Running fast behind pacers is a thoughtless act. You know what’s coming — in fact, it’s been negotiated — and you can either do it or you can’t. But there is no thought required as there is in a pure racing format like the Olympic Games.
Matthew Centrowitz and Nick Willis celebrate Olympic glory
One of the many highlights of the Rio Games was Matthew Centrowitz’s stirring front-running win in the men’s 1500 meter final. Yet, historic as it was — first American to take that title since 1908– there are some who question the standard of that gold medal run, because the 3:50 winning time was the slowest since the 1932 final.
Notwithstanding the Olympic motto, “Faster, Higher, Stronger”, such time-based considerations miss the entire point of the endeavor, and help define what’s missing in the staging and presentation of the sport in general. (more…)
On January 4th I posted a back-and-forth with marathon legend Bill Rodgers in which we discussed the continued dominance in the sport by altitude-born runners from Kenya and Ethiopia:
Among Bill’s points was “We need a Ross Tucker type (Science of Sport) to give us their input. What is the EXTRA time EPO gives a sea-level born marathoner and an altitude-born marathoner? Is it a 5% factor? Fun to speculate. ”
I e-mailed Ross in South Africa after my talk with Bill, and only now have heard back. As Ross explains, he has had a very busy opening to 2015. In any case, we greatly appreciate Ross’s thoughtful response, and hope that it assists in our more fully understanding excellence in today’s very competitive world of distance running.
The 2015 marathon year began where 2014 left off with Kenyans and Ethiopians sweeping the top places at the Xiamen Marathon in China. Moses Mosop, the big-engine Kenyan who had such an explosive 2011 campaign — but who had been beset by injury and personal issues in the last few years — returned to form in Xiamen with a course record 2:06:19 win.
2. Tilahun Regassa (ETH) 2:06:54
3. Abrha Milaw (ETH) 2:08:09
4. Robert Kwambai (KEN) 2:08:18
5. Tadese Tola (ETH) 2:10:30
Mare Dibaba goes sub-2:20 in Xiamen (Jiang Kehong photo)
On the women’s side, Ethiopia’s Mare Dibaba continued her success from 2014 when she also began the year with a win in Xiamen before showing third in Boston then placing second in Chicago — though those places will likely move up one notch once the Rita Jeptoo drug positive has been adjudicated. Dibaba went 2:19:52 in Xiamen yesterday to destroy her competition & post the event’s first female sub-2:20.
At the end of 2014 I posted my analysis of the marathoning year. Yesterday, I received a response from my old friend and oft-time running partner Bill Rodgers, the four-time Boston and New York City Marathon champion from the 1970s. Since I only lived two blocks from Bill’s old running center shop in Boston in those days, I would often tag along on Bill’s second run of the day as we spun the miles of Jamaica Pond beneath us in both foul weather and fair. Often during those runs we would discuss exactly the issues that continue to animate the sport to this day. With Bill’s permission, here is how yesterday’s back-and-forth went. (more…)
In this excerpt from the archives of my old Runners Digest Radio show in Boston, we go on-the-run with marathon legend Bill Rodgers, four-time Boston and New York City Marathon champion of the mid-to-late 1970s. During our run Bill talks about his transition from ex-college runner to resurrected marathon runner.
Runner’s DigestBill Rodgers, 2:09:55 American Record, Boston 1975
In the aftermath of World War II many nations had to dig out of devastation, left with the psychic remains of shattered lives. My mother was one who saw her world destroyed, but was fortunate to find refuge in America, which sat alone and free. This gave her Baby Boom children the freedom to dedicate themselves to youthful ways well into their adult years. While the youth of today remain at home much longer , Boomers had the luxury to remain more infantile longer.
When I moved from St. Louis to Boston in August of 1973, I shared a two-bedroom, one bath apartment with three friends. We paid $160/month, $40 each. I had just left Washington University in St. Louis, a well-regarded liberty arts institution. In looking through some old papers in the attic of my parent’s house 40 years later I found a receipt for my final semester from the early 1970s, $1250.
Today, the same apartment that we paid $160 for in Boston is now $1525/month, while a semester at Wash. U. in St. Louis is $22,420 and rising.
Could this be why American kids in the 21st century seek less strident forms of release?
“No man working 40-hours a week will ever beat me in a marathon.” – Four-time Boston Marathon champion Bill Rodgers.
After winning the 1975 Boston Marathon in an American record 2:09:55, Bill Rodgers returned to his job as a special education teacher. He’d been a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War, and carried a sense of societal responsibility common to his generation. But when his principal kept asking if it was really necessary that he train during his lunch break, Bill knew he had to choose. He followed the path to running history, winning three more Bostons, four New Yorks and a Fukuoka (Japan).
Today, the depth of distance running talent is far greater than in Rodger’s era, and to say the world’s top runners live all but monastic lives to prepare for their major competitions is being generous to monks. And yet, defending Boston Marathon champion Wesley Korir of Kenya has recently taken on a responsibility that would leave even the affable Mr. Rodgers shaking his head in disbelief. (more…)
Boston Billy after 1978 at the center of the whirlwind
Man isn’t just a pattern-seeking animal, he is a goal-setting beast. From breaking the four-minute mile to putting a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth, we have constantly striven to outdo our forefathers. Accordingly, we have seen the standards of excellence mount with an almost linear progression through the course of time.
Today, the marathon performances of the Running Boom champions seem almost quaint by today’s standards, as far from world class as the exploits of their own predecessors seemed during their time in the sun. At this year’s 117th Boston Marathon, five of its greatest champions from the Boom era will return to celebrate the anniversaries of their winning moments. (more…)
This Saturday, November 24, 2012 friends of Coach Bill Squires will gather at Boston College from noon till 3 pm for an 80th birthday celebration. From far out on the California coast, a toast and fond salute to the coach who famously led Boston State College and the Greater Boston Track Club during a career that carried many a runner and team to national and international titles, all with no budget or home track, while revolutionizing marathon training with athletes like Bill Rodgers, Alberto Salazar, Greg Meyer, Bob Hodge and Dick Beardsley.
But it wasn’t the Xs and Os of his training programs that made Coach Squires a New England running legend, or that earned him the Bill Bowerman Award from the National Distance Running Hall of Fame in 2002. It was much more than what he said.
How to best explain it?
Well, I guess I could go back to the early `80s and take you on the drive with the coach and New Zealand Olympian Kevin Ryan as we headed from Boston to New York for the Millrose Games, the drive that got the coach talking about his “date” with Hollywood starlet Natalie Wood – or as coach called her, “Natley”, in his clipped Arlington, Mass. born accent.
As the coach told it, the date had been arranged by Photo Play, or some such Hollywood magazine. Squires was a miler at Notre Dame at the time, and he and another athlete in L.A. for the NCAA Championships were to escort Ms. Wood and Annette Funicello, the ex-Mousketeer, on a date for publicity purposes.
I could go on and tell you about Coach’s reaction after Kevin Ryan caustically remarked from behind the wheel, “Huh. No way a beautiful woman like that would go out with an ugly prick like you,” said as he downed another Foster’s while zooming at 80+ down I-84, and yet uncannily knowing when to slow down for a soon passing state trooper.
“ME-E?!! ” exclaimed the coach riding shotgun, his voice rising two octaves, accent straining in startled indignation. “I was handsome : six feet tall, 160 pounds, blawnnd crew cut hayuh (sic), 100 push ups a day – I had definition in my bawdy! Are you kiddin’ me!!???”
I was left in a puddle of hysterics in the backseat.
Or, I could regale you with Coach’s story (again indignantly told on the same drive) about how he used to pee in his college dorm room sink in the dead of night, because he didn’t want to pad down the hall to the communal men’s room. And how after his roommate complained to the good fathers of Notre Dame about the coach’s indecorous behavior, how the coach proceeded to present a paper at his disciplinary hearing detailing the disinfectant properties of urine as utilized by soldiers in the Boer War as a weapon’s cleaner. And yet, notwithstanding this uncontested testimony, how the coach was firmly instructed never again to use his sink for anything beyond hands and face washing and tooth brushing, and that included no weapon’s cleaning.
Sure, I could do that, but why go back that far? (more…)
