)
3 X 3 miles of 200m fast, 200m jog recovery (11 miles total with warm-up and cool-down) 6 X 200m at race pace or faster (200m jog recovery)
5 X 1,000m at just under race pace (2-minute jog recovery)
4 X 400m at race pace or faster (400m jog recovery)
4 X 400m again at race pace or a little faster (400m jog recovery)
2 X 800m at just under race pace (800m jog recovery) 4 X 400m at race pace or faster (400m jog recovery) 6 X 200m at race pace or faster (200m jog recovery)
(at least 200m 06 10walk,X 200m full recovery)
projected split. Unless the rest of the course features a downhill sleigh ride, you’re not going to make up that time. And you know it, too. What do you do now? How do you contain your frustrations and stay focused? Elite runners and coaches offer these two key insights. First, don’t quit. (A half marathon or marathon might be an exception, where sometimes a DNF is the better part of valor.) Second, try something, anything to give yourself a jolt. “I have definitely had my share of races that are for whatever reason off, and have become more of a mental exercise than a physical one,” says American 5K record-holder MOLLY HUDDLE. “As long as you aren’t injured or damaging yourself long-term, I think they are important to get through because no one feels good all the time.” Huddle notes — as many elite runners have wisely observed before IN THE MIDDLE of a Gigli-style flop of a race, many her — that if you drop out of a bad race, quitting becomes a more of us will console ourselves to the point of fantasy, but at tempting option next time around. Before you know it, it will be a some point we eventually realize — usually well before habit. Instead, Huddle says, if you’re racing poorly, try a little group we stumble dejectedly across the finish line — that we’re therapy. Latch onto a pack of runners, even those whom you ordirunning poorly. So poorly, in fact, that barring divine narily beat. intervention over the next few miles, we’re going to fall The point now is to distract yourself from your disappointing well short of our expectations. The challenge now is to performance or, better yet, to look at it as a new competitive opporsummon the motivation to give your best effort. tunity. Huddle says that you may decide then to come up with a new goal for the day. Maybe you can practice the timing of your kick This is a story, then, about how to race badly. Or, to put it more instruc- against your new rivals. Regardless, you need to look at your race tively, how to race when the race is going badly. as primarily a test of whether you can still push yourself when your original goal has slipped away. DRIFTING, FALLING “I used to fear the unpredictable off day, but now I realize that Imagine this scenario: Two miles into a 10K in which you had planned grinding is part of racing,” Huddle says. “On ‘feel great’ days, it is Continued on page 32 to run 7:00 pace, you came through at 14:40, 40 seconds off your BY MATT PULLE
WHEN YOU’RE AT YOUR
Worst HOW TO KEEP AT IT IN THE MIDDLE OF A BAD RACE
30 /
RUNNINGTIMES_DECEMBER 2010
OWNER’S MANUAL BEST
MAKING THE BEST OF BAD R ACES
stay focused. But this shouldn’t be something you do on the spot. Instead, go into a race with a range of time and place goals, rather than standing on the starting line focused on only one outcome. “You always have to go into a race realizing that there’s always a SOMETHING, ANYTHING chance that you might be off your pace,” Avery says. “So you have to Other runners and coaches maintain that once you realize that widen the range of possibilities of what and how you want to race to you’re racing poorly, you need to immediately change your approach. make it easier to stay motivated if things don’t go well. “ Don’t just hope that things will miraculously improve on their own. For example, say you think that you can run 80:00 for this weekThey won’t. Do something different. end’s 10-mile race. And let’s assume you’ve raced at or close to that CRAIG VIRGIN, a two-time world cross country champion and level of performance and your recent workouts indicate that you’re three-time Olympian, says that runners need to alter their form at in that kind of shape. Avery nevertheless says to give yourself a large the point it becomes clear they’re off the mark. deviation off that goal time — say 40 to 50 seconds per mile — and ”I would suggest to people to shorten your stride a little bit and try cement that pace as the low end of your expectations. Don’t necessarto turn it over a little faster,” Virgin says. “I found that if I went to a ily dwell on that time, but keep it in mind on the morning of the race. shorter stride and a quicker cadence I could run myself out of the Now fast forward a few miles into your 10-miler. Your watch reads malaise I found myself in.” off a series of grim and grimmer splits: “8:10,” “8:30,” “8:40.” It’s not Virgin says that after a slower-than-expected opening mile or two, there, and you know it. Still, even though you’re disappointed, you make sure you’re not running too far back on your heels. Focus on can hit the low end of your goal. And that time and pace is now what your posture as well, Virgin says, and try leaning forward slightly. you’re focused on. Focus now on the next half mile or mile and pay attention to the “If you don’t hit the [mental] reset button you can hit 9:10 next and mechanics of running well. kill yourself,” Avery says of the hypothetical runner in our example. “If you’re falling off your pace 15–30 seconds a mile, it’s not just “But if you hit reset you might hit 8:40s and actually feel good about your race and your effort.” Avery says when runners focus only on a narrow goal for each race, they’ll set themselves up for the type of failure that can defi ne their season. “I see people check out because the mentality becomes win or lose, and once they’re not going to hit their goal, they give up.” something subtle,” he adds. “You have altered your biomechanThere’s a reason why every runner needs to ics for the worse and you need to regroup and think of everything learn how to race badly. Because on the day from the feet up.” when you’re fi nally knocking down all Essentially, when you’re having a bad race, you need to get back your splits and running so far ahead to basics. The very basics. Like breathing. STEVE SPENCE, bronze of your rivals that they start wonmedalist at the 1991 world championships marathon, recommends dering if you’re storing your focusing on inhaling and exhaling, or even counting breaths and blood in a refrigerator, it strides. “That seems to really take my mind off what’s hurting and will still hurt. You’ll need that gets me in a rhythm to where I can get it going again and start to focus on your stride, your feeling pretty good,” he says. breathing and your kick. To Now the men’s and women’s cross country coach at Shippensburg hit the best time you can University in Pennsylvania, Spence offers similar advice to his run- possibly run, you’ll still need ners, with an emphasis on breaking the race into tiny segments. to keep your mind from drifting into “Sometime in a race situation, if someone gives me the look, ‘It’s empty thoughts and stay as focused as not happening today, what should I do?’ I usually remind them to an air traffic controller so that your pace focus on their breathing and to stay relaxed and work with a team- doesn’t falter. But if you already held your mate,” he says. “Whatever they can do to get a little bit closer to the zeal in that race when nothing went fi nish line. Sometimes I will say, ‘Give me one minute’ and then I’ll right, it will be easier to fi nish the say it again and try to get them close enough to the fi nish line where job on the day when everything they can make a commitment.” about your running is now going according to your best-laid plans. GOALS, REALITY “Bad races are very, very good As Huddle and the others note, in a bad race you need to adapt. But for you,” says elite coach BRAD you don’t necessarily do that by trying harder and getting angry with HUDSON. “It’s good for athletes to yourself. This isn’t football; racing is a more intricate contest. Instead, have an off race before a big race; think of politics and the candidate for office dropping quickly in the it makes them take a step back polls. Maybe the best thing for the would-be governor to do is to drop and realize, ‘I’m not Superman. out of the public eye for a bit and come up with a new game plan. It’s not going to come easy,’ and as GUY AVERY, who coaches elite and non-elite runners in Tennessee, a result they’re more prepared for says that once you realize there’s no way you’re going to hit your pre- the effort that a breakthrough race time, you need to come up with an alternative goal to help you race requires.” • Continued from page 30
32 /
RUNNINGTIMES_DECEMBER 2010
Photo:
“Bad races are very, very good for you.”
Victor Sailer/Photo Run
easy to run fast, but on the other days, you fi nd out what you are really made of.”
INGMiamiMarathon.com
JANUARY 30, 2011
Produced by
PROPER PARENTAL ROLES IN YOUTH RUNNING
Don’t Be One of ‘Those’ Parents
BY CAITLIN CHOCK
Running has to be a passion of the athlete, not the parent. “For any young athlete to WHAT HAPPENS WHEN the cheers from the sidelines turn from have a shot at being successful in college encouraging to demeaning? Parents of young harriers often play a prom- and beyond, they have to be having fun,” inent role in the athletes’ lives, and they need to be sources of positive asserts Blood. “You can’t dedicate your life to encouragement, but sometimes transferred aspirations can be placed upon something you don’t enjoy.” At the same time, those young shoulders. It can be tricky to navigate the line between encour- being chastised after poor performances isn’t aging excellence and demanding performance, even if seen as for the child’s the way to bolster enjoyment of the sport or sake, be it for personal development or dreams of scholarships and fame. inspire the confidence to keep it up. “I’ve seen some parents yell at high-schoolers after a “I know parents always want what’s best for their children,” recog- mediocre performance,” adds Blood. “I could not imagine being nizes University of Oregon graduate and professional runner NICOLE yelled at after a bad race — or ever for that matter. I need a hug from BLOOD, “so I’m sure it’s hard not to get too involved.” Perhaps the my parents and encouragement for next time.” greatest point to keep in mind for parents, though, is that it needs to be the individual athletes leading their careers. Yes, parents should BE PILLARS OF STRENGTH be a strong support system and help to bolster an athlete’s confi- Any running career has ups and downs. These dence, but the fallout from being too overbearing, controlling, or are opportune times for parents to be there for wrapped up in the drive for success can result in not only a loss of their children. “When I needed my parents’ supinterest in the sport by the athlete but also lasting damage to the port the most they always looked on the bright parent-child relationship. side,” recalls Sisson. “There is no way I would have So just how can parents balance being involved in their child’s gotten through any of that without them!” Being a soundrunning without becoming added stressors or negative influences? ing board to vent frustrations or reminding the athlete that everyone has their share REMEMBER WHO’S RACING of setbacks or struggles is a way parents “My parents did a great job; they let me make my own can be there for them; more than decisions and deal with wins and losses in my own likely the athletes are hard enough way, and no matter what, they stood by my side,” on themselves and the last thing a says Blood. “I was hard enough on myself, so they parent should do is pile on any extra burdens. knew they didn’t need to do anything extra.” The children are the ones logging the miles and toeing COMMUNICATE WITH THE COACH the line; it should be up to them to decide the course Seek a coach and team that provide a positive atmosphere. Open their careers will take. Parents and coaches are there communication among the parents, the athlete and the coach is to offer guidance but the love of the sport has critical. “When an athlete questions a coach, the parents can do to come from the athlete. National high a lot in encouraging the athlete to communicate with their coach,” school 5K record-holder and University says ALBERT CARUANA, the Crystal Springs Uplands School coach of Wisconsin freshman EMILY SISSON in Hillsborough, Calif. says: “When I think of parents or Running is at once rewarding and demanding, fun and, at times, coaches that have gone too far, I grueling; it requires dedication and persistence and, ultimately, that think of parents that just forget drive must come from within. • that this is their child’s sport. … Running should always be some- CAITLIN CHOCK, a 2004 high school graduate from Roseville, thing you do because you love it. Calif., set the then national 5K high school record of 16:10. It shouldn’t be something you do to please someone else.” At runningtimes.com/highschool:
FIND A BALANCE Running can become a consuming sport, but it shouldn’t be all-consuming. Parents should encourage their children to pursue other interests and maintain a social life. 34 / 34
RUN RU UNN UN NIN I N G TIM IN M ES E _ _DE _D DE D E CE C E M BER 2010
• Reviews of three books about the pressures on and threats to kids in sports, and how parents can help. • Ongoing news and rankings of the nation’s top runners and teams. • Reports from the fall cross country championships.
101° West Photography
KEEP IT FUN
Victor Sailer/Photo Run
KEEPING YOUR CHILD’S RUNNING GOALS ALL THEIR OWN
This also helps to ensure that running doesn’t become the athlete’s sole identity. “It’s reassuring to know that no matter what happens, I will always have them — and this thought alone really keeps everything I do in perspective,” acknowledges Sisson. Parents can help athletes to accept losses and let them know it doesn’t take away from their worth as people.
From Left:
HIGH SCHOOL
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COLLEGE
of the
FALL
AL CARIUS PUTS NORTH CENTRAL BACK ON TOP EVERY FALL, North Central College head cross country coach AL CARIUS invites in alumni to discuss the history of the program and fire up his current athletes. While the alumni speak of past championships, Carius hands out the candy cane striped jerseys that have become the trademark of the Cardinals.
Al Carius has imparted coachly wisdom for decades.
The striped jerseys date to 1968, two years after Carius took over as the head cross country coach at the small private school in Naperville, Ill., west of Chicago. “I wanted the guys to stand out at our meets,” he explains. “The whole reason I got the striped jerseys was so when the gun went off, our guys could see each other and people knew who we were. Then it just became a tradition.” Tradition indeed. Since the first NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships in 1973, North Central has produced 13 national titles, 13 runner-up fi nishes, and five thirdplace fi nishes, plus 97 All-Americans, seven individual national champions and countless conference championships. W hi le ma ny wou ld cha l k up Nor t h Central’s success to the workouts and wisdom of the 69-year-old Carius, the legendary coach thinks otherwise. To him, it’s all about encouraging young, committed runners of all abilities to improve at the next level. That Go to runningtimes.com/college to learn more about North Central coach Al Carius’ training philosophy. 36 /
RUNNINGTIMES_DECEMBER 2010
might sound simplistic, but it’s not easy to execute year after year at a strong academic school that doesn’t offer scholarships. “The concern of a collegiate coach, in my opinion, is fi nding people who want to run, who like to run, who have a passion to run,” Carius says. “If you don’t have a culture that fosters that, then you’re going to lose people, and you’re not going to succeed as a program.” Division III distance running success has literally become synonymous with Carius’ name. The U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association created the Al Carius Program of the Year Award during the 2008–2009 academic year, an honor annually given to the NCAA Division III men’s cross country/track and field program with the highest average fi nish at the three national championships. The Cardinals’ sweep of the championships last school year brought the award home to its namesake. Occasionally, however, even the great ones fall. After a second-place NCAA fi nish in 2004, the leadership from within that had kept the Cardinals on top started to slip. As the season progressed, Carius sensed a
shift in culture, but with decades of success behind the program, he figured the program would rejuvenate itself. Instead, North Central fell to 12t in 2005, 13t in 2006 and 16t in 2007. Prior to that, the school had fi nished out of the top four at nationals only once. Team members and coaches were struggling, while the proud alumni of the program started to wonder whether Carius had lost his touch. “Some guys wanted to be associated with the team, but didn’t want to contribute, didn’t want to put in the hard work,” says Carius, a two-time Big Ten cross country champion as an undergrad at Illinois. “You can’t force it on someone. You have to fi nd people that have that passion, and build around that attitude. I allowed it to happen and lowered the standards of what excellence is in our program.” While that might have sent other longtime coaches into retirement, Carius took full responsibility. Prior to the 2008 season, Carius rallied around a core group of young runners and started to see a shift in the team’s mindset. With sophomore MIKE SPAIN and junior KYLE BRADY leading the way, the team started to gel, demonstrating a hunger the program hadn’t seen in years. In the end, it was a simple fi x: Have fun, be true to the sport, run hard and endure the trials of the miles. It’s what Carius had preached for years, but it took a savvy coach to know how to right the program. “You could see them coming together,” Carius says. “We were so fragmented the year before, but as the season went on it became clear that they were in it for each other.” The Cardinals finished second at the national championships in 2008, then went on to win their fi rst title since 1999 last fall, scoring one of the lowest point totals in history (51) while having all seven runners earn All-American status. Carius stepped down as head track coach in the spring, but he plans to lead the cross country program and guide the school’s distance runners in the spring for as long as he can still infuse the Cardinals with passion. The Cardinals could be in the hunt for another national title at the Nov. 20 NCAA Division III meet. This year’s team is yet another group of hard-working Illinoisbred runners, led by Spain, last year’s national runner-up, and NEIL KLEIN (19t at nationals). Says Carius, “We hope that when they put on the striped jersey, that they feel it’s their time to make that contribution and continue the North Central tradition.” •
Photo:
Legend
BY SCOTT BUSH
Steve Woltmann
NORTH CENTR AL COLLEGE’S LEGENDARY COACH
MASTERS
Running Past THE
JOYS OF RUNNING POST-R ACING
Rather, I’m often looking for someone to run “with,” and it’s the camaraderie, rhythm and ritual that continue to hold my interest. It’s an informal arrangement, but on most Wednesdays I meet my current allies, John, Jeff and Mark, outside the library in Concord, Mass., the time usually determined by Mark’s teaching schedule. We set off down Main Street toward Walden Street, on the way sidestepping tourists crowding the sidewalk. We’re soon twisting and turning through familiar landscape, gliding along I NEVER THOUGHT IT WOULD COME to this. I assumed that it Walden Pond’s pristine shore before heading would have been over long ago. But even though I haven’t raced in years, more deeply into the woods. We start slowly I still retain a strong passion for running. In my former life as a 2:14 mara- and build to a nice cadence, fast enough to thoner, I often logged more than 120 miles per week. I enjoyed the training, be reminded of the sting of fatigue. but it was almost entirely about competition and achievement. Working It’s on these runs that I am reminded toward specific goals and the pleasure that comes with a satisfying per- of “The Song of the Ungirt Runners” by formance nurtured my interest in running and ruled this stage of my life. CHARLES HAMILTON SORLEY, a poem that now defi nes my relationship with running. We swing ungirded hips, And lightened are our eyes, The rain is on our lips, We do not run for prize. We know not whom we trust Nor whitherward we fare, But we run because we must Through the great wide air. The waters of the seas Are troubled as by storm. The tempest strips the trees And does not leave them warm. Does the tearing tempest pause? Do the tree-tops ask it why? So we run without a cause ‘Neath the big bare sky. Running because he likes it, in Walden Woods. The rain is on our lips, We do not run for prize. My first real run, a 4-miler down Pound of running: Each athlete finishes in a specific But the storm the water whips Road in Cumberland, R.I., seemed endless. order, and you’re either better or worse than And the wave howls to the skies. It was the fi rst day of high school cross coun- others. Thus began my competitive career. The winds arise and strike it try practice, and I had run exactly zero miles The whole point, at least from my perspective, And scatter it like sand, the previous summer. Thankfully, we started was to beat other people. Although I count And we run because we like it at a pedestrian pace, jogging past fallowed many of my former training mates among my Through the broad bright land. farmland where suburban homes now dot- closest friends, nothing was more satisfying ted the fields. I was actually enjoying the than defeating them in the competitive arena. I was introduced to this verse many years leisurely tempo, but this was short-lived, as I’m confident that the feeling was mutual. ago by former British athletics great BRUCE one of the upperclassmen moved to the front We were, of course, allies off the track, but TULLOH, who at the time was teaching at and increased the pace dramatically. that relationship didn’t matter once the gun Sorley’s alma matter, Marlborough College. I struggled up each incline of the undulat- sounded. It was this dynamic, the challenge Sorley loved to run over the Wiltshire Downs, a beautiful stretch of rolling hills ing route, but pushed on, clinging to the rear of competition, that kept me going. of the front group. I found myself engulfed But many miles and many years later, I’ve and green fields that forms an idyllic frame to in a haze of discomfort and increasingly undergone a fundamental shift in perspec- Marlborough College. Sorley ran through this viewed my new teammates as adversaries; tive and have relegated myself to the margins magnificent landscape for the sheer enjoyI hated each and every one, or at least those of the competitive world. In a sport that’s ment of it all, much like Mark, John, Jeff and disappearing up the road in front of me. It ruled by the clock, freeing myself from the I run through Walden Woods. And yes, like continued like this for what seemed an eter- minutes and seconds that define success Sorley, we run simply because we like it. • nity, but finally, in a blur of exhaustion, it was was liberating. I was now free to run when I over and we were jogging slowly toward the wanted, without the gnawing obligation that TOM RATCLIFFE is the head of KIMbia gym, gathering our teammates on the way. comes with a competitive pursuit. I no longer Athletics, which represents runners such That first run revealed the brutal simplicity have an interest in running “against” anyone. as Chris Solinsky and Lineth Chepkurui. BY TOM RATCLIFFE
FINISH LINE
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RUNNINGTIMES_DECEMBER 2010
Photo:
Tobias Reston Moore
I’M A DAILY RUNNER WHO NO LONGER WANTS TO RACE
MASTERS
AGE-GROUP ACE RENO STIRR AT
AGE-GROUP ACE BY MIKE TYMN
At runningtimes.com/masters:
Reno STIRRAT IN HIS FIRST MARATHON, the 1976 Marine Corps Marathon, RENO
• Masters of the summer roads: Rankings in each age group at the end of the summer road race season. • Magill on Masters: How masters should deal with inflammation.
jog after each. For upper-body strength, he
STIRRAT ran 2:44:45. In his most recent marathon, this year’s Boston, does bar exercises, such as parallel bar dips the 56-year-old Boston resident clocked 2:42:27 while winning the 55–59 and pull-ups, rather than using weights. division. Although such records are unofficial, Stirrat is believed to be the Stirrat’s immediate goals are to improve only American to have run a sub-2:45 marathon in five separate decades. on his recent 5K and 10K times and to run Being realistic, Stirrat doesn’t expect to be under 2:45 when the next decade rolls around in 2020, but he hopes to be a member of the sub-3:00 club for six decades then. While his Boston time this year was faster than his marathon debut time, it certainly wasn’t his fastest. He ran 2:19:17 in the 1979 Rocket City Marathon. “But I am running faster now than I was in my early 50s,” Stirrat jubilates, explaining that his marriage to his wife, Susan, also a dedicated runner, two years ago helped him refocus and train hard again. He also credits his Whirlaway Racing Team, which includes many top masters, for keeping him motivated. “I don’t get hung up on times,” Stirrat says. “I stopped chasing PRs a long time ago. I just try to be competitive in my age group and with different people I know.” Stirrat began running in high school. “While playing freshman football, we would run a mile with full gear, and I always won,” he recalls. “In my sophomore year, everyone on the football team got bigger but me. I was tired of being pounded by everyone who was bigger and so I quit.” He then joined the cross country team and made the varsity that year as the fi fth man. He went on to become the New Jersey state sectional champion in cross country and the mile. At Iona College, which he attended on a
Photo:
scottmasonphoto.com
TRAINING PHILOSOPHY “Train smart and race hard. Training should be at the level of current racing times, not at the racing times we want to run. In my training, the easy days are easy and the hard days are hard. Having run so many years on the track doing intervals, I have found that now it’s better to do intervals on the road or bike path.”
TRAINING REGIMEN (Two weeks before 2010 New Bedford Half Marathon) Monday: 10 miles easy Tuesday: 4-mile warm-up, 4-mile tempo run, 5:49 average, 4-mile cool down
his fi rst ultra, the JFK 50-miler in November. “It’s just a challenge, something I haven’t done before,” he says. “I want to be competitive but also cautious early in the race since this is my first ultra.” •
Wednesday: 10.5 miles easy Thursday: 4-mile warm-up, 5 x mile hill (1/2 up, 1/2 down), 6 x 40 seconds hard with 40-second recovery jog, 3-mile cool down Friday: 8.4 miles easy Saturday: 18.2 miles Sunday: 8 miles Monday: 9.3 miles Tuesday: 14 miles with 4 x mile hill ( 1/2 up, 1/2 down), 6 x 40 seconds hard with 40-second recovery jog Wednesday: 8.1 miles easy Thursday: 6.4 miles easy Friday: 5 miles with 6 x 40-second sprints Saturday: 6 miles easy Sunday: New Bedford Half Marathon, with 4-mile warm-up and 3.8-mile cool-down
full track scholarship, Stirrat competed at 5,000m and 10,000m, setting a school record for freshmen in the latter in 29:52, a record which he says still stands. In addition to that 2:19:17 marathon, which qualified him for the 1980 Olympic trials marathon, Stirrat had bests in his younger years of 29:46 for 10K and 1:05:07 for the half marathon. “The biggest way in which age has affected me is my recovery time,” he says. “I need to take more time after a hard workout or race to recover. Also, I tend to eat less and do more core and other exercises.” To maintain his speed, he does a workout at least once a week that calls for six repeats of 40 seconds fast with a 40-second recovery
RENO STIRRAT STATS BORN: APRIL 19, 1954 LIVES: BOSTON, MA PERSONAL BESTS IN 55–59 DIVISION: 5K: 16:45; 10K: 35:04; 15K: 54:19; HALF MARATHON: 1:15:16; MARATHON: 2:42:27 RUNNINGTIMES
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TRAILS
The Knee Knacker, at 22 years old, is a favorite for diehard locals, at least two of whom have completed the race 20 times. But it also attracts many new ultrarunners tempted by the stunning scenery of mountains, old-growth forest, ocean vistas and city views. The Knee Knacker began in 1989 when eight friends ran the length of the Baden-Powell Trail, completing the course in 8.5 hours. By the next year a more official version of the race attracted over 50 competitors, including winner PETER FINDLAY, who went on to win the race many times over the following years. Within five years the race grew to capacity and now its 200 spots are fi lled months in advance. The 30-mile Knee Knacker starts just above sea level near Horseshoe Bay and ends yards from the Pacific Ocean at the quaint village of Deep Cove. As a course record of 4:39:52 attests, however, Knee Knacker 2011 is on July 9. Lottery deadline is Feb. 28. In 2010 some rather challenging terrain lies between the ocean-side book- approximately 375 runners applied for the 200 available race entries. ends, including 8,000 feet of elevation gain and 8,300 feet of descent. See kneeknacker.com. 46 /
RUNNINGTIMES_DECEMBER 2010
David McKie
GRACED BY RELATIVELY mild weather and a well-established trail network easily accessible from the city, North Vancouver, British Columbia, is the trail running mecca of Canada. With only a brief pause in winter, on any given weekend you can likely find a local race, but only one lives up to the harrowingly named “Knee Knackering North Shore Trail Run.”
Karen Chow
North Shore Trail Run
The toughest part of the race is the first 7.5 miles. After a gentle start through old-growth forest, the course soon climbs steeply almost 4,000 feet up Black Mountain. The scramble over boulders and loose rocks to the summit view is well worth the effort — miles of ocean and the shining skyscrapers of Vancouver. The descent is less technical, a wide trail with switchbacks down to the base of Cypress ski area and the fi rst major aid station. Given the steep descent, however, it pays to hold back a little to save the quads. Th at said, if any runners suffer throughout the course, they’ll be looked after by the caring volunteers at any of the 11 aid stations, and with the trail crossing roads at numerous points there are always plenty of supporters to cheer on racers. With the relief that ‘Black’ is in the bag, racers still have a good challenge ahead. Only a small amount of the Knee Knacker course is flat: Nearly constant ups and downs, with jutting roots, rocks and even short boardwalk sections knacker the runners, and things can be treacherous in the damp of the forest. Less than 1.5 miles of the race is on tarmac, with the vast majority technical singletrack. Locals alike do well to familiarize themselves with the course in the two months preceding the early July race date by attending weekly training runs. The training runs are as much a part of Knee Knacker as race day itself, sometimes with upwards of 60 runners attending the low-key and friendly jaunts where runners not only get to know the course but also make great friends and training partners. Racers unable to preview the course should do more than check out the elevation profi le (which looks like an alarming cardiogram); they should also note the technicality of the course. The race fl ies by because runners are constantly focused on their footing, but it also demands as much technical training as possible. •
From Left:
KNEE KNACKERING
BY ELLIE GREENWOOD
Doug Gormican
The Knee Knacker course is beautiful and technical, thrilling and challenging.
KNEE KNACKER 30-MILER • ELLIE GREENWOOD
PORTRAIL BY ADAM W. CHASE
Ellie GREENWOOD EVERY RUNNER knows someone who they think trains harder and races more than they do. It’s in our nature never to think we are doing enough or as much as our fellow runners. — Ellie Greenwood. While it’s true that most runners believe others train harder, is the statement above believable when it comes from a smiley, freckled Scot who’s modest to a fault? Before answering that, note that the diminutive 31-year-old vegetarian also smashes course records in ultradistance races with names like the “Canadian Death Race” and “Knee Knacker.” ELLIE GREENWOOD’S humility is accentuated by the fact that her 2010 running season amounts to a one-woman show of stellar performances in distances from half marathons to 125K, including two victories in major Canadian road marathons (2:52 in Calgary and 2:49 in Edmonton). Her win at the Death Race was simply outstanding: She was second overall and blew the women’s course record away by almost an hour, even dipping below the previous men’s record. Greenwood loves to run and, while she’s motivated by the fun of being out on the trails or road, when she pins a number on, she means business. “Having a race schedule helps me stay driven, as I’m never going to show up at a start line and just do it for the fun of it,” she says. “That’s just not me! Having now won some races and set some course records, that is a motivation to carry on and see what more I can do; after all, if I don’t do it now I’m only losing time.” Born in Dundee, Scotland, Greenwood was 8 when her family moved to the flat farmland of Norfolk, England. After graduating from university in 2001, Greenwood decided to work in Canada for a UK ski package vacation operator and has remained in Canada since. “I love the big outdoors and the more relaxed lifestyle here,” she says. After moving to Canada, Greenwood participated in a running clinic and took to the sport immediately. Greenwood will be representing the UK at the 100K world wor championship in November after winning her fi rst attem attempt at the distance in May at the Elk-Beaver 100K on Va Vancouver Island, then her longest race to date. After training solo all winter, she set a course record o of 7:36 to make the British team. W h i le t he nu mber of o races Greenwood has won is phenomenal, it’s her rapi rapid rise to dominance and the m margin of her victories that ha has people like GARY ROBB ROBBINS saying that she may ma well be the next ANN TRASON. T “With Ellie’s young y age, incredible d drive and limitless apparently li potential, we m might just
Greenwood in action at the Knee Knacker North Shore Trail Run.
be referring to Ellie in those same sentences [with Ann Trason] in the not-so-distant future,” Robbins says. In 2011 Greenwood plans to hit some U.S. races, which she realizes are more competitive than the ones she’s raced in Canada. She says she’s anxious to test herself “against some great runners south of the border.” She’s seriously considering her fi rst 100-miler and definitely more 50-milers but won’t change much in the way she trains or races. “I always just go and race my own race,” she says. “That’s all I believe you can do.” • At runningtimes.com/trails: • Weekly race recaps from the trail scene around the country and the world every Tuesday. • Anton Krupicka’s and Krissy Moehl’s blogs. • Trail training techniques: Drills to avoid trail sprains. RUNNINGTIMES
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AT LONG LAST, PERSEVERANCE BRINGS AMY BEGLEY TO THE TOP TIER OF TRACK By Brian Metzler
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RUNNINGTIMES_DECEMBER 2010
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t’s a muggy late-June night in Eugene, Ore., and the full house at Hayward Field is in classic staccato-clapping form as Kara Goucher, Shalane Flanagan and Amy Begley trade off the lead midway through the women’s 10,000m final at the 2008 U.S. Olympic trials final. Flanagan holds multiple American records, including the 10,000m. Goucher owns a bronze medal from the previous year’s world championships. But this is foreign territory for Begley, who has never finished higher than seventh in a U.S. track championship and entered the meet with a PR 22 seconds slower than the 31:45 Olympic “A” standard she’s gunning hard to beat. On paper, she’s a long shot. Yet as the pre-race favorites begin to pull away with three laps to go, it’s Begley, who’s struggling to stay on pace in third, that the country’s most knowledgeable running crowd is buzzing about. Even if most don’t know the long road she’s had to endure just to get to this opportunity, everyone in the stands can sense her bulldog determination amid the anguish of running at the red line. Thanks to track announcer Scott Davis they know she’ll have to split one of the fastest 5Ks of her life over the second half of the race to even have a chance at joining Flanagan and Goucher at the Beijing Olympics. Lap after lap she holds the line, splitting 76 seconds each time around, but with two laps to go she finds herself slightly off the pace needed to reach the Olympic standard. What unfolds over the last 800m brings goose bumps to anyone with a pulse. Part gritty determination, part Hayward magic, Begley clips off a 73-second lap and then visibly accelerates as she churns out a 67-second final lap, culminating with a hard-charging sprint down the homestretch in front of the raucous crowd to finish with 1.4 seconds to spare in 31:43.60.
Peter Baker Studios
TRIALS, TRIBULATIONS TENACITY I
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Looking back, it was the defining moment of her life, one that was at least 20 years in the making. After toiling with injuries, health problems, inconsistent training and occasional self-doubt, Begley, then age 30, finally felt like she belonged among the country’s best runners and was ready to compete on the world stage. “That’s the race that finally showed me I could run at that level,” Begley says. “It was definitely a turning point for me. It showed me all of the hard work and sacrifices had paid off. The moment I fi nished that race I knew that was the reason I had been so dedicated and stuck with it all those years.”
Championships and won U.S. junior national track titles in the 5,000m and 10,000m the following spring. Their budding romance continued in Fayetteville (Andrew transferred to Arkansas as a sophomore) when each was among the nation’s top collegiate distance runners. Although Andrew’s career hit a dead end when he tore up a knee as a senior, their relationship was just starting to blossom. They married not long after getting out of school in 2001 and began a coach-athlete odyssey that started back home in Indiana and took them on a whirlwind to Florida, Arizona, Australia, New Mexico, back to Indiana and eventually to Atlanta over the next five years in search of the ideal training setting and, in some situations, high school Amy Begley is testament to the notion that, teaching and coaching jobs for Andrew. despite supreme dedication, it can take a very But despite gradual improvement, Begley still long time for a distance runner to figure out wasn’t making the strides that she or Andrew the complicated puzzle of peak performance. thought possible. She finished a distant ninth Despite moments of modest success and many in the 5,000m and 10,000m at the 2004 U.S. supporters, the two-time NCAA champion Olympic trials and placed in the middle of the and 16-time All-American at the University of heap at subsequent national championship Arkansas thought the pieces would never fall races, often behind women she formerly beat. into place. Part of the problem was a series of health The descendant of Amish farmers in rural issues. Begley had been diagnosed in 1999 as northeastern Indiana, Begley has always been being lactose intolerant, which forced her to driven by the strong work ethic woven into the give up milk, cheese and ice cream. But gastrofabric of her family history. Her father, Mike intestinal problems persisted and eventually got Yoder, an attorney, would often work late nights worse. She would get horribly dehydrated durand weekends so he could help his kids progress ing races as short as 5,000m. She’d get sick after in their chosen activities. Her mother, Linda, a meals that she swore didn’t include any dairy hospice nurse, dealt with the delicate balance products. Often she’d have to stop several times between life and death every day. Still, they both during a workout or long run to use the bathmade time to take Begley to meets all over the room, and she spent most of the time with an country when she was young, and to this day uncomfortable bloated feeling. She was often have missed only a few of her races. fatigued, had low bone mineral density and had “My parents never let me settle,” she says. been amenorrheic for years. “It was frustrating because I was 28 and had “Once I got to be a good runner when I was young, they would take me to big national meets so I all of these health problems,” Begley recalls. would experience what it’s like to get beat. They “We bounced around in search of the best wanted to show me there were a lot of really place to train, but the bigger issue was that I good runners out there, and if I wanted to keep was being diagnosed with new problems every improving, I had to keep working hard.” year. And it all made it very hard to train with Begley began honing her racing instincts any consistency.” while running on the boys cross country team Finally, she went to see Atlanta physioloat Kendallville Central Middle School (where gist David Martin for a battery of tests. It was a girls team wasn’t offered). Among the boys there, with the help of sports nutritionist Dan she never beat from a neighboring town was Benardot, that she found out she wasn’t lactose Andrew Begley, who, like Amy, would emerge as intolerant, but had been suffering from celiac a national talent as a teen. By high school, they disease, an autoimmune disorder of the small had become fast friends, sharing ideas about intestine caused by a reaction to gluten proteins all things running and racing, and eventually found in wheat and other common grains. dating. It was her cute smile and giggly girlish It was a huge blow. “I’m a runner foodie. I love laugh that lured him in, but it was her resolve to eat,” she says. “So that definitely presented that sealed the deal for him. some challenges.” If there was any good news it Amy trusted Andrew and relied on his coach- was only that she was allowed to have ice cream ing advice during her senior year. Although he for the first time in seven years. The down side was already at the University of Wisconsin, was that she had to completely retool her diet the arrangement worked well, as Amy took once again. Early on, she and Andrew learned second at the Foot Locker Cross Country the hard way how easy it is to cross-contaminate 50 / 50
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Photo:
Victor Sailer/Photo Run
THE LONG ROAD
food and the dire result it can have. “He used the same fork he had used for something with gluten in it while cooking something else and I wound up getting really sick,” she recalls. Coming to grips with celiac disease was just part of her plunge to rock bottom in 2006. In a freak accident the night before a race in Nashville, she slipped and hurt her hip in a dark hotel bathroom and then couldn’t run for six months. Then the day she returned from that injury, she broke her ankle. Her adidas sponsorship was about to expire and she knew she wouldn’t be re-signed. Were these signs to just quit running and look for a real job? No one would have blamed her if she had. Or was it time to dig in deeper and stick with it just a little longer? “A lot of times I had gotten to that point where I thought I was done, but then Andrew would always say, ‘Give it another year and see what happens,’” she says. “So I did, but I knew I had to make a big change.” She and Andrew knew that meant finding a new coach and moving yet again.
EVEN IF MOST DON’T KNOW THE LONG ROAD SHE’S HAD TO ENDURE JUST TO GET TO THIS OPPORTUNITY, GETTING IT RIGHT EVERYONE IN THE STANDS CAN SENSE HER BULLDOG DETERMINATION AMID THE ANGUISH OF RUNNING AT THE RED LINE.
When Begley started her pro career in 2001, there were few post-collegiate training opportunities for distance runners in the U.S. and almost none for women. The Hansons-Brooks Distance Project had started with only a men’s team. Team USA Minnesota and ZAP Fitness were in their infancy. Alberto Salazar had begun coaching athletes on Nike’s campus, but he started with just men. There was a pioneering program under way in Mammoth Lakes, Calif., but Deena Kastor was the only woman in the group. But by 2006, a new trend was afoot. In fact, all seven women who beat Begley in the 5,000m at the U.S. championships that year were training in some type of professional development group. Although Begley had training partners from time to time, she still trained mostly alone and didn’t have the amenities a group could provide. On a whim, Begley called Kara Goucher, a longtime friendly rival who had hit bottom with her career in 2004 before she and husband Adam were revitalized by a move to Portland to train under Salazar. The Gouchers raved about Salazar’s comprehensive training program and Nike’s extensive resources, so Begley sent an email to Salazar, figuring she had nothing to lose. “We knew she was a tough competitor and had plenty of talent, but she just hadn’t been able to train effectively for long periods of time,” Salazar recalls. “At that point, I don’t think any of us could have said she was going to be sixth in the world in the 10,000. I would have been lying if I had said that.”
Salazar invited Begley to join his group. After settling in Beaverton, Ore., near Nike’s world headquarters, Begley started training consistently with Goucher — something that would prove to be a huge catalyst to her improvement and confidence prior to the 2008 U.S. Olympic trials. Salazar upped her running from five to seven days a week (often with doubles) and created a regimen of supplemental workouts that included plyometrics, form drills, cross-training on a stationary bike and Nike’s anti-gravity and underwater treadmills. (See p. 53.) And she became a master of the little things, too, like stretching, taking time to nap and getting massage work done on occasion. “She doesn’t ever miss a day of stretching, which kind of amazes me,” says Andrew, who became Begley’s primary training partner in 2010 while Goucher was pregnant. “It used to be that she’d go walk the dog instead of stretching and then say that she just didn’t have time for that or have time to take a nap. It’s all of those little things that add up and make you a stronger, more complete runner. And that obviously allows you, over time, to do way more training and be more consistent.” More than anything, Begley has become motivated by a new level of accountability. There’s no margin for slacking off under Salazar, something she admits doing on occasion when Andrew was coaching her. “I could manipulate Andrew, and if I didn’t want to do another 2-mile or if I didn’t want to do a 6 x 1-mile workout, I could push enough buttons and he’d feel bad for me and change things,” Begley says. “But I’m not going to tell Alberto I’m not going to do a workout he prescribes. He took a big risk bringing me in, and I know I have to produce. But with Andrew, I could wimp out on one of his workouts and he’d still be there the next day.” Begley knows she’s still a work in progress. In the 10,000m at last year’s world championships in Berlin, she stuck her nose into the race as long as she could, but with about eight laps to go, she didn’t react when a pack of five, led by Kenyan Linet Masai and Ethiopian Meseret Defar, made a move. It was easy for her to rationalize the decision in hindsight — the lead group zipped through the final 3,000m in the 8:40–8:45 range, considerably faster than Begley’s lifetime best of 8:53 — but she knows she won’t have another breakthrough unless she takes that risk. She still ran strong and finished sixth (in 31:13.78, the fourth-fastest time in U.S. history) but she knows she’s capable of racing better. “After the race, I was a little disappointed,” she says. “Alberto was telling me to go, but I didn’t have the confidence to go with them. Next time, I need to not think about it and just react to the pack and go with them and just make it happen.” To do that, Begley knows she needs to work on RUNNINGTIMES
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To find out more about how Amy Begley has revamped her diet, go to runningtimes.com/dec10. 52 / 52
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Peter Baker Studios Andrew Begley
WHAT’S DIFFERENT THIS TIME IS THAT SHE’S BEEN TO THE MOUNTAINTOP, AND KNOWS SHE CAN BE AMONG THE WORLD’S TOP RUNNERS.
COMEBACK TRAIL It’s perhaps not surprising that Begley found herself on the sidelines again last summer. A nagging right Achilles strain flared up just before she was to fly to Paris for a 5,000m Diamond League race. She was in prime shape, coming off a 14:56.72 PR at the July 3 Prefontaine Classic. But the injury, which had crept up a few weeks before she won her second straight U.S. 10,000m title, was considered significant enough for surgery, especially given 2010 was an off year without a major championship. “I think every injury you go through makes you want it that much more,” she says. “It’s almost like every time you start taking for granted what you have — your health and your fitness and all of the things you’re doing — I think that’s when these things get thrown at you to remind you, ‘Oh, by the way, it can be taken away.’ But at least this isn’t the first time I’ve been through this.” What’s different this time is that she’s been to the mountaintop and knows she can regularly be among the world’s top runners in the 10,000m. Now she’s motivated by making a return trip to next year’s world championships and, if she can make the 2012 Olympic team, make up for a lackluster performance during her first experience, where she finished 26th and was lapped twice by Tirunesh Dibaba. Begley turns 33 in January and knows there are no guarantees, especially with young runners like Lisa Koll, Angela Bizzarri and Molly Huddle tearing things up. She figures she has two more years to run fast on the track and then perhaps a few years of road racing. When she retires, she’ll eagerly take a supportive back-seat role to Andrew’s desire to become a college coach. “It’s been an amazing journey and I have loved every bit of it, but, yes, I could have stopped running at any number of times,” she says. “But I really would have missed out on a lot if I had.” •
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her top-end speed, and specifically, her closing speed. Last spring, after a workout, Salazar had her run a pair of all-out 200s on several occasions to simulate what it would be like to run a strong last lap under the fatigue of a race. While her 31-second efforts show a vast improvement from where she used to be, Salazar thinks she needs to get down to 29 if she’s ever going to have a shot at earning a medal like Flanagan or Goucher. “Each race is a learning experience,” Salazar says. “Amy still has faster times in her, but we need to work on making her faster.”
‘EQUIVALENT’ MILEAGE TRAINING
“It’s a rough rule of thumb; there aren’t any spe- “Nike House” in Portland was decommissioned, or years, Nike Oregon Project athletes Amy Begley, Adam and Kara Goucher, Dathan cific formulas used to come with it,” Salazar says. Begley wound up with an AlterG treadmill in her Ritzenhein, Galen Rupp and lately Alan “Typically, when she’s gone over 65 miles is when garage.) “You have to make sure you’re engagWebb have benefited from alternative train- she’s started to break down. The hard part is hav- ing your core because you could really almost ing tools, most notably anti-gravity treadmills, ing the guts to really get the athlete to say, ‘I believe sit back and have it support you,” she says. “And stationary bikes, underwater treadmills and in this and I’m going to stick with 65,’ and not all of then you’d be running with just your legs.” hypoxic sleeping rooms that lessen the amount a sudden doing 70 or 75 on your feet. At some point On the underwater treadmill, which sits on of oxygen intake in every breath. it’s going to catch up to you.” the bottom of a pool and has two water jets For Begley, the treadmills — which lessen Prior to 2007, Begley ran only five or six days a blowing toward the runner, it’s possible to run the impact of running while still allowing a week, taking rest days or cross-training on a sta- up to 7:00 mile pace and at up to 50 percent of runner to accomplish training or rehab goals tionary bike. But Salazar upped her running to your body weight, depending on how much — have been a godsend. Throughout her career, seven days a week (often with double sessions), of your body is above the surface of the water. she’s had her share of breakdowns during peak given that some of that running is done at low The deeper you’re submerged, the lighter your mileage weeks, either from nagging niggles that impact on an AlterG treadmill. body will seem. “Essentially you’re running interrupt training or more severe injuries. AlterG trainers allow runners to run at a against the current,” says Begley, who typically Since she joined the Nike program in 2007, lower percentage of their body weight by using runs recovery or shorter secondary runs in the she and coach Alberto Salazar have figured out upward air pressure to slightly (or dramati- water. “Every time I run on that, it’s like I’m runa rough formula for running mileage and cross- cally) support the body while allowing the legs ning uphill.” training that has allowed her to run healthy for to move freely. By doing so, a runner can run at As for biking, Begley spins on a stationary the longest stretches of her career. Sticking to a a faster pace (and thus get a better cardiovas- bike and typically watches movies or Food max of 65 running miles on her feet during any cular workout) while taking on much less of the Network shows saved on her DVR. given week (including roads, trails or an AlterG joint-jarring impact. Once she started putting together consistent anti-gravity treadmill, which Salazar treats the Oregon Project athletes will typically run 5 training in the spring of 2008, her times began same as regular running), Begley supplements to 20 percent of their weekly mileage on AlterG dropping. From June 2008 to July 2010, Begley with water running and indoor cycling on a two- trainers, usually at 90 to 95 percent of their PRd at every distance from 800m to the half thirds to one ratio. body weight but as low as 40 to 50 percent while marathon, won three U.S. national titles on the For example, if Begley runs 6 miles on one rehabbing an injury. For Begley, who fluctuates track and finished sixth in the 10,000m at the of the underwater treadmills, she and Salazar between 106–112 pounds during the year, that 2009 world championships. consider it 4 miles of equivalent running mile- means running at a simulated weight between “I try to make all my running miles count,” she age. Ten miles on a bike is about 6.6 running 95 and 106 pounds. says. “It’s mostly long runs and workouts, and miles. So during a fairly robust week, she might Begley has run as long as 14 miles on an then I do a lot of cross-training. That might not run 63 miles on the roads, trails or AlterG, and AlterG, has done workouts like 5 x 1-mile and work for everyone, but it works for me. I think also log another 34 miles while cross-training cranked out tempo runs, too. Sometimes, she some runners get hung up on the number — roughly 22 equivalent miles — giving her a might run 2 miles on the roads and then run thing, thinking that they have to run 90 miles total of 85 “miles” for the week. 8 more on an AlterG. (In July, when the famed or whatever.” — B.M.
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WHY COMR ADES M AR ATHON SHOULD BE ON YOUR ‘MUST DO’ LIST By Adam W. Chase / Photos courtesy of Comrades Marathon
It’s one of those “pinch me” moments. Here I am, in South Africa, standing in the first wave corral of the world’s largest ultramarathon with only a few moments before the starting gun or, rather, the pre-recorded rooster crow, as is race tradition. At 5:29 a.m., the sun has yet to pierce the Southern Hemisphere’s winter horizon, and I can barely see more than a few rows of fellow runners packed in the chutes. One aspect, however, is readily apparent: I’m the only white guy I can see. It starts to dawn on me in my sleep-deprived state that I’m in Africa and that I’m lined up with 17,000 of the kind of African runners that I see back home in the States for only the first quarter mile, before they pull away in the lead. Enter a surge of adrenaline served with a healthy dose of humility as I muster some pre-start pep: “Let’s see how this not-so-white boy goes!”
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COMR ADES MAR ATHON had been on my to-do list of
running events for at least a decade, although when I first heard about it I wasn’t as keen on a race held in a country that had only just broken the shackles of apartheid. But meeting South Africans, both white and black, who had won and placed at the race, helped me to appreciate the importance that Comrades held on the world stage, especially in the small community of ultradistance racing. This year that positive endorsement combined with the powerful message of the movie “Invictus” and the fact that South Africa was hosting the World Cup, and my mind was made up. This was clearly a country on the move, and I wanted to witness its biggest and most famed running event firsthand. Comrades has been run annually since 1921, the orchestration of years of effort on the part of Vic Clapham, a Brit who had immigrated to South Africa and joined the AngloBoer War at age 13. Clapham then fought in the Great War in the South African Infantry, where he marched 1,700 miles to the eastern grasslands. After the war, Clapham wanted to honor and commemorate the losses, suffering and, especially, camaraderie shared among his fellow troops in a unique way. To him it made sense to use a test of endurance to serve as a living memorial. To get the race approved, however, he had to prevail upon the governing authorities by arguing that,
Knowing Comrades requires running 56 miles on the road had prompted a sense of urgency to this 40-something runner. I wanted to complete it while I could still do so comfortably or, rather, without too much of a struggle. My outlook on the timing of this event wasn’t unlike that of a retired French truck driver who picked me up last spring as I hitched a ride at the base of Mont Ventoux, having run down the wrong shoulder of the mountain. He told me that he chose to travel in more challenging countries while he was in his relatively “young” late 60s, saving places like the U.S. and Canada for when he was less capable of handling discomfort and inconveniences. I wanted to run Comrades while I was still a “young” runner. Also, in 2010, the 85th running of the race, the course had been changed to a “downhill” year to accommodate a record-sized field. Rather than running from the coastal city of Durban “up” to the smaller inland municipality of Pietermaritzburg, as is the norm for even-numbered years, the course would start in Pietermaritzburg and go down to the coast. I happen to love running downhill. As a trail runner with skinny legs, even by the standards of my hometown Boulderites, I’ve learned how to take descents at a fast pace — and they never hurt because there isn’t much tissue to damage. Gravity is my friend. So a “down year” sealed the deal for me. As an additional draw, this year’s race also featured an unprecedented quantity and quality of U.S. runners. Even though Alberto Salazar won the race in 1994, Comrades hasn’t drawn much attention from American runners over the years. But this year promised to be an exception. More than 150 runners from the U.S., many of them friends, were signed up to run Comrades.
RACE DAY On the starting line, I think back to the night before, which had been a sleepless one. Initially it wasn’t because of prerace nerves, but jet lag setting my internal clock off and the knowledge that I needed to meet my friends representing the North Face at 3:30 a.m. to travel from Durban to the race start at Pietermaritzburg. Only one night’s solid sleep in five, however, had me increasingly concerned about whether I’d have a hitch in my giddy-up. While I knew I had done the requisite Comrades-specific training, conditioning myself with months of back-to-back long runs and plenty of hilly roads, that didn’t prevent self-doubts from creeping into my head as I tossed and turned. if the country could ask normal citizens to carry a rifle and At the 3:30 a.m. meeting I learned that Michael Wardian, a heavy pack while marching all over South Africa, then cer- consistent ultra champion, had also flown in to Durban the tainly trained runners could complete the 56-mile race he day before the race and wasn’t able to sleep well. He ended had proposed. up watching the NCAA lacrosse (which he played in colClapham’s race dreams became a reality on his third year lege) semi-finals on his computer. Joined by Nikki Kimball, of seeking approval. The original Comrades had a field of Kami Semick and Lizzy Hawker, a British runner living in 34 runners who ran the course between Pietermaritzburg Switzerland, the five of us headed to the start in a minivan, and Durban. Since then it has grown to become the national but as we approached Pietermaritzburg we got snarled in the treasure that it is, attracting thousands of participants and traffic caused by the swollen mass of runners. Fortunately, traveling with veteran international runner hundreds of thousands of spectators and television viewers. It is to South Africa what the Boston Marathon is to elites, the van conversation, rather than nerve-driven chatNew England. ter, was light, humorous, and quite soothing as we inched forward, losing minutes of the precious little time before the starting gun. When the jokes ran out, we decided to run to the start as it became clear that we wouldn’t be able to drive 56 /
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simply the brush of a hand. I HEARD ON THE COURSE toss my long-sleeved shirt and feel comfortable in a sleeveless “Comrades is a great 5K. The problem is one for the remainder of the race. the two marathons you have to run to THE RACE About 30K into the race we pass get to the starting line.” — Best quote: said As the race gets underway, it takes about 15K before the a group of kids in wheelchairs from a South African runner to a Dutch runner about sun has risen high enough for us to really appreciate our and their extended hands are 50K into the race. surroundings. The views from the course are a spectacular irresistible high fives. “I don’t know. He was black.” — Worst quote: African landscape and, with the exception of five of the final response from a white spectator at the 70K mark, 10K that ran on a highway, the scenery is enough to distract when asked who was leading. me from the distance and lull me toward the finish. Through I had been told by my friend the first half of the race I can smell the fact that the land we Henry Guzman, a veteran of “Obama!” — Common cheer when I was running cross is used for agricultural purposes, especially when we Comrades and manager of with Lorena Devlyn, a Texan wearing a cowboy hat Boulder Running Company, pass chicken farms. and USA singlet. The hills are mostly dry and colored surprisingly similar owned by South Africans Johnny to what I’m used to seeing at home in Colorado, the familiar Halberstadt and Mark Plaatjes, “Lad” and “Boy” — Humorous (to me) names tawny appearance of savannahs, but with long, rolling undu- about the high level of interacfor this 44-year-old called by race spectators of tion between the crowds and lations that remind me of New England backroads. many ages. Once we can see and not just hear the many spectators the field of runners. Sure enough, drawn to this annual parade through their neighborhood, this is a key element distinguish- “It hurt a lot. I loved it. I hated it. I doubt the rather impoverished conditions of that region start to ing the race from other events. I’ll run it again.” — American runner on elevashow. The children are unshod, and the almost exclusively Perhaps some of this interactor immediately after the race. black population wears clothes that have seen better days. tion stems from the distance But, for the most part, the cheering observers look healthy and slower pace, or maybe it’s and happy, at least to see the runners cruise by on a warm- the history of the event in the collective consciousness of ing Sunday morning. the nation. The race organization also clearly promotes interThe kilometer markers begin at 89 and count down, along action with the encouraging crowds who line the course. with a thermometer image that slowly fi lls as we progress Runners must wear bibs on both front and back, and these along the route. As the morning temps rise runners throw numbers contain your name plus considerable information their warmer clothes to some of the thousands of children in an easy-to-read color-coded system. Colors tell spectators who line the course, waiting for this clothing, or a gel, or that you’re from a foreign country (blue), rookie (white), or much closer to the elite athlete meeting place. We arrived with little stress and enough time to be ready to run when the rooster crowed.
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this is your second sequential Comrades (orange and white stripes), that you’ve run more than nine but fewer than 20 (green) or that you’re a veteran of 20 or more (green stripe). As we progress along the 89K route, the crowd’s cheers never abate, but the crowd makeup varies as we switch from rural farmland to impoverished village, wealthy suburb, and, eventually, urban Durban. In addition to verbal
encouragement in English, Afrikaans and Zulu, music of all varieties accompanies our run, and some runners take time to dance with the spectators. And, any who watched the World Cup can well imagine the almost deafening buzz and blare from the many vuvuzelas we pass. As the race name suggests, another source of almost constant encouragement along the course comes from fellow runners. The numbers pinned on our backs help facilitate interaction, as do the team jerseys of many running clubs to which a large percentage of the runners belong. Throughout the day, runners help each other by passing water, sharing experience of the course, or simple encouragement and kind words. And, I’m pleased to report, that support is colorblind. As I board my plane from Durban to Johannesburg, I reflect on the whole experience. I was happy with my run, having finished on the lower end of my projected time of “between 8 and 9 hours,” hitting 8:19 and having enough in the tank to gun it the final 2K. Comrades had been, indeed, everything it was touted to be — long, hilly, well-organized, and highly populated — but the experience was much more. The intangibles are what separate Comrades from other races and help to put it on the list of must-do running events for the well-traveled runner. Comrades packs a wallop in its celebration of endurance, multiculturalism, and triumph in the face of adversity. For me and the 17,000 comrades last June who shared the experience, it’s understood. You don’t have to ask, “Was it good for you?” •
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RACE ETIQUETTE (From The Comrades Marathon magazine) “When blowing your nose in the conventional runner’s way, make sure no one is behind you — nobody likes a snoll on their shoes.” “Wear deodorant — congrats hugs are awkward without it.” “Although most runners find Comrades a social event, trying to pick up a date is a no-no; just like being at the gym, it’s cheesy.” “If you do not make the cut-off time, no matter how close you are — please refrain from attacking the marshals who are just doing their jobs — and remember that energy could have gotten you across the line.” “Wear appropriate attire. Those white shorts and crop tops do in fact become see-through due to 10 hours of sweating and we do not want to see you exposed.” “Unless you are trying to finish on the 12th-hour gun, don’t stop every 10K to drink a beer. It will make you feel ill.”
ISEMENT)
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THE
DREAM LIST EVERY RUN IS A GOOD RUN, BUT HERE ARE SOME WORTH PLANNING, SAVING AND TR AINING TOWARD
RUN THE CARRIAGE ROADS OF ACADIA NATIONAL PARK Inside one of America’s top tourist locales is a runner’s paradise. When John D. Rockefeller owned the land that now comprises Acadia National Park in Bar Harbor, Maine, he had a series of carriage roads built. Today, these 45 miles of wide, crushedstone roads are closed to motorized traffic. Even at the height of summer tourist season, then, they’re more a sojourn through unfettered nature than a run amid the madding crowd. And what nature! Lakes and ponds formed by the retreat of Ice Age glaciers, a mix of evergreen and deciduous trees, crisp, cool air, and that sweet, forgiving surface underfoot rolling through valleys and up and over small mountains. Run there at peak fall foliage and you’ll be excused for thinking you’re running through a master landscapist’s painting. Adding to the this-is-what-I-think-aboutwhen-I-fantasize-about-running-locales factor is that the carriage roads are linked throughout the park, with easy-to-follow signs pointing the way at all intersections. It’s rare for me to run on them and not wind up adding on just to spend more time bathed in peak experience. Over the last three decades I’ve run in most states and on four continents. If I had to pick one location to spend the rest of my running days in, it would Acadia’s carriage roads. Scott Douglas
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RUN ON EVERY CONTINENT
RUN COAST TO COAST
The exploration inherent in all running becomes writ large when you’re away from home. A few runs in a new land teach you more about its character, and give you a better sense of local daily life, than the view from a car or the words of a tour guide. Our means of moving is fast enough to allow us to cover a decently wide area, yet slow enough to allow us to truly observe and absorb. Running through unfamiliar lands allows us to be more traveler than tourist. That being the case, what better way to say you’ve really seen the world than to run on every continent? Travel logistics will almost certainly mean you’ll be on the ground for at least a few days, ample time to branch off in different directions and see a wide range of quotidian and geographic details. And, of course, you’ll be a lot more likely to find good places for post-run refueling.
There’s an inherent satisfaction to be found in a geographical run: around the lake, to the top of the mountain, across the canyon. One of the grandest geographical runs is coast-tocoast, Atlantic to Pacific or vice versa. Doing it requires two to five months away from your job, an ultrarunner’s penchant for long runs day after day after day, and either a friend with an RV and time to drive alongside you or friends in every town from New Jersey to California (see runtheusa.com). But the things you’ll see: grand cities, quiet towns, wooded Eastern mountain passes, Western rocky peaks, grand prairies, deserts, storms — the vast expanse of this continent. And in the end, the ability to look at any map of the country and say, “I ran from there … to there.” A much more attainable coast-to-coast run is available in Panama, where 50 miles takes you from the Caribbean port of Colón, up over the jungle-covered hills of the isthmus, alongside Gatun Lake and the locks of the canal, and, finally, down to the rolling waves of the Pacific alongside cosmopolitan Panama City. You can do it in a day, once you get there (best to do as part of a larger vacation). While it isn’t a halfyear odyssey, it is a challenge, with heat, hills, and inevitably a downpour or two such as you’ve never seen elsewhere in the world.
S.D.
Jonathan Beverly
Stacey Cramp 101° West Photography Stacey Cramp From Left:
SPEND A WEEK IN ITEN, KENYA
RUN A RELAY
Baseball geeks have their fantasy camps, where matters in running reset, go to Iten. You won’t they hobnob with old-timers in a contrived set- find prima donnas or AlterGs or obsessions over ting. Runners can do them several orders better shoes and gear or gadgetry run amok. You’ll find by plopping themselves down in Iten, Kenya, simple, hard training, usually three times a day, and learning from past, current and future in groups where someone is always going to feel Olympians in one of the running capitals of better than you. You’ll remember how good it is the world. to be regularly humbled. You’ll think you’ve run Godfrey Kiprotich, a former elite who helps as long and hard as you can, and then you’ll hang to run the KIMbia Athletics camp in Iten, esti- on for another few minutes, and then another mates that this farming town of less than few minutes, and then the run will be over. You’ll 10,000 people atop the Rift Valley contains at experience firsthand just how slow some of the any time at least 500 professional-class run- best runners in the world go on their recovery ners. One of the many perspective-providing runs. (Even at 8,000 feet of altitude, you’ll be able lessons of time in Iten is that phrase “profes- to keep up with them.) You’ll be reminded that a sional-class,” by which Kiprotich means runners bad run is just that, a bad run, not the end of the capable of winning money right now on the U.S. world, not the end of your season or competitive or European road circuit. Thing is, many if not hopes. You’ll relearn the faith that good luck folmost have never left Kenya, and dedicate their lows hard work. You’ll never forget that the only lives to running in the slight hope that they “secret” is there are no secrets. might one day get a chance to compete overAnd when you get home and return to your rouseas. Put another way, in Iten there are a few tine, you’ll find it a little harder to come up with hundred runners dreaming of being the next excuses, a little easier to resist the voice telling Allan Kiprono, who had never raced outside of you to back off on the fourth of your eight repeats. Kenya before taking world cross country cham- You’ll have been reborn as a runner. pion Gebre Gebremariam to the line at August’s Former world cross country champion Lornah Beach to Beacon 10K. Kiplagat runs a training center in Iten with What does this have to do with you? If you Western-style accommodations. See lornah.com. ever want to have your internal gauge of what
Get a dozen of your favorite running friends together, rent a couple of vans and you’ve got all the makings for 24 hours of sweaty, stinky, sleepless fun. During a race like the Hood to Coast Relay (hoodtocoast.com), not only do you get to run three fast races in less than a day, but you also get to encounter the best and worst traits of your buddies in the middle of the night. It’s the most fun you can have while racing this hard. You come up with wacky nicknames for each other. You run with glow sticks. And, of course, you don’t have the time or opportunity to shower. The crazy thing about relays is that no matter how tired you are, you’re bound to run faster in each of your subsequent relay assignments, even if you’re too giddy to make any sense of your splits while running a 6.7-mile leg at 3:30 a.m. Of course, there’s nothing like having a green apple PowerGel, a salt tablet and a swig of Accelerade as your pre-run breakfast, either. Brian Metzler
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RUN IN A NATIONAL TR ACK CHAMPIONSHIP
CHASE PRE
RUN TO THE CLOUDS
Those lucky enough to race around the oval at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore., know it’s like no place else in the world. The fans are as vociferous and knowledgeable as any sporting venue in the U.S., and they’re known for picking up runners with a rhythmic staccato clap and carrying them to the finish line. “Yeah, this is by far the best place to run anywhere,” says U.S. 10,000m record-holder Chris Solinsky. “You might not be leading the race, but they’re there for you.” Recreational runners can get their own thrill of running at the legendary oval in one of the Oregon Track Club’s five late-summer all-comers meets (oregontrackclub.org). For a $3 entry fee, you can race three events that range from 400m to 5,000m (plus field events and hurdles) and get a chance to chase the ghost of Steve Prefontaine. A short trip to Eugene lets you also run Pre’s Trail and other routes around Track Town USA. The grandstands are mostly empty during the citizen meets, but it’s not hard to imagine a roaring crowd as you hammer down the homestretch.
There’s something acutely challenging about Do you recall the old joke about someone askrunning at 10,560 feet, roughly the base ele- ing directions in New York? Q: “How do you get vation of Leadville, Colo. — the highest to Carnegie Hall?” A: “Practice, practice, pracincorporated city in the U.S. — a full 2 miles tice.” As Marty Liquori said, “Road racing is rock above sea level. Even though the air you breathe ’n’ roll; track is Carnegie Hall,” and the way to a is still made up of 21 percent oxygen, there are national championship track meet is no differfewer oxygen molecules, meaning your lungs ent: practice, practice, practice. Unlike a road and heart are all working considerably harder championship where the masses run with the to get fuel to your muscles, but your blood still elites, track meets limit their fields, and chamwinds up oxygen-depleted, or hypoxic. You can pionships are reserved for the select, chosen few. feel it in just a few steps if you run from 6th & In 2010, you had to run 13:52 for 5,000m if you’re Harrison streets in Leadville at the start of the a man, 15:55 if a woman. Or 29:01/33:55 for the Leadville 10K, Leadville Trail Marathon or the 10,000m. Even if you have next-to-zero chance of Leadville 100. Still, with good fitness and a bit of medaling, standing on the track amid this elite acclimatization, your body can adjust and grind cohort is worth putting the rest of your life on through the miles. A long run at that altitude hold for, even if it takes several years to pursue (whether 10 miles, 26.2 or 100) gives a whole new this single dream. meaning to “heavy legs,” but there’s something Nowhere near that standard, even if you sublime in knowing you can adapt to running could quit your job and do nothing but train? so high in the sky. You can still run in the rarefied air of the track Running above 14,000 feet — to the top of one in the national club championships with much of Colorado’s 54 highest peaks — is a whole dif- slower qualifying times (15:30/19:00 for 5,000m ferent ballgame, with considerably fewer oxygen and 33:30/40:30 for 10,000m) or at the masters molecules in every breath you take. While it can national championships for age 30 and up, be quite a painful thrill to run the paved road which requires no qualifying times, just the to the summit of 14,264-foot Mt. Evans (racin- courage to put yourself out on the unforgiving gunderground.com), or the trail to the top of oval. The reward? A race defined exclusively by 14,115-foot Pikes Peak (pikespeakmarathon.com), time on the best venue designed by man for runthat effort just adds to the rush of the “top-of- ning fast, and a memory of giving your all in a the-world” elation at the summit. whirlwind of fellow serious athletes. (For more on all championships, see usatf.org.)
B.M.
B.M.
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THE OBVIOUS LIST Some classic events every runner should aspire to do once in their life. Not because your life would be incomplete if you didn’t do them, but because they provide a barometer of excellence by which to measure other race experiences. For most of these, the first trick is getting a race bib, as each sells out quickly.
01 BOSTON MAR ATHON Running the oldest marathon in the U.S. never gets old. For sub-elite competitive runners, qualifying for Boston is one of the few non-arbitrary measures of having achieved a level of success. Test yourself on the Newton Hills when you’re 30 and go back and do it again when you’re 40, 50 and 60. Fortunately, the raucous Wellesley College girls are always young and always loud.
02 BAY TO BREAKERS Heading for its 100th edition, this 12K across San Francisco is a fast, competitive race for some and a wild costume party for others. Those lines tend to blur when you get passed by a centipede of runners cruising along at 5:30 pace. For an extra challenge, you can run it naked.
03 THE DIPSEA
From Left:
Joel Wolpert
101° West Photography (2)
MOUNTAIN RUNNING, IRELAND Forget arbitrary routes laid out on a suburban grid with each mile tidily marked. Nearly every weekend (and some weeknights) in Ireland they gather at the bottom of one of their craggy hills and say, “Race you to the top and back.” The Irish have been doing this for centuries. Legend has it aging hero Finn McCool decided to choose a wife by staging a women’s race up and down a mountain in County Tipperary (some versions say it was a nude women’s race). Unfortunately for Finn, the winner had a mind of her own as well as great legs, and ran off with his handsome cousin, Diarmuid. Th is set the sport back a bit, but the mountain still bears the name Slievenamon, Mountain of the Women. In Ireland, legend and reality lie side by side: You can race Slievenamon today; the January race is 8K with 591m of climb, with course records of 33:55 (men) and 42:12 (women). Every hill here has such a rich and shrouded history, and each is as unique as its name — Annacurra, Ballyhoura, Slieve na Muc, Croagh Patrick, Carrauntoohil. The competition lives up to the scenery: You’ll find living legends and friendly comrades as you slash through gorse and heather, climb into the clouds, slog across bogs, and fly down rocky ridges with a panorama of green pasture and rugged coastline displayed below you. Post-race, the awards and war stories at a local pub are unmatched in hospitality and joie-de-vivre. (Details at imra.ie.)
With its age and gender handicapping system, this 7.1-mile trail race in Mill Valley, Calif., gives slower runners a 1- to 22-minute head start and creates an exhilarating cross-country-style mayhem as you maneuver up a flight of 672 stairs, over relentless rolling terrain and down devil-may-care descents on the way to the finish line at Stinson Beach.
04 WESTERN STATES 100 The race that started the ultrarunning movement in the U.S. is one of the hardest 100-milers on the planet, which is why the entry criteria demand that you’ve put in your miles before you can get your butt to the starting line. In theory, running 100 miles from Squaw Valley to Auburn, Calif., is your reward for getting in.
05 PIKES PEAK The 13.3-mile trail to the top of this 14,115-foot Colorado mountain that inspired the “purple mountain majesty” line in “American the Beautiful,” can seem neverending, which is why a lot of runners first opt only for the Ascent. But what goes up, must come down, which is why most return to tackle the marathon.
06 PEACHTREE 10K Remember that Nike “No Finish Line” poster of the mid-1980s showing runners collapsed under a spray of hoses in the heat at the end of a 10K? Think July 4 in Atlanta and you know what this race is all about. Hot, fast, and did we mention hot? Yet perennially one of the largest road races on the planet.
07 NEW YORK CIT Y MAR ATHON In her pre-race greeting from Staten Island just before the start, New York Road Runners president Mary Wittenberg welcomes everyone to the “Running Capital of the World.” Whether you buy into that claim, there’s little that compares to the sights, sounds and smells of weaving through the Big Apple’s five boroughs en route to the finish line in Central Park. And if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere.
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At the high school track today I watched young runners doing skip-andswing warm-up drills. For a moment I thought I was back in the 1950s. Then I remembered. They were doing “dynamic stretching,” the latest scientifically approved prerequisite for an effective training session. Things change, and happily that can include the things you were supposed to do but didn’t enjoy. Like static stretching. In my elite days in the 1980s, every runner before a race was propped at a 45-degree angle against a tree or wall or someone else’s car. “Trying to push it over?” the passing public would inquire jovially, as you leaned, one calf extended 64 6 4/
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back behind, pressing, creaking, silently counting. “No stretch less than 45 seconds is effective,” was the mantra. The stretch had to be lo-oo-oong. Impatient to race, I thought about Robert Redford as the Sundance Kid drawing his six-gun, when he pleaded, “Can I move now?” And sure enough, movement is back. Coaching best practice has dumped those long static stretches, and brought in (or back) “dynamic drills”— skips, leg swings, lunge twists, butt kicks, reach-for-the-sky extensions. My ex-Army high school physical education teacher had us doing those half a century ago. Things come around. But not everything.
he long road of running history is littered with reject training beliefs. They lie scattered along the centuries like dry discarded sponges. The ancient Greeks advocated surgically removing the athlete’s spleen. They believed the essence of training was to balance the four humors of the body — hot, cold, wet, dry. A rigid four-day training cycle became high fashion with later Greek coaches. Running footmen in the 1600s practiced in “shoes made of lead.” Captain Barclay, the great athlete-coach of the early 1800s, began every program with extreme “purging and sweating,” which were as unpleasant as they sound, and remained standard practice for 100 years. In the 1870s Walter George’s record-breaking career popularized his “Hundred-Up” formula of on-the-spot knee-lifts. A century later runners equally religiously totaled Arthur Lydiard’s 100 miles a week. Around 1900, the secret was massage. “Every aspect of training is inferior to massage,” preached top British coach Harry Andrews, who used his own liniment concoctions and rubbing techniques. One of his disciples was known for his severity as Jack the Rubber. Tired marathon runners in that era were revived with strychnine, champagne and rubbing. Andrews once poured champagne over a faltering runner’s head. From the beginnings of the modern sport to the middle 20th century, long-distance racing was believed to depend on activating a mysterious phenomenon called “the second wind.” You find it seriously analyzed in coaching books as late as the 1940s, and it dominated decades of schoolboy running fiction. Only the jolly decent hero found his second wind, and consequently won the race. The explanation can only be that they started much too fast, hit oxygen debt, slowed right down and recovered. Will any of these obsolete ideas return in some form, as dynamic stretching has returned? What can we learn from them? What does the whole process imply? It’s easy to laugh at the past, but how skeptically should we listen to the orthodoxies that our own coaches and runners obediently follow? Most such errors of the past derived from deep human attitudes toward the whole business of competitive running. For simplicity, I will label them fear, punishment, system and beauty.
From Left:
Courtesy of IOC Museum Collection
“The athlete is a very highly strung individual and he will want to go to the limit. To let him do so is certain to turn him stale.”
FEAR Distance running was long feared as dangerous. Incidents like the collapse of Dorando Pietri in the 1908 Olympics merely confirmed popular prejudice. Every coaching book warned direly that too much running will “make you go stale” (as if runners are made of cheese). Roger Bannister still believed that as late as the 1950s. Even more dire was the long-held fear that running “damages the health.” The Victorian novel Man and Wife by Wilkie Collins (1870) describes how a fine athlete “goes stale,” with a “slow, heavy pulse.” When he collapses in a race, a surgeon pronounces, “He will never recover. It’s a breakdown in his health.” The same superstitious fear prompted the London doctor who examined Pietri to announce (ludicrously) that his heart was “displaced by half an inch.” The next year, the New York Times warned that “to take part in a Marathon race is to risk serious and permanent injury to health, with immediate death a danger not very remote.” Even James E. Sullivan, leader of the American sport in the early 1900s, dictated in his book that “no father should permit his son to compete in a long-distance race unless he is nineteen years old, and then only after having had a medical examination.” The best coaching book of the early 20th century, Athletics by F.A.M. Webster (1925), works hard to reassure parents who “fear that a youngster may shorten his life by developing that mysterious condition known as ‘athlete’s heart.’” In my own youth, I was still often told too much running would “strain your heart.” That fear probably came from two sources. One was the public distress often suffered near the finish by athletes who we now know were woefully undertrained. The other was that one effect of even modest training is a slowing of the pulse rate, which was regarded as dangerous. Webster was ahead of his time in describing the benefits of a slow pulse, and it was years before the causes and effects were widely understood. (Runners still encounter doctors who don’t understand.) From this fear of health damage came the greatest of all training errors. It’s not visible, or wacky, we can’t laugh at it like purgative emetics, but it shaped and held back the sport for hundreds of years. The consequence of fear was insufficient running. Training regimes even for elite runners were so easy that they barely scraped human capability. No one ran enough, except Native Americans, Kenyans, and long-distance messengers like Pheidippides. It took pioneers like Clarence DeMar, Paavo Nurmi, Emil Zatopek and Arthur Lydiard to show how hard it is possible to train, and how almost infinitely the body continues to adapt and improve, given some intelligence in how that hard work is done.
“Hot baths may produce physiologic changes which are wholly undesirable.”
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SYSTEM The variables in how to train a runner are complicated and unpredictable. So we tend to pay too much respect to systems that seem scientific and predictive. In the mid-20th century, the standard U.S. coaching book was Track and Field Athletics by George T. Bresnahan and W.W. Tuttle, which labors to affirm its research credibility, and divides every session into segments, with each 220 or 440 yards defined as “3⁄10 effort” or “7⁄10 effort.” I doubt that any tiring athlete can distinguish between 8⁄10 and 9⁄10 effort, or that such obsessive self-analysis is beneficial. More important, it now looks like putting a gloss of system on programs that are ridiculously light. For example, for middle-distance early season: “Jog ⅛ mile. Walk 25 yards. Repeat twice.” That workout will not put you much closer to David Rudisha. Even Webster spends pages analyzing lap times for mile races. On Nurmi’s breakthrough, he says, “The moral is … the theory of the slow third lap is wrong.” Well, the real moral was that if you ran four times the training mileage of your rivals, you would beat them. Scientific system and analysis, in other words, can be a cover-up for missing the point. The desire for system produced one great leap forward in distance training — repetition intervals, a sure route to success, yet done to excess a folly that impedes many runners. The idea’s great proponent was Dr. Woldemar Gerschler of the University of Freiburg, pre- and post-World War II. Gerschler’s very Germanic repeats required raising the pulse to 180 and allowing recovery to 120 within 90 seconds. Repeat many times. It’s tough, it works (Gordon Pirie broke the world 5,000m record on that training), but done every day it breaks you down (as it broke Pirie). Gerschler’s track 400 repeats were the craze of the 1950s. Many American college coaches still adhere to them, since they get quick results. Adopted by Franz Stampfl, they helped Bannister break the 4:00 mile in 1954. But six years later Australia’s Percy Cerutty and New Zealand’s Lydiard nurtured much faster and stronger Behind the long-lasting practice of “purging and sweating” lay some pri- runners, Herb Elliott and Peter Snell, by incorporating more natural methmal impulse to make the body suffer, in order to be purified. It’s common ods like sand-dune running and long steady mileage. in medieval religions. These days the impulse evinces itself in coaches and runners who believe that the more it hurts, the better it is for you. To avoid names, I will cite an example from fiction, John L. Parker’s Once a Runner, where the hero’s session of 60 interval quarters (“Screw Arthur Lydiard,” says his coach) is a version of purgatory, a ritual that purifies him for victory. It makes good fiction. As real-life training, it’s stupid adolescent bravado. But the punitive mind-set may work, if you can tough it out. The great Ron Hill once told me, “If I’ve had a bad race, I do a hard 20 miles next morning to punish myself.” That’s not how I saw my running, but Ron ran 2:09 and I did 2:18, so I’m in no position to criticize. I merely point out that the punitive approach often leads to excess, most often in interval training. See “System.”
“Cross country men will Þnd it quite sufÞcient if they work out once a week at three-quarter speed.”
PUNISHMENT
“A brisk walk of half an hour’s duration before breakfast is excellent preparation for the day’s work, if followed by a tepid bath and brisk toweling.”
For a podcast on the evolution of training theory, go to runningtimes.com/dec10. 66 /
RUNNINGTIMES_DECEMBER 2010
FROM OUR
DECEMBER 2030 ISSUE
Oh, those crazy runners of 2010! Remember some of the wacky things they took as gospel?
OVERRELIANCE ON TECHNOLOGYSUPPLIED INFORMATION
Ancient Greek vase painters made great art from graceful runners. Tirunesh Dibaba would have blown their minds.
From Left:
Photo by Ed Lacey
AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus
BEAUTY The other recurrent doctrine of early coaches was the importance of “style,” now usually called “form.” Even Alf Shrubb’s Running and Cross-Country Running (1909), the first useful training book, carries stiffly posed photos of Shrubb demonstrating “proper style,” but looking more like a store window mannequin. No mention is made of the fact that Shrubb’s multiple world records were set with an unglamorous but effective stride that was once described as “sort of a shuffling dog trot.” A graceful runner in full motion is a joy to behold. We all aspire to it. Ancient Greek vase painters made great art from it. Tirunesh Dibaba would have blown their minds. But it occupied so much coaching attention in the past mainly because you could see it. The things that truly help a runner to improve happen inside, invisibly, and anyway were not understood. Coaches could not watch the red corpuscles and intricate capillaries multiply, but they could see how the athlete fell short of coordinated elegance. “Don’t writhe your torso, Emil. Don’t swivel, Alberto. Don’t keep bobbing your head, Paula.” And thus would Zatopek, Salazar and Radcliffe have failed to measure up, through all those years when good form was paramount. Then “form” faded, after Zatopek had writhed untidily to five Olympic medals. Work replaced beauty as the ethic of coaching. Form did not disappear, however. Lydiard advocated “technique training … so that faulty running actions do not develop,” and one purpose of his hill springs was to increase strength and flexibility in the ankles and knee lift. “Stride length will develop naturally as fitness grows,” he said. Good form will remain an ideal so long as we can admire the beauty in motion of Seb Coe, Dibaba, or Linet Masai. We now understand how much work it takes. Form is a good topic to end on. It is no longer paramount but it is not passé. Scott Douglas, describing the best current thinking about form in our July/August 2010 issue, concluded that it is still worth thoughtful attention, especially for “maximizing performance” and counteracting the harmful habits of modern life. Instead of being discarded among the litter of reject ideas, form has taken, you might say, an appropriate place in modern training. Second wind and purging are unlikely to find a place again. We have moved beyond fear of running, and we understand the benefits and risks of being punitive or systematic. We know more about nutrition, too. That was subject to some truly weird ideas over the years (see my “Footsteps” column, April 2010). For sure our own age has follies that will amuse the future. Most, I suspect, will be related to “system” and our sport’s commercialization. The main thing is not to be dogmatic, or listen uncritically to those who are dogmatic. Things change. I’ll never have to do a static stretch again. •
In 2010, most people hadn’t figured out how to distinguish between information and knowledge. In the early days of what they called The Information Age, people thought that more data was always better, especially if it came via a digital or wireless piece of technology. For runners, this meant giving primacy to snippets of data — their time for the third mile of an 8-mile run, their heart rate 11 minutes into a 25-minute tempo run, etc. — instead of learning how to listen to the more organic messages emanating from their bodies and running accordingly.
TREADMILL GAIT ANALYSIS Another example of placing too much trust in things simply because they could be captured via technology happened at running stores. (That’s right, people used to go to stores to buy running shoes.) Standard procedure was for the consumer to run briefly on a treadmill while an underpaid employee watched from behind and video displayed the runner’s footstrike. From this procedure the runner was told what type of shoe to buy. Extenuating circumstances such as altered gait on treadmill, the runner’s knowledge of her body, the store’s finite offerings and the at-most partial importance of degree of rearfoot pronation were considered subservient to the power of the treadmill and videotape.
NUTRITIONAL INDIFFERENCE Even many runners who obsessed about every other aspect of their regimen were proudly nonchalant about the quality of food they ate. A line from a 1970s cult novel that “if the furnace is hot enough it will burn anything” was interpreted to mean that getting enough calories — any calories — was a runner’s main dietary concern. Today we can understand why runners wanted to believe that diet for health and diet for performance aren’t linked, but it’s still hard to fathom why it took so long for most runners to realize that quality of fuel is as important as quantity of fuel.
PHITEN NECKLACES These titanium necklaces became suddenly popular among runners after marathon world record-holder Paula Radcliffe and her friend Kara Goucher raced in them. According to promotional materials from the time, the necklaces “work with your body’s energy system, helping to regulate and balance the flow of energy throughout your body. Further benefits of Phiten’s exclusive technology are more relaxed muscles leading to less stress and a greater range of motion.” Runners who had to pay for the necklaces eventually realized such claims had as much legitimacy as ancient Greeks with their four bodily humors, but then as now, athletes would try anything that promised help in the everlasting battle against gravity and inertia. —SCOTT DOUGLAS RUNNINGTIMES
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CONNECTED TO THE GROUND NEW TRAIL SHOES FOLLOW PATH OF NATURAL RUNNING By Brian Metzler | Photos by Peter Baker
“As runners, our feet are what keep us connected with the ground and offer important tactile, sensory feedback, which makes the structure and design of the shoe on our foot essential in shaping our experience with the surrounding terrain. By wearing a shoe that eliminates unnecessary gimmicks and gadgetry (and, most importantly, a big, cushioned heel), I am allowing my foot to operate more effectively, efficiently and naturally while freely relaying proprioceptive information back to the rest of my body.” — CHAMPION TRAIL ULTRARUNNER ANTON KRUPICKA
or years trail running shoes typically came in two varieties: heavy, stiff, thickly cushioned tanks or hybrid (and still thickly cushioned) road running shoes that limited agility on anything but flat dirt or gravel trails. If you’ve done even a little trail running on technical trails, you’ll probably agree that, for some reason, authentic runnability hasn’t always been the primary characteristic of trail running shoes. Sure, every once in a while there’s been a lightweight model with a soft flex that allowed you to feel the trail and run craggy, debris-strewn trails with the agility of a ballet dancer or a 3,000m steeplechaser — in other words, really running instead of plowing heel-first over rocks, roots, gravel and other obstacles with the deft touch of a 10-ton bulldozer. But the sublime, low-to-the-ground, lightweight cruisers — see the Nike Air Tupu, La Sportiva CrossLite, New Balance 890, Salomon SpeedCross 2 as a few of the shining examples — typically never stuck around long, mostly because shoe companies never sold many and had a hard time making the justification to keep them in their line. But now that we’re in the enlightened age of running — when efficient form, not fancy footwear dictates how you run — trail running shoes are going through a renaissance of sorts. With a few new lightweight offerings this fall and more to come in 2011, the new class of trail sneaks means you can run with the same agility with which you run on the roads. Some say minimalist shoes leave a runner’s feet too vulnerable to bone bruises, stress fractures and annoying sharp protuberances. But nimble runners will tell you that it’s only through the sensory interaction between the foot and ground that an efficient gait can be achieved. Still, not every new shoe is based on having a sensory connection with the ground. Newly popular thick-foam trail shoes go in the other direction, but surprisingly, still encourage a midfoot landing and floating gait. (See sidebar on p. 71.) Whatever your level of comfort on the minimalist scale, the good news is that you won’t have to run trails in the bulky, heavy, stiff, thickly cushioned and largely unresponsive shoes that we’ve all suffered through to some extent for the past dozen years or so.
Fall 2010 trail shoe Guide 68 /
RUNNINGTIMES_DECEMBER 2010
Photo:
Rob O’Dea
F
Anton Krupicka dances down a rocky descent in a pair of New Balance 101 trail shoes during the 2010 Leadville 100.
BAREFOOT-STYLE Vibram FiveFingers TrekSport
$100
Similar to the models that have become popular for running on the roads, the FiveFingers TrekSport has a 4mm EVA midsole and a 4mm rubber outsole, and also has low-profile cleats for traction. Although slightly more cushioned and protected (and a half ounce heavier) than the road Bikila model, it still puts your foot as directly on the ground as any shoe, and encourages an efficient midfoot/forefoot gait. It’s suitable for all types of terrain, including craggy technical routes, but only for the most nimble of runners. 6.0 oz. / 4.8 oz.
Merrell Trail Glove
$110
About as simply designed as a shoe can be, the snug-fitting Trail Glove uses lightweight materials to wrap and cover the foot without inhibiting how it naturally wants to move. (Despite its name, it doesn’t have individual slots for the toes.) Like other barefoot-style shoes, it was designed for footstrikes at the midfoot, not the heel. It offers a scant amount of cushioning and just enough protection with a Vibram rubber outsole, while allowing the foot to lead your running mechanics. (A similar women’s version of the shoe is called the Pace Glove.) 6.2 oz. / 4.7 oz.
New Balance Minimus Trail
$99
Offering the freedom of a barefoot shoe and the protection of a lightweight trainer, the Minimus Trail is highly flexible, very lightly cushioned and very low to the ground. It has an almost flat profile (4mm heel-toe ramp angle) and an interior that snugs the specific curves of a runner’s foot, but should be more wearable for shoe-trained runners than pure barefoot models. 7.1 oz. / 5.5 oz.
MINIMALIST inov-8 X-Talon 190
$110
When it comes to featherweight, flexible and agile trail shoes, this fellinspired flyer is in the lead pack. At just under 7 oz, it offers minimal cushioning, a snug upper that wraps the arch and midfoot, and superb traction with an array of deep rubber lugs. It’s a shoe that inspires speed and feels like it’s an extension of your foot (thanks also to a miniscule 3mm heel-toe drop) as soon as you put it on. 6.7 oz. / 6.3 oz.
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New Balance 101
$75
An updated version of the shoe that helped launch the minimalist trail running movement, the 101 has a smoother heel counter and an extra smidge of cushioning in the midsole (although it’s still quite minimal). Otherwise, it’s a shoe that’s barely there and doesn’t get in the way of your natural form. It demands an agile, light-on-your-feet running style, but that’s precisely how ultrarunning champions Kyle Skaggs and Anton Krupicka wanted it to be when they offered their design insights. 8.0 oz. / 6.2 oz.
KEEN A86
$90
A low-profile shoe with a snug fit and fast demeanor, it’s like a pair of cross country spikes for the trails. Instead of spikes, however, this shoe has a collection of knobby lugs that grip to just about anything you might encounter on the trails. Fair warning: There’s almost no protection in this shoe (aside from what the outsole and thin, semi-firm polyurethane midsole provide), and its über-flexible design requires strong feet and efficient form. 9.4 oz. / 7.5 oz.
LIGHTWEIGHT CUSHIONED Montrail Rogue Racer
$110
A lightweight speed shoe with the soft flex of a racing flat, the Rogue Racer has a low-to-the-ground feel with enough structural integrity to keep your foot stable on off-camber surfaces. It’s built on a superdense foam midsole that, combined with a thin but impenetrable rock plate, keeps trail debris away from your feet. It’s perhaps best positioned as a happy medium between heavy, clunky overbuilt shoes and a minimalist. 8.5 oz. / 7.4 oz.
Salomon XR Crossmax
$130
With the XR Crossmax, Salomon has developed a lighter version of its high-mileage technical mountain running shoes. The Crossmax has a softer and more natural flex, lower heel-toe drop, a more connected-tothe-ground feeling and a tendon system aimed at absorbing impacts and transferring energy forward. It offers reliable traction on a range of surfaces and has a stretchy interior liner that adapts to precise foot movements as well as swelling during long distances. 11.3 oz. / 9.9 oz.
RUNNINGTIMES_DECEMBER 2010
SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT
HOKA OneOne Mafate
Tecnica TRS Inferno Max
A few shoe designers appear to be running in the opposite direction, taking the idea of thick cushioning to all new levels. Yet, they’re still telling a story about natural running, reducing impact and increasing forward momentum. It’s not just the thick cushioning that’s important with the HOKA OneOne Mafete ($169) or the Tecnica TRS Inferno Max ($150), it’s that the design of those shoes — an outsole with 50 percent more surface area than typical trail runners, a “rockered” geometry, a slighter heeltoe ramp angle and still in the 11-ounce range — that allows a runner to safely land with more of a flat footstrike on any terrain and then roll forward. Sure, you’re plowing over rocks, roots and other debris, but the agile feeling is more like a hovercraft than a bulldozer. These lightweight shoes also require that you engage your glutes, hip flexors, lower back and core for balance instead of just using the bigger muscles of your legs for forward propulsion. Disbelievers of the thick foam and rockered design suggest that you can’t feel the trail in them and, therefore, your brain can’t absorb necessary sensory information about how to position the rest of your body. But many who have run long distances in them (especially on technical terrain) say the ride is as smooth and effortless as in any shoe they’ve ever been in and downright stable. Some compare the innovative designs to the performance-oriented changes the 29-inch mountain bike wheel, oversized tennis rackets and dynamic widebody powder skis brought about in those sports. And the sensation of running in these shoes is definitely less impactful than traditional trail shoes built with a steep ramp angle and requiring the heel-striking gait that leads to instability. —B.M.
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RACING
A LEAGUE of THEIR OWN BY JONATHAN BEVERLY
A MODEST PROPOSAL FOR A MEANINGFUL ROAD CIRCUIT
The time is ripe to combine individual races and racers into a compelling, season-long circuit of stories.
IN TONI REAVIS’ DREAMS, he hears his own INTEGRATED CIRCUITRY voice, saying something like this: So, that’s the story PHIL STEWART, director of the Cherry Blossom 10-miler and presifrom Falmouth: With two races left in the season, the dent of the Road Race Management organization says, “For the past ZAP Zephyrs take the lead, led by Joe Driscoll’s eighth- 25 years I’ve sat around a lot of tables with a lot of talented people displace finish, but sealed with Morgan’s amazing closing cussing, ‘How can we make this happen?’ and it hasn’t happened yet.” surge to pass Mammoth’s Bauhs and push the team past The difficulty, according to Stewart, stems from the fact that the sport McMillan’s Mountaineers. Who would have thought at evolved from the ground up, while a series is top down. Every race, this point in the season Mammoth might not be in con- no matter how big, started with someone from a local club drawing tention for the championship, but they could still close a starting line, a fi nish line, inviting anyone who wanted to run and the gap with inspired running at Crim next week, and it fi ring a gun. Road racing on a more professional level was born, in all comes down to the final at New Haven on Labor Day. part, as a protest to a top-down Amateur Athletics Union who dicOn the women’s side, it’s Hansons maintaining their com- tated who could run and who could get money. Athletes took their manding lead, with Rhode Island chipping away, but do talent to the open streets, and, in 1981, many of America’s top aththey have time… letes openly became professionals. The dream of a coordinated running “tour” isn’t exclusive to Reavis, but his is one of the loudest voices calling for it. Reavis’ argument is that only by teaming up can running events present the necessary narrative, heroes, continuity and dollars to attract a fan following outside the narrow group of running groupies it does now. His argument is compelling, reasonable, natural even … and mostly pie-in-the-sky, with the approaches tried so far. Perhaps the time has come for a fresh look and a new approach to making this dream come true. 72 /
RUNNINGTIMES_DECEMBER 2010
According to former elite and current Bloomsday Run director DON KARDONG, the idea of a professional road racing league evolved out of the association athletes formed to fight the AAU, the Association of Road Racing Athletes (ARRA). “The concept was to emulate golf at the time,” Kardong recalls, “and have a circuit owned by the athletes. We successfully pulled together some of the top road races in the country.” The athletes’ goal, however, was primarily to get open prize money, and that goal accomplished, they lost steam on the circuit idea, leaving it to race directors.
BUILDING A RE AL R ACING CIRCUIT
In 1995, a group of race directors created the Professional Road Running Organization (PRRO) Circuit, a fall/spring series of top races culminating in a big championship race, which would shift among members. Athletes needed to run enough races in the series to qualify them to run in the championship, which had a total prize purse of $100,000, $25,000 of that reserved for the top male and female winner. The first pro world championships road race occurred at Bloomsday in May 1996. LAZARUS NYAKERAKA and COLLEEN DE REUCK took home the $25,000 — both could accurately be called the top road racers of the year. But the championship, and the series,
Counterclockwise from Top Left:
James Reynolds Photography
Victor Sailer/Photo Run (2)
101° West Photography
Victor Sailer/Photo Run (2)
Lisa Coniglio/Photo Run
“Looking back, the reality was, it was just really difficult for our sport to be like golf or tennis, where you can play basically every weekend.”
races under the PRRO umbrella since the full circuit fell apart after two years, says, regarding the larger goals, “There’s still a shot at it. We always say, ‘If you had a million dollars, you could kind of create the circuit the way you want.’”
SOLO TOUR But could you? Talk to a few race directors and you quickly learn the scope of this challenge. Everyone points out that each race already has its own sponsors, and it’s nigh but impossible to come up with a category that doesn’t compete with one of them: shoe company, fi nancial institution, health care, auto. Not to mention that each race has its own infrastructure, own goals, own local media contacts. None are keen on another coming in and telling them how to run things, and no one is in charge of any broader scope. JIM ESTES, associate director of marketing and long-distance running programs at USATF, feels that this role should fall on the shoulders of USATF. “By virtue of the fact that we’re the national governing body, people do have some expectation that we’re the ones that should be bringing some sense and order to the whole thing,” Estes says. He recognizes, however, that taking such a role is problematic, given the history of running. “I equate it with a dad walking out the door when a kid is 5 years old, and then, he’s 23 years old, out of college signing a professional football contract, and the dad walks in and says, ‘I’m home!’” Not only have road races all grown up on their own, without any assistance or supervision from a larger governing body, “They’ve all grown up in a slightly different way,” Estes says. “At this point, for anybody to come in and say, ‘You’re all doing it wrong’ — I wouldn’t want to be that person. Because, they are obviously all doing it right, on some level, and it works for them.” USATF already directs a series, the USA Road Running Circuit, w ith 13 events of varying distances between January’s Hou ston Ha l f Ma r at hon a nd November’s New York City Marathon this year. Each is designated a national road championship for the distance, with bonus money for winning the championship, and points accumulated over the year toward a small “grand prix” bonus. The cast of competitors, however, depends on who the individual races are able to attract; there’s no feeling of following a series of competitions, nor do the individual titles — 2010 national 7-mile champion, for example — hold much weight, as often they do not go to the fastest athlete at the distance that year. Moreover, the amounts of the prize purses are so small relative to other races, not to mention other sports, that it’s hard to take them seriously (fi rst-place prize in the $8,000 range, $12,500 bonus for winning the series).
lacked the prestige and attention the race directors desired. Even in RT, while Bloomsday merited the top story in our “At the Races” section, the headline read, “More than 56,000 Celebrate the 20t,” rather like the headline for the Super Bowl reading, “72,000 Watch the Superdome’s 100t Game.” “Looking back,” Kardong recalls, “the reality was, it was just really difficult for our sport to be like golf or tennis, where you can play basically every weekend — that just doesn’t work very well for our sport. There were athletes who qualified to go to the championships, but a lot of athletes we wished would have been there, didn’t qualify. It was tough to get enough athletes to the championship race.” From the athletes’ side, agent (and former athlete) TOM RATCLIFFE of KIMbia Athletics sums up one of the problems: “For top runners, the ultimate goal is an Olympic medal. Running road races in the United States is kind of a distraction to that.” Track still rules as the top echelon of our sport, both because the international competitions (Olympics, world championships) are competed there, and also because the track is where you can run the fastest. “People are focused on running fast,” says agent DAN LILOT of Peter Stubbs Management, who represents runners such as KARA GOUCHER, AMY BEGLEY, and DATHAN RITZENHEIN. “Even the average runner asks, ‘What’s your 5K time, your 10K time?’ People are judged by how fast they can run.” Even if primarily a road racer, in the current structure of running each athlete has his or her own season, defi ned by individualistic goals and fi nanced by individual prize winnings and contracts with shoe companies and races. “It would be really difficult to attract top athletes to any kind of circuit, or road racing series,” says Lilot. “It confl icts too much with things that are a higher priority — a runner is going to ask, ‘Is that going to fit into my season?’” The concept of BUILDING RUNNING’S MINORS signing over one’s schedule to a team, league or season, as athletes That said, for a certain class of runners, a purse of $8,000 is significant. Estes recalls do in most other sports, is a big leap. Kardong, who still directs a smaller, less ambitious consortium of Continued on page 74
RUNNINGTIMES
/ 73
RACING
R ACING BOLDLY • R ACING CIRCUIT
TACTICS
BY GORDON BAKOULIS
WHY NOT?
74 /
RUNNINGTIMES_DECEMBER 2010
to abandon track and run the streets of Peoria in order to have a “true” world championships series, we let road racing be its own distinct venue for the sub-elites? Road racing can serve as a minor league — a stepping stone where you can make money while you hone your skills for some, the ultimate destination for others. Not the top of the world, but still something to aspire to. Let’s make it a team sport, where you have to qualify and be selected to run on one of the teams in the series, and, by doing so, you’re guaranteed a level of income and commit to running most if not all of the races. Athletes could be given a salary for running on the team for the tour, with prize money for each race and for winning the series as a bonus, and would be expected to actively participate in promotional activities with media and communities along the tour. We might tie it to the current development teams: Hansons, ZAP, McMillan, Mammoth, Minnesota, Bay Area Track Club. It could be limited to U.S. athletes, or could incorporate foreign athletes who are willing to be U.S.-based and run on the team during the season (can you say YAO MING?). If your season goal is to make the world champs team and you have to peak on the date of the track champs, and therefore can’t commit to the races during, before and after that, then more power to you: You aren’t a candidate for this league. We could have a series that runs from Memorial Day (Boulder) to Labor Day (New Haven) with seven or eight stops in between, from New York to Peoria, on to Atlanta, Utica, Davenport, Cape Elizabeth, Falmouth and Flint. (Note that nearly all are secondary media markets, appropriate for building a robust minor league following). Devise a simple point system that makes sense, where every Continued on page 76
Victor Sailer/Photo Run
Continued from page 73
From Top Left:
LEAGUE
BRETT GOTCHER, now a 2:10 marathoner, joking that his winning the 20K championships in New Haven in September 2009 doubled his income for the year. For this group of athletes — elite, but below the top tier signing six-figure contracts with Nike — “the U.S. championships are very attractive, “ says Lilot. “They present very accessible prize money.” Lilot suggests that this might be the group who could make a series work. “There’s tons of room for the second level of runners — people who realistically are not going to make a U.S. team on the track, especially now when it is so competitive.” MARY WITTENBERG, the president of the New York Road Runners, and the most bullish race director on the possibility of actually putting these ideas into practice, agrees. “Last thing we want to do is take young athletes off the track,” Wittenberg says. “At the same time, the need for this, a road series like this at the right stage in an athlete’s career, when they can actually make some money, is key.” All agree that the money a non-Olympic caliber athlete can make on the track is practically nonexistent. “If they can go have another career, it’s really hard to choose running,” Wittenberg says. “If you’re that good, we better find a way to make it worth your while.” So what if, rather than tr ying to get KENENISA BEKELE, CHRIS SOLINSKY, MESERET DEFAR and SHALANE FLANAGAN
Lisa Coniglio/Photo Run
he already knew, but wasn’t ready to say himself. but it took time for me to really do it. I always “My motto these days is, ‘Why not?’” he says. wanted to hit certain times.” “I’ve done everything I can to put myself in a posiDropping the focus on workout and race times Last January, on the eve of the national half tion to win races, or at least to do the best I can has led to Vega setting personal bests at the 10K, marathon championship in Houston, ANTONIO against a top field. So when I’m standing on the 7-mile, 15K, 10-mile, half marathon and maraVEGA had a conversation with his father. Vega starting line, I believe that I have as much oppor- thon distances this year. “I don’t go into races spoke about his desire for “a breakthrough year, tunity as anyone else to win it. This is the first with a time goal,” he says. “That used to get a year where I’d really go out and win races, espeyear I’ve really felt that way.” me so worked up. Now I just know that the fast cially national championships, and do what I For Vega, the work of cultivating this times are going to come if I stay relaxed about it.” really wanted to do as a runner,” he recalls. mindset took place in training. “Runners For Vega, a key to managing race-related “My dad just looked at me and said, who really want to perform in races anxiety is reminding himself — in the lead‘Well, why can’t you do that? What’s stophave to have total confidence in what up, on the start line, and when the racing gets ping you?’” says Vega, 26. “I thought their coach is doing,” he says. This gnarly — that competitive running is his passion. about that a lot.” Apparently so. doesn’t happen overnight. Vega “When I’m racing, I’m doing what I love,” he says. Vega won the U.S. championjoined Team USA Minnesota in When runners forget that, he says, a talk with ship the next day — his first early 2009 and didn’t imme- the coach, teammates, or support crew can help national title — and he’s diately adapt to coach turn things around. “For me, I’m surrounded by continued to place on the DENNIS BARKER’s phi- other people who love running as much as I do, podium against top-caliber losophy of running “within so just tapping into that can really help remind fields throughout 2010. oneself” in training. “I’d me what it’s about.” What allows a runner to have the blow up in workouts all the A well-planned competitive season will help kind of breakthrough year that Vega time, trying to just push myself as you maintain that passion through challenging has enjoyed? It’s not just a few wise hard as I could for as long as I could,” training and tough races. Again, this is where words from Dad. Vega believes that he recalls. “I’d do the same thing in working with a coach and team can be invaluthe conversation with Vega Sr. in races. Dennis told me I’d get more able, but with some thought, you can do it on January simply told him something out of myself by staying within myself, your own. •
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154,135
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RACING LEAGUE
R ACING LE AGUE • LINETH CHEPKURUI
Continued from page 74
runner’s position counts and teams have the possibility of coming back from a deficit but can face elimination as the season builds to a dramatic conclusion. It’s not a new idea, and numerous hurdles would still have to be overcome, but many people are willing to work on it if someone will initiate the discussion. According to agents and race directors, never has there been such a large pool of athletes who could fi ll the ranks, both from the U.S. and abroad. Wittenberg believes, “It’s right there to be had. We can have Toni to do commentating, sign up Universal Sports, get a core of athletes — we could really have something.” Road racing will continue to survive, and thrive, as it is without such cooperation. But each race will continue to be, as Reavis says, “a stand-alone county fair.” Reavis has taken to arguing that we have an obligation to promote running to mainstream America to fight
LEADING EDGE
the obesity crisis, as only sporting heroes can inspire youth to participate. I would agree that youth aren’t motivated by maintaining health or a promise of a “lifetime” sport: They want to be stars. A road race series that provides a narrative accessible to those who don’t understand or care how much harder a 30:00 10K is than a 33:00 10K, that provides a broader professional class of athletes beneath the three who can make the Olympic team in each event, and that has media continually following the races and the stars seems a great way to inspire more to make running their sport. As for those of us already lifetime runners, we too will survive without a league of our own. But I would love next year to be checking my Blackberry “Road Racing” app — as I now do with MLB — on the results and standings of the Boulder Blast as they chase the series title. And I’d love to hear Toni Reavis living his dream on TV one Sunday summer morning. • BY JON GUGALA
LINETH CHEPKURUI’S U.S. WALKABOUT
Nairobi International Marathon, which she 12K time at the Lilac Bloomsday Run. Chepkurui won in 1:13:55. Shortly after, she signed with went south to San Francisco in May, where she KIMbia Athletics. bettered her newly minted mark at Bay to Winning the 2006 Philadelphia Distance Breakers by 3 seconds in 38:07. Then Atlanta in Classic with a PR 1:10:09 at the age of 18, July and Maine in August, with only that show Chepkurui became a presence on the U.S. road of vulnerability at the line in Massachusetts in racing circuit, and has remained so ever since. mid-August. hile most 22-year-olds are renting But all the time away from her home poses its After her August trifecta of races — Beach their first apartment, the better own challenges. to Beacon, Falmouth and the inaugural Run lodging investment for LINETH “I miss my friends and home environment. Gloucester 7-miler — Chepkurui returned to CHEPKURUI might be to buy a Winnebago. It There is more energy consumed [in travel], Kenya for some much-needed rest before yet would come in handy for as much of the U.S. as especially with flight delays,” Chepkurui says. another transcontinental flight before the she’s seen this year. “Traveling from Kenya to USA is a long flight, too. Philadelphia Half Marathon. Month after month, “dominant” was an The change of food, eating habits and the sudChepkurui is an enigma in her country. Instead understatement for the Kenyan road ace: In den change of climate,” are all things Chepkurui of an all-women group to train with near her 2010, for all but two races — Falmouth, where adds to the list of difficulties. “But I do like and quiet apartment on the outskirts of Iten, she a sick Chepkurui settled for second after being enjoy when I am in the USA.” meets up twice a week with the local men’s outkicked, and Philadelphia, where she finished Whether Chepkurui has finally mastered the group, first for their Tuesday speed work, and second to world track champion MESERET art of living out of a suitcase or she has accli- then for their Thursday fartlek. Her strategy is DEFAR — the only thing her opponents have mated to her double life, never has she been as simple and unchanging: Latch onto a group and seen has been unanswerable move after move dominant as she has been in 2010. try to hold on. and the bottoms of her size-7 Nike racing flats. After the world cross country championships “The advantage with men is that they Chepkurui has seen her own share of strange in March, where she tipped her hand to her fi t- ar e s t r on g er and h elp push t h e pa ce,” things this year. At San Francisco’s Francisco s Bay to ness with a fifth-place fin nish, Chepkurui holed up Chepkurui explains. Breakers, which she won en route to breaking in Boulder, Colo., for a few weeks before the start “I train with females too. Even now I have her world-best 12K time, she he remembers “spec- of her road racing season. seaso “There is not much some friends and we train together,” she says, tators throwing tortillas on the course during diff erence with home h [and Colorado]. It “but mostly I like training with men.” the race.” has almost the same altitude and we If there may be any secret to Chepkurui’s sucElsewhere, “People were re running comget food like we do in Kenya,” she says. cess, it is this: By training with athletes superior pletely naked as they were born,” she says. Then, it bega began. to yourself — regardless of gender — you must Life wasn’t always filled ed with naked First in New Ne Orleans on April 3 for rise to the challenge or get dropped off the back. runners and flying tortillas. as. Born the Cresc Crescent City Classic where From Chepkurui’s race results, you can tell she’s in Bomet, Kenya, to retired red Chepkurui was the returning not one to be dropped. Chepku schoolteachers, Chepkurui champion. In a solo run, she cham After her few weeks of recovery from her tour c a u g h t l o c al c o a c h e s ’ won by nearly 2 minutes. of the U.S., Chepkurui looks forward to the start attention after winning a The following weekend, of a new racing season, returning to the same meet in Iten. After refined ed she ran a PR 51:51 at the place her season always does: world cross counsh training, in Oc tober 2005 005 Cherry Blossom 10 Mile in try. As she has in the past, she’ll resume her Ch Chepkurui debuted at thee half Was Washington, D.C. training with the men. She’s sure it’ll lead to marathon distance at the Stanchart tanchart Then Seatt Seattle for the world-record another season of wins on the road. •
76 /
RUNNINGTIMES_DECEMBE ER 2010
Photo:
Victor Sailer/Photo Run
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RACING
PHEIDIPPIDES AND FRIENDS
FOOTSTEPS BY ROGER ROBINSON
Running Messengers:
GREAT TRADITION The
PHEIDIPPIDES, WHOSE 2,500TH ANNIVERSARY we are now celebrating, was a “day-runner.” He belongs to the age-old global tradition of running messengers. Those intrepid, dedicated, highly trained runners covered enormous distances to convey royal commands, military orders, legal summonses, news of the day, love notes, and every other kind of text message in every human society before the invention of the railroads. They were vital to landlocked or mountainous areas lacking waterborne communications. In 490 B.C., the only way to get a message through the mountains between Athens and Sparta was to send a runner.
article about the hikyaku of Japan, messengers for the shogunal governments, whom he calls “Japan’s fi rst running elite.” Averaging 80 miles a day, they created what Shores describes as “an extensive information network extending from Ezo (today’s Hokkaido) to Nagasaki in the far southwest.” Today’s top Japanese runners, male and female, run in the footsteps of the hikyaku. A 19t centur y European visitor was shocked to see that, even in Japan’s harsh winter, the hikyaku wore only a thin loincloth and straw sandals. Japanese woodblock prints also show this outfit. Some of Europe’s running footmen were similarly minimalist. A 1615 English description of a typical footman says, “He lives more by his own heat than the warmth of clothes.” Some seem to have worn a short kilt that prompted a report that, “Our village maids delight to see the running footman fl y bare-arsed along the dusty road.” The most famous couriers in Europe were the Basques. Like England’s running footmen, they morphed into early competitive runners, racing long-distance road and
The very word “courier” (message carrier) means “runner,” from Latin “currere,” “to run,” which also gives us words like “current” (the latest news), “course” (something you run along), and “cursor” (something that runs around your screen). The messengers’ achievements go far back in time. In 1080 B.C., a “Man of Benjamin” ran 26 miles with vital war news, so the Bible says (1 Samuel 4). The Persian messengers of the Turkish sultan ran regularly from 78 /
RUNNINGTIMES_DECEMBER 2010
Constantinople to Adrianople, 200 miles, in two days and nights. The couriers of preSpanish Peru covered that mountainous empire at the rate of 150 miles a day, using a relay system that pre-dated the Pony Express by a millennium, and often carrying fresh groceries (fi sh, game, fruit) from the coast to the mountain towns, as well as messages. (Send it by donkey and the fish goes bad.) Running Times reader MATTHEW W. SHORES kindly sent his fascinating research
Photo:
An 1841 woodblock print shows hikyaku messengers running at night with box and lantern.
mountain events (“korrikalaris” races), as researched by leading running historian ANDY MILROY. It’s no coincidence that the Basques came from altitude, and no surprise to fi nd that another place renowned for its running messengers was the Bokoji area of Ethiopia. Kipling wrote a delightful verse tribute to the runners of India’s “Overland Mail” (even the tiger turned tail). My own favorite is an Australian aboriginal known as Black Andy, a farm servant in New Zealand in the 1860s. He regularly carried the mail between South Canterbury and Christchurch, taking less than 24 hours to run 100 miles on dirt roads with several dangerous river crossings. Knowing his weakness for brandy, Andy got into the habit of checking himself into the Christchurch police cells overnight to keep out of trouble. As we praise PHEIDIPPIDES, let us also remember these super-fit runners of the distant past. We know few by name. But they are, in the full sense of the word, our precursors. •
Courtesy of Honolulu Academy of Arts: Gift of James A. Michener, 1991
“He lives more by his own heat than the warmth of clothes.”
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RUNNINGTIMES_DECEMBER 2010
5
OUR 30TH YEAR
HOLABIRD SPORTS
SINCE 1981
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1-800-221-1601 • www.cho-pat.com RUNNINGTIMES_DECEMBER 2010 / 81
ART OF THE RUN
82 /
RUNNINGTIMES_DECEMBER 2010
Photo:
“After a long slog up Flood and Grande mountains, with only a brief respite between, Death Racers at last have a chance to look up and soak in the stellar scenery of Northern Alberta and the small community of Grande Cache below. But racers cannot relax for long: Soon eyes focus on the near-drop-off, rocky, rubble-strewn descent to complete leg 2 of the 5-leg 125K Canadian Death Race.” —ELLIE GREENWOOD, female course recordholder. (See p. 47 for more on Greenwood.)
Clifford Photography/www.davidcliffordphotography.com
Darin Bentley descends into the Grande Cache Valley midway into day two of the 2008 Canadian Death Race.
Illinois 2011 • Flat, fast, Boston qualifier!
• Six events—something for everyone! • 50-yard line finish in Memorial Stadium! • Special Guests: Frank Shorter and Lorraine Moller
! e r e h T U C-
Marathon Half Marathon Marathon Relay 10K • 5K Youth Run I-Challenge
Official Host: Champaign County Convention and Visitors Bureau Photos by Action Sports International
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Pearl Izumi’s® isoShift™ with Seamless Race uppers, 360 degree lacing and SKYDEX® forefoot and heel cushioning. Men’s 11.9 oz / Women’s 10.2 oz. RunLikeAnAnimal.com