Finally a post about running. My friend Claire, who I was staying with in
Flagstaff, was a member of my old running group in Baltimore. She has run several ultra-marathons,
including a 100 miler. I came into town
on a Wednesday night – she suggested that I check out the “Thursday morning
bagel run”. She said that many times
some pretty decent runners show up.
Flagstaff has become a running mecca.
The elevation and climate make it a great place to train.
I showed up to the run a little early. There was only one guy there. I introduced myself – he said his name was
Jordan. I could tell that he was a
serious runner from his build – and his accent told me that he was from
somewhere in Africa. I was surprised to
hear that he was from Zambia – I had never heard of a distance runner from Zambia. He laughed when I said that – he agreed that “there
were no runners in Zambia.” He explained
that he grew up mostly in South Africa – which is where he had taken up
running.
The second guy to show up introduced himself as Matt. I could tell he was a decent runner as well –
but to be honest I didn’t know what either of these guys had run. There were a group of about 10 runners – both
men and women. We started out relatively
leisurely – but with given my elongated run the day before I was hoping that
the pace wouldn’t go too fast.
I started out talking to a woman – probably in her early to
mid-forties. We had started talking
because I said I was from Michigan and had some friends who ran there – and she
knew some former Wolverines as well.
Although we didn’t know anybody in common because she was a few years
older than me. I asked her how long she
had been in Flagstaff. “Nineteen years”,
she replied “ I was here before it got popular.”
She started to fall off the pace a little bit – and told me
I shouldn’t wait for her. So I caught
back up with the group. I started
talking to Jordan again. I asked him
what distances most of the guys on the Northern Elite team (who he and Matt ran
for) competed at. He said that it varied
– but that he ran between 10 miles and the marathon. I asked him what his marathon PR was – I was
a little shocked when he said that he ran 2:13 at Grandma’s in Duluth last
year. That’s good enough to make the US
Olympic team.
He said that Matt had just come off an even more impressive
race. He ran 1:01:47 (4:43 per mile) a
few weeks earlier at the Houston Half-marathon.
The world-record is just under an hour.
We gradually moved up to where Matt was – I kind of wanted to ask him
about his experience. Running is a funny
thing. Many times it is like banging
your head against a wall. You work
incredibly hard and your body seems to push back. It can be very frustrating at times. But if you can keep pushing amazing things
can happen. The great performances just
flow from your body. You don’t even seem
to really be in control. In my last post
I wrote about balancing the civilized and animal parts of being human. In a breakout race the animal takes over –
the civilized part of you just needs to get out of the way.
He said that the plan had been to run ~63 minutes. His coach had told them that the lead pack
might put in a surge – but to let them go because they would come back. At the highest level of running surging in races
is very common. The top guys might be
averaging 4:40’s in the marathon – but many times someone will drop a 4:30 or
even a mile in the high 4:20’s to shake off the pretenders. It is the most brutal part of racing at that
level.
Matt said that the beginning of the race was a bit slower
than anybody had anticipated. Again –
that’s the way things go sometimes. Taking the lead takes extra energy – so,
everybody kind of sits back waiting for somebody else to do the pacemaking. Matt said that the group started to feel a
little on edge with the slow pace – and that it gradually sped up. There was a truck in front of them with the
anticipated finish time – and as the miles went by the time kept on getting
lower.
Finally the move happened.
It happened organically – as if the entire group decided when it was
going to happen. Matt said that he
remembered what his coach said – but that something told him that if he let the
group go they wouldn’t come back. So, he
went with the group. This group included
Meb Keflezighi – Olympic Silver medalist and New York Marathon Champion.
Matt didn’t quite have what it took to win that day – but he
ended up only 25 seconds behind Meb (who won the race) and got himself a
position on the Half-marathon World Championship team.
We talked about how much passion you have to have in order
to run. Matt admitted that he was just
now able to give up his day job. I asked
Jordan how his training was coming. He
said pretty well – he had a 10 mile race in California coming up soon. I asked what he hoped to run – he said 45
minutes – which is 4:30 per mile! He
said that his training had been hampered because he was working nights. A 2:13 guy has to work nights! That is crazy.
I realized though that these are my people. Yes, they are much faster than I ever
was. But it’s not like they are living
large. Endurance sports are one of the
few sports where everybody can participate in the same race as the pro’s. But even more oddly – most of the
recreational runners probably make more money than the pro’s. It’s a sport where it’s entirely about the
race. And I love it because of that.
I used to think that running was something that I would grow
out of. I now realize that it is an
essential part of me. Even the
competition part is something that I’ll probably never give up. And that’s ok. I’m no longer ashamed of that. It merely means that I’m dialed into what
makes me happy – and I’m not afraid or embarrassed to pursue what makes me
happy.
Sorry about the lack of pictures on this post - I'll be sure to rectify that on the next post. At first I thought this would be a maximum of five posts on my trip. But there's still a lot more than happened believe it or not.To be continued . . .
No comments:
Post a Comment