The Road to the Trials: A Story–Part 1

“It’s dark out; I’m not getting up yet”. He walked into the bathroom, took a prodigious piss, and then plopped back into bed. Laying in bed images of the run he would do in a few hours fleetingly crossed his mind—he could hear the wind bellowing outside. It’s going to be cold he mused as he fell back into the rhythm of sleep.

Light shone in the room—the day is beginning. A truck’s obnoxious reverse beeping could be heard in the distance. “It has to be past 7:00am the construction workers are out already.” Michael stiffly got out of bed ambled to the window pulled open the blind and acutely judged the attire of the students walking about the campus. “It’s nasty out. They all have the hoods of their jackets up and are walking with an extra brisk stride to match the weather. I can even see their breath.” This is how all days begin and the beginning of each day carries the same routine. Routine is what makes the hours fly by. Runners thrive on routine. Without routine runners question every aspect of their day with the insecure scrutiny of a middle school cheerleader.

Michael dressed accordingly and headed to the kitchen to have oatmeal and a glass of OJ before his run. While eating his oatmeal he sits at his laptop and pours over numerous running web pages. A half an hour after getting out of bed he is out the door. He adroitly maneuvers around the streets taking his preferred route through the graveyard to avoid a busy road with unfriendly and overweight drivers who are quick to scream obscenities at him inside their mobile bubble of safety. “I must look so funny to them skin and bones at 5’10” and weighing 135 pounds adorned in spandex and a technical top, made with as much thought as the bubbles they fly through the roads with, that keeps me warm at 0 degrees Fahrenheit.” Curly blonde hair peaks out from under his hat and bright blue eyes shine with excitement as they view the world from their favorite mode of vantage. He has a bravado when running that disappears as soon as he is done. When he is running he is powerful beyond his size—he is powerful because of his size. He is powerful because the engine that he built up inside of him. He is powerful because he is free to explore anything.

“I too fly through the roads. I fly through the roads the way man was intended. I own the roads—they are simply unwanted trespassers.” His anxiety decreases as the travels into the rural roads of town. Here he can zone out and just flow. He can feel the ground with each step. He can hear the streams, birds, wind, and if God were to ever choose to speak to him, he knows it would be on these rural roads meditating as he glides at 6:30 pace.

______________________

Running is one of the only sports that a semi-talented athlete can attain greatness, look at Brian Sell—he didn’t even break 10:00 in the 3200m in high school now he is an Olympic qualifier in the marathon. He is a hero to distance runners. The American dream, the spirit of America, is more alive in distance running than in America’s hierarchy itself. America grants the illusion that anyone can attain greatness. In reality those born into money are often those who, surprise, attain “greatness.” In distance running those with genetic greatness don’t necessarily come out on top. You have to work terrifyingly hard to come out on top and many talented people are afraid to do that. Why should they work hard, they don’t need to work hard to succeed. This may work throughout high school. This may even work throughout college when they have a team and guidance from a coach. However, many talented athletes quit after college because they no longer see the need to train and compete. These individuals just get sucked up into the working world. Those who are not talented often fall off too. They work terrifyingly hard; however, they do not see the benefits they deserve and they too often quit. Those who do not will see vast improvements but not see the times that raise brows. In distance running, the semi-talented athlete often attains greatness.

The semi-talented athlete fails, repeatedly. However, these failures are different from the athlete with little talent these failures are close failures. Close failures drive the athlete to work that much harder to succeed next time. Next time is often a close failure as well. A semi-talented high school athlete will choose to run in college because they never made it to their state meet, or they never attained all-state recognition. The glory was not met so the journey must continue. In college the athlete may never qualify for a national championship or never attain All-American status. Therefore, the journey must continue.

Michael was a semi-talented athlete who never qualified for states in high school, and Michael never qualified for nationals in college. In both cases he was tantalizingly close. Michael’s tantalizing failures were the variety that drives the slightly manic distance runner into brief depression in which everything about one’s life is questioned. Now, a Masters student at the state university, he continues his journey. Michael is seeking the glory which has always snubbed him in the past. Now, the bar is set higher. The natural progression through competition stages elevates the bar. The goal is no longer states or nationals. Now, the goal is the 2012 Olympic trials marathon. First, however, he is training for a 2008 half marathon. The furthest race he has ever run after all is 10k.

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Qualifying for the Olympic Trials: Your Journey Starts Here by Nate Jenkins

2:19:00 this is the new standard to qualify for men’s US Olympic Trials marathon. It is three minutes faster then the old standard but only 56 seconds faster then the standard was in 1984 when the USA had is most qualifiers (260 or so). Also, though the exact qualifying window is yet to be announced, we can be fairly sure we will have more than the 16 months those qualifiers had back in ‘84 so all in all it is an attainable time. In this article I will explore how an athlete can approach qualifying for this–the ultimate domestic race–while also revisiting how I qualified for the last trials.

Step one is to find your race, or races if it takes a few tries. This is an area that I think a lot of athletes really do a poor job at and an area that can make a huge difference as to whether you are going to be lining up with the nations best or watching from the sidelines. Chicago and NYC are both fast marathons by the 3 hour plus marathoners standards. In that world, where 10 min prs and time swings are common place, they should be. But in reality Chicago is 2 to 3 minutes faster then NYC. There is a big difference between the fitness needed to run 2:16 vs. a 2:19. But the speed of the course isn’t the only consideration though. I live at the 25 mile mark on one of the fastest marathon courses in the USA but the winner runs in the 2:40 to 2:50 range every year because the race offers no prize money and no incentives to bring in any sort of professional runners. It is hard to run fast in a solo time trial, it is near impossible to do it in one that is more then two hours long. Also with the new rules you can’t run certain courses because they are considered aided. For example I qualified at the Austin marathon which was point to point with about the same net drop as the Boston marathon, very fast, now if they still used that same course it wouldn’t be an acceptable race. Also heat has a huge effect on marathon performance, look at a race’s weather history as well as recent years.

So to sum up you need a race that is going to have a number of athletes running fast but more over running the pace you are looking to run. Going to a marathon that brought in 8 sub 2:10 guys who go out in 1:04 while you go out in 1:08–10 minutes up on the next runner and not able to even see the lead pack after the first 5k–doesn’t do you much good either. You need a course that is fast. But unless it’s Boston it better not have a net drop as it may be disallowed, when the time comes double check the list of banned courses. The weather needs to be good, now there are no sure things, every fast course has had bad years, Chicago and twin cities were crushed by heat last year, Cal international was so windy in 1987 that eventual trials champion, Mark Conover, was only able to muster a 2:18. My own choice in Austin in February wasn’t without risk it had been in the 70’s the year before but more years then not the weather was good and it was a top choice on all other factors so I went with it. The races to really look for are the ones to cater to the guys going for qualifiers. Chicago tends to do this offering bonuses to all runners getting the standard and sometimes offering pacesetters at set paces to help as well. Houston and Austin did this with great success in the build-up to the last trials. The beauty of these set ups is that they really draw in large groups of like minded runners and you will find yourself in a large pack of well matched runners sharing the work load and getting the most out of each other.

Now you have your race and it is time to train. Here is the next big mistake most people make. They say hey I’m a real fast 10k guy or I’m only a 30:30 10k guy but I’m a real long driver, the type of runner who gets better the longer the race. Either way they most often come up with a training schedule that looks almost exactly like there 10k training schedule just the long runs are a bit longer and the miles are a bit or a lot higher. A best case scenario is that they do a lot of aerobic threshold running and training at about half marathon pace. Either way, these athletes tend to perform real well in half marathon races but tend to under perform in the marathon. You should be able to run within 5% of your half marathon pace for the marathon so a half of 1:06:11 should be the fastest you need to run sub 2:19. Guys who run within 4% are not uncommon and some get even closer then that. In my first marathon I didn’t fall completely into this trap but I did fall into it a bit. I got fit enough that I got away with it but I ran a low 1:04 half marathon during my prep and only ran 2:15:28 in my qualifying race. Based on my half time I should have run in the high 2:13’s or low 2:14;00’s but like so many marathoners I just couldn’t finish the last 4 miles. Why? I had hit the wall, more to the point I had run out of glycogen. But why did I run out of glycogen? Well the same reason so many other marathoners run out of glycogen, my body wasn’t burning enough fat so it burned up all its glycogen before the 26.2 miles was done. How do we stop this? Simple a ton of training at paces from 90 to 100 percent of marathon goal pace.

Ideally if you do a 16 week marathon training phase the first 8 weeks will be focused on what is traditional American marathon training either your beefed up 10k schedule or a schedule heavy on the aerobic threshold training. Then you spend the rest of your workouts focusing on running marathon pace in a number of different ways. As part of interval workouts covering 12 to 18 miles, as part of progression runs and runs where you run multiple paces to stimulate your body to be more efficient and to recover during hard efforts, ie 30k with 10k at normal training pace, 5k at half marathon pace, 5k at normal training pace, 10k at marathon pace. The final marathon pace workout you should be doing long runs finishing at marathon pace. Kenny Moore had a standard workout he used that was a 36 mile long run! He would run the first 30 miles easy, 7 min pace or a bit slower, then the last 6 miles in 30 minutes, his marathon pace (PR 2:11). Now you don’t need to be this extreme but surely a long run of 2:20 or so with the last half hour to 40 minutes at marathon pace will be of huge benefit. When you shift your pace to mp from a slower pace, at which your body naturally burns more fat, at a point where you are already tired your body tends to keep burning the same ratio of fat to carbs and as such learns to burn more fat at the faster pace. During my build-up to the last Olympic trials I did over 120 miles of training at marathon pace over the hardest 6 weeks of work, more then 20 miles a week. Despite a small injury that slowed me a good bit late in the race I still moved from 10^th to 7^th over the last lap, 5 miles, of the race. Compare this to my first marathon where I didn’t have a nagging injury bothering me but over the last 4 miles I averaged close to 5:30 mile pace after averaging 5:06 for the first 22 miles and I went from 6^th to 7^th over that stretch as well. What was the difference? I had only run about 50 miles at marathon pace during my specific preparation phase for the race.

You should also do one hard long run of about the time you plan on running so 2:10 to 2:20 at 90 to 95% of your marathon pace. Doing this run while you are tired and in the middle of full mileage weeks will be extremely difficult but it will help push your body to use more fat at faster paces and ready your muscles and your mind to the task of running 26.2 miles at a very quick pace.

The taper is the final part of your training. A great taper only enables you to run as good as you are but man a bad one can kill you. I personally prefer a 2 week taper getting roughly 80% and 60% of my miles in and cutting back to 1 workout, instead of 2 to 4, a week and cutting the intensity of those workouts way back. I also feel that for a first time taper this is the place to start because it is very middle of the road. It may not be ideal for you but it should be close enough that it won’t kill you completely and then as you see how it goes you can make your taper more or less extreme in hopes of finding the perfect balance for you.

I think as you read over this article you may be thinking to yourself he left out one important aspect, mileage. How many miles should I be running to make this breakthrough? Well it wasn’t a mistake. The great Bill Bowerman once said “If someone says, ‘Hey, I ran 100 miles this week. How far did you run?’ Ignore him! What the hell difference does it make? The magic is in the man, not the 100 miles.”

Benji Durden was as unsuccessful a high school and college runner as anyone. Slower then Sell, slower then me, but he ran 2:09 and he made an Olympic team and he did it on 80 to 90 mile weeks. Now me I love the big miles and my body responds to them. I have also shaped my life to fit those miles, you may not have that luxury but that is no reason to give up on your dream to qualify for the trials. How you choose your miles should not be a more is better type of conversation. It should be a decision based on what type of training best benefits your body. Now that also means if you improve fastest on 140 mile weeks but you only stay healthy for a few weeks doing them then 120 weeks are better because consistency trumps speed of improvement every time. If you aren’t healthy for the start of the race I don’t care how fit you are you won’t do well. Now one thing I will say about low miles is that you need to remember that if you are running lower miles you are not going into workouts as tired and as such you need to run harder in those workouts to get the same benefits, in the case of marathon pace running this doesn’t mean running faster, your goal pace is goal pace, it means running longer at that pace or running it with less breaks, maybe doing 12 to 16 mile runs at mp instead of 4 or 5 by 3 miles at mp with half mile rests.

Now the final thing is commitment and luck. The great Australian coach Percy Cerutty said “Hard things take time, impossible things take a little longer.” Time is your friend now; it won’t be for long. Now is the time to start. Get together your training partners and start to find your loops,your workout courses, and your long runs that will become legend, at least in your own small world. When you and your group all make the jump and become Olympic trialists, if luck is on your side the weather will be good, you will run the perfect race on the perfect day and achieve that for which you have strived. But even if you don’t I promise you will be richer for having tried.

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A Sacred Kindred

I apologize for not having written anything since Monday night. A good friend of mine got married in San Diego–I am from Pennsylvania. So for me, this was to be a full fledged vacation, and true vacations can not be had sitting with laptops. I was actually, and still am, sick of sitting on my computer–I don’t want to blog about the NYC Half, I don’t feel like covering race results right now. I just want to write about what’s on my mind.

San Diego was amazing. It was a wonderful reprieve to be away from my monotonous routine at home. Sure, I was short on mileage for the week, stayed up later than usual, ate worse than usual, drank more than usual, and didn’t even run yesterday (I started my journey out of San Diego at 10:00am and didn’t get home until 10:00pm). However, the change in pace refreshed me and I rolled my 19 mile long run today with 10 miles at marathon pace. This isn’t important.

This is the new perspective. I love running: running sets me free, empowers me, makes me feel like I can take on a car, allows me to get fresh air, lets me explore, keeps me healthy mentally and physically, gives me goals to shoot for, and most importantly brought the best people I have ever met into my life. It is unequivocal. Runners are my kindred.

My college teammates are my best friends. The problem, however, is we have all graduated and live all over the United States–including my girlfriend who lives half way across the country. Therefore, I do not often see my best friends. Yet, running always remains no matter where I am or what I am doing in life. In college, our coach told us to stay off LetsRun and other websites. I faithfully listened and was blissfully ignorant of the running scene for four years. I didn’t need the running scene online–I had teammates I ate with, lived with, trained with, fought with, partied with, raced with, celebrated with, mourned with, and loved.

Fast forward one year. I am in graduate school and am completely unable to find friendship like the ones I have experienced with my teammates. I run; I always run. My mileage increased. My online exploration of running websites increased. I temporarily exchanged the friends who are across the country for the LetsRun message boards, FloTrack webcasts, and all the other great stuff out there. This summer has been even worse. I don’t even have a T.A. position or course work to keep me busy.

The best parts of my summer are when I am too busy to check all the running crap. The best parts of my summer are when trips are made and I visit former teammates. We are growing up. Many are married. One couple has a beautiful two year old daughter. It is absolutely wonderful to see the transformations that are occurring as we grow up. Yet, when we get back together the most natural thing to do is to run together before anything else that occurs. Hell, I did a 10 miler with the groom and best man the morning of the wedding, then hit the beach, and finally we got burgers afterwards.

I joke with former teammates that I do not know how to truly get to know someone unless I can train with them. I realize now that it is not a joke.

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Who is Macharia Yuot?

From being a Lost Boy of Sudan, to running at Widener University, a division 3 school, where he was a multiple time national champion, to becoming an American citizen, and then finishing 33rd in the 2008 Olympic Marathon Trials, it is easy to say Macharia Yuot, 25, has come a long way.

Can you tell us about coming from Sudan to now becoming an American
citizen?
Coming from Sudan was a tough journey that was full of bitterness. It was the most difficult journey I had ever overcome. I think coming to America and becoming a citizen was great moment. It was very exciting for me because it has so much meaning and can lead to great success. It was a blessing to me because of the amazing experiences I’ve had in America: my success in school, my success outside the classroom makes me proud, and having friends as well as mentors in life here makes achieving the goals I have easier while staying focused.

What race are you currently training for and how is the training going?
Well, I just took time off from running after a long season. So it was time to rest and now I am back into training. I think my big race is the marathon, half, and some fast road races to gain my speed back before long races. However, the training had been great even though I didn’t have great prs this season. The season was tough for me. I had trouble getting into big competitions during the outdoor season so I missed some huge opportunities.

What is your ultimate goal race and how do you see it playing out?
My ultimate goal race is to see myself running 2:15 in the fall for the marathon, and 1:02 to 1:03 range for the half. The way this will work out is by doing the training that is necessary to achieve those goals (building the base this summer with more training over 100 miles a week will get me there and the rest will take care of itself).

How is your relationship with coach Touey?
Coach Touey had been great to me since I met him when I was in high school. He had done so much with me as a person, student, and athlete. He taught me so much in life–not only about winning gold medals, but also about how to be a better person, and student athlete to reach my potential in college and after college. Finally, Coach Touey inspired me so much in running and taught me how running can play a role in real life. My relationship with Coach Touey has been a big part of my success in training, workouts, or during competition.

Do you have training partners? If so, who do you workout with?
I don’t actually have training partners because it is difficult for everyone to stay together at the same pace especially during workouts. But I do run with Zach Miller(editors note: Widener alum ’07) and Kev Cunningham(editors note: Widener alum ’06) sometimes for easy runs around Widener.

What is your favorite workout?

My favorite workout is long tempo runs on the road.

What do you enjoy doing when not running?
When I am not running, there is always something to do. I lift, go out with my friends, go to the movies, and visit my Sudanese friends and cousin because I don’t see them that much during the season.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
In ten years I want to be able to say that I coudn’t do any better than I did because I have given all that God had in store for me. Also in ten years I see myself being happy for my successes and accomplishments on and off the competitive arena.

Thank you,
Macharia

Macharia, thank you for your time and for a great interview.

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DN Galan Results

http://www.iaaf.org/gp08/results/eventCode=3921/sex=M/discCode=1000/result.html

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DN Galan Preview-Women

The fast heat of the 100m features four Americans: Muna Lee, Marshevet Hooker, Carmelita Jeter, and Torri Edwards. This meet should be quick and I would not be surprised to see the Olympic Trials order reversed.

The 5000m features Americans Sara Slattery, Amy Rudolph, and Molly Huddle. Each will be looking for redemption coming off of the Olympic trials and will be looking to run fast. This should be a distinct possibility as Merseret Defar and Kim Smith will be in the race to heat things up.

In the 100m hurdles, sensation Lolo Jones will to continue to amaze as she has all year.

http://www.dngalan.com/eng.php

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DN Galan Preview-Men

The 100m features the fleet Jamaicans Asafa Powell and world record holder Usain Bolt. With these two athletes in the race a world record is a distinct possibility.

The 400m features Americans Jeremy Wariner and Kerron Clement.

The rarely contested 1000m should be scintillating with Sudanese phenom Abubaker Kaki Khamis, reigning olympic champion Yuriy Borzakovskiy, and American Chris Lukezic who is hoping to be pulled along for a fast time.

The 3000m should also be blazing with a slew of Ethipians and Kenyans with Americans Ed Moran and Matt Tegenkamp attempting to mix it up with the best in the world. Kenyan slayer Craig Mottram is also looking to turn heads.

The steeple features the singular Anthony Famiglietti who has been racing with bravado this season and is ready to race with the best in the world.

The 110mh features Cuban world record holder Dayron Robles fresh off his 12.88, which was only .01 off his own world record in Paris. American Terrance Tramell, and Aries Merritt seek to show their gusto against the world’s best.

http://www.dngalan.com/eng.php

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Heusden KBC Night Recap

American distance runners had a great showing at the Heusden KBC Night meet with a new American record established and numerous personal bests forged. The highlight of the meet was the women’s steeple.

In the women’s 3000m steeple Jenny Barringer and Anna Willard battle alone out front of the field. Barringer won with a 9:22.73 by .03 over Anna Willard setting a new American record. Both ran prs and under Willard’s old American record set at the trials of 9:27.59. These two women keep pushing each other to greatness.

In the women’s 1500m, American Morgan Uceny won the meet in 4:07.22 followed in 5th and 6th by Amy Mortimer and Sara Hall in 4:08. 39 and 4:08.55 respectively.

In the men’s steeple, Paul Koech won in a world leading time of 8:00.57. American’s Kyle Alcorn and Billy Nelson finished together in 6 and 7th with times of 8:21.46 and 8:21.50.

In the men’s 1500m A heat Alan Webb finished in 6th with a 3:35.86. Webb obviously misjudged both his fitness and the competitiveness of the Olympic trials. He’ll be the fittest man in the world sitting home during the Olympics. Rob Meyers finished in 8th in 3:36.23. The B heat saw Americans finishing first, second, and fourth. With Will Leer winning in 3:37.63, Kurt Benninger in 3:38.03, and John Jefferson in 3:39.55.

In the Men’s 5000m A heat Chris Solinksy finished 16th with a quality time of 13:18.51. Ian Dobson did not finish. In the 5000m B heat Bobby Curtis set a new PR and finished 6th in 13:25.66. Thomas Morgan finished 10th with a 13:27.45, also a pr. Americans took 5 of the next 6 places going 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, and 17th. Jonathon Riley finished in 13:29. 72, closely followed by Luchini’s 13:29.93, then Matt Gabrielson’s 13:30.95, Stephen Haas’s 13:33.59, and Stephen Pifer’s 13:34.62.

Results can be found at http://www.timetronics.be/results/nacht2008/event049h01.html

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Heusden KBC Night

I will not be able to do live blogging, sorry. I will do a comprehensive write up of the results however.

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Heusden KBC-Night Preview

The sprinters are enjoying Europe and the American distance runners are coming out for this meet. However, some of the more notable American qualifiers are sitting this out. In the 1500m there will be no Lagat, Manzano, or Lomong. Interest is still high as the enigmatic Webb is slated to run. Rob Meyers will also be featured in the A heat. The B heat features the exciting Will Leer, Kurt Benninger, and John Jefferson.

The women’s 1500m features Americans Sara Hall, Amy Mortimer, Tiffany McWilliams, and Nicole Teter.

The men’s 5000m A heat features Chris Solinksy who is surely still angry to have not qualified in the 5k for the Olympics and should be out to start his season over again with a blazing time. Olympian and 3rd place finisher in the trials, Ian Dobson, is also in this heat. The B heat features up an comer, as well as NCAA champ, Bobby Curtis. Matt Gabrielson, Stephen Haas, Louie Luchini, Thomas Morgan, Stephen Pifer, and Jonathon Riley fill out the Americans in the B heat.

The women’s steeple features Olympians Jenny Barringer, and American record holder Anna Willard. Lisa Galaviz is also contesting the event; she is the former American record holder and finished 5th in the trials.

The men’s steeple features NCAA champ Kyle Alcorn and Olympian Billy Nelson

http://www.sport.be/kbcnacht/2008/eng/deelnemers/

The meet should be solid. Check back for results and live blogging.

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