Bird's Nest at Night

Rehearsals are underway for
IAAF World Champs Opening Ceremonies

Photo copyright 2015 Mark Cullen

trackerati in Beijing!

Bird's Nest, Beijing

Good Morning from Beijing!

Arrived late last night after an enjoyable flight thanks to my seat partner, Malin, a university student from Beijing. She was a delightful source of helpful information and terrific suggestions. Thank you, Malin, and to my new compatriot from Memphis who gave me an insightful expat's view of life in Beijing.

Meanwhile, this is the view you get when the hotel messes up your reservation. Ain't life grand?!!!

                                                          

Oiselle's First Nest

Kara Goucher, CEO Sally Bergesen, and Lauren Fleshman at Oiselle opening in Seattle

Oiselle, the pioneering women’s running apparel brand, opened its first brick and mortar store in Seattle's University Village on Thursday.

The lengthy opening day lines bode well for the company's future. Already a tremendous online success, this is Oiselle's first walk-in venture.

"We are passionate for running and passionate for the brand," said Oiselle running team member, Emily Brain. "We love Oiselle." 

Bernard Lagat

The US distance squads will have a different look in Beijing this summer. For the first time since 2005, Bernard Lagat will not be representing the United States at the World Championships.

Lagat was well positioned with a lap to go in Sunday’s USATF 5,000m final. He seemed poised to launch his signature kick at the top of the backstretch. Instead, the large lead pack pulled away from him and created immediate separation.

A visibly emotional Lagat reflected on his 10^th place finish.

Late Round Heroics in Women's Hammer

Late round heroics were the order of the day in the USATF women’s hammer throw final on Saturday in Eugene.

In an event of many meters, mere inches made all the difference.

Amber Campbell pulled out a 6^th round 237’ 5” to top NCAA champ DeAnna Price by 3 inches, win the national title, and stamp her ticket to Beijing – the 5^th World Championships of her remarkable career, in addition to two Olympics.

NCAA champion Price also has met the World Championship standard, so she’ll be joining Campbell in Beijing in August.

Only two inches separated Amanda Bingson from Jeneva Stevens in the battle for the final spot on the World Championship team.

Bingson’s 5^th round 231’ 7” bounced Stevens off the podium and assured Bingson her ticket to China.

All is not lost for Stevens, however, as she made the Worlds team in the shot put on Thursday.

It’s been a remarkable June for Price at Hayward Field. Here she won the NCAA title on June 11 and made her first Worlds team 16 days later.

“This is my place!” said the exuberant Price.

“I did what I had to do today and I’m happy with it,” she continued. “There’s a lot more in the tank and I’m just going to have to keep practicing, keep practicing – keep driving and keep going for what I need to do.”

The key to Price’s goals for Beijing is the consistency of her preparation: “Just train hard and do my job… that’s all I can ask for.”

“I’m a young athlete and I know I don’t have the experience, but I do have the drive and I know that I can do something.”

Amanda Bingson looks to Beijing as a chance to refine her focus. “I need to settle back down and work on myself to get back to mentally being right,” she said, “so that’s going to be a big part of our training.”

“The goal is always to win. We’re looking for big girl finals, being close to our PR, hopefully for a medal, and definitely going out and trying to win.”

A contrarian on Eugene’s sweltering weather conditions, Coastal Carolina graduate Campbell said, “This is pleasant! This is a nice 8:00 in the morning training session. We’ve had 95F with 90% humidity for the last two weeks, so I’m good – this is fine.”

Bingson agreed. As someone who has lived in Las Vegas and Austin, she said, “Oh, this weather is awesome - I love this weather! I was about to put on my sweatshirt, to be honest!”

Sweatshirt?!

Stevens views the weather as good preparation for what is to come. “Today was a down day being in the tent, in the call rooms, in the heat. You know what? It’s going to be hot in China so you have to go through this to get used to that.”

Next Amber Campbell will go to the Pan-American Games in Toronto and try to turn her ’11 bronze into silver or gold.

But Beijing is her ultimate goal.

“I want to do much better than I did today, make the final, and vie for a medal.”

It’s a dynamic team that the US is sending to Worlds:

Campbell, the accomplished veteran with a stellar resume of seven world and Olympic teams;

Bingson, at six years in the sport a relative newcomer, whose rapid progression includes the American record; and

Price, the exciting find of the year with unbounded potential.

Green Cards, Qualifying, and Jesse Williams

The semi-final round of the women’s 800m highlighted the dangers of the top-four-to-finals qualifying system.

Molly Ludlow won the first semi-final in 2:00.22, with Dana Mecke qualifying 4^th in 2:00.76.

Heat 2 was even faster, with only .09 separating 1^st from 4^th.  Chanelle Price won in 2:00.05 with Ajee’ Wilson 4^th in 2:00.14 – a true blanket finish.

This left Lauren Wallace on the outside looking in. Her 2:00.48 would have placed her a qualifying third in the first semi, but as it got her 5^th in the faster second heat, she did not advance.

The point of track and field is to run faster, throw farther, and jump higher than your competitors. When you do, you should be rewarded.

It boggles the mind - as well as any sense of fairness - when you run faster and don’t advance.

At the very least, it should be top 3 in each semi-final with the next two fastest to finals.

Period.

***

                                                                   

Remember false starts?

The sprints used to be a mind game of multiple and intentional false starts. To end the gamesmanship that had infected so many events, the IAAF instituted the one-and-you’re-out rule in 2010 (and modified in 2012).

So far, at least three false starts at this year’s USATF championships have been called on the field.

Green cards abound.

While I’m well aware of the pitfalls of the one-and-done approach (see: Usain bolted, 2011 Worlds), it’s a mystery to me what the basis is for calling false starts here on the field instead of on individuals.

Did they change the rule and nobody told us?

***

Think of the cachet the term “Olympic Trials” has in Eugene.

Our national championships are called that, often followed by ‘which also serve as the World Championships qualifier.’

How about “World Championships Trials”?

OK, that’s a bit of a mouthful, too, but it does sound like a meet with greater importance – an importance it already has to the Hayward faithful.

Greater clarity about the purpose and importance of this meet to the fans Vin Lananna hopes to attract to our sport from beyond these cozy confines can only help to further and accomplish his compelling goals.

***

Evan Jager looked supremely fit and fluid in his steeple qualifier, which he won in a modest 8:40.13. Perhaps his evident confidence comes from his 3:32.97 1500m run at the end of May. He is showing a remarkable range that leaves many hoping he’ll run an open mile before Beijing.

Will an even moderately cooler Sunday see him take on the 8:00 minute barrier?

***

The 100m finals interrupted a perfectly good men’s high jump final.

A scintillating competition saw Erik Kynard win at 7’ 9 ¼”; he then came oh-so-close on two of his three attempts at a new US record of 7’ 10 ¾”.

JaCorian Duffield followed at 7’8”, while ’11 World Champion Jesse Williams (Oregon Track Club) joined the Beijing squad at 7’7”.

“I got excited again,” said Williams, Eugene’s crowd favorite. “I haven’t been excited on the track in a while… I’m just so grateful. I’ve been working really hard the last few years.”

“The first team I made was 10 years ago,” noted the super vet. “Everybody’s calling me ‘old man’ out there! I don’t feel old - I’m 31 - but for a high jumper it is old. But I’m as physically fit as I’ve ever been, and my technique is much better.”

Williams, who did a masterful job of calling the NCAA high jumps on Hayward Field’s internal radio broadcasting system, reflected on that experience.

“I enjoyed it - time flew by and it was fun,” he said of speaking into a microphone for three hours.

“I definitely did a little research,” he understated of his voluminous knowledge of each of the collegiate jumpers.

I was surprised to learn that he called the meet from press row in the West Grandstand, as he gave his commentary the feel of being right next to the high jump apron.

“I got some binoculars and made it happen."

***

Eugene’s weather on Friday was in some ways surprising. It wasn’t the heat so much, as 97F degrees - while uncomfortable - is not entirely unusual for Eugene.

It was the humidity that made the conditions so challenging for the athletes and enervating for the fans. 

Simple tasks such as climbing the stairs in the grandstands would result in people being drenched in sweat. Hayward’s faithful were there, but their enthusiasm was tempered by the conditions.

Perhaps we’re lucky that the meet wasn’t scheduled a week later, as the forecast for next Thursday through Saturday is for highs in the 102-103F range.

Meanwhile, Eugene’s forecast for today is for 99F with 69% humidity.

In our take your pick department, in Beijing today it’s 88F with 79% humidity.

US Men's Hammer Throw

Updated 6/26, 7:26am

Kibwe Johnson urged his second round hammer throw to "Come on!" and "GO!"

It did as commanded at the USATF Outdoor National Championships in Eugene on Thursday when it exceeded the World Championships qualifying standard of 76.00 meters by 22 centimeters.

He later surpassed that with his farthest throw of 76.95m (252' 5"); each was good enough to win.

Conor McCullough (76.09m/249' 7") and A.G. Kruger (76.01m/249'4") will join Johnson at Worlds in Beijing, as each exceeded the championships standard as well.

The depth of Thursday's results was remarkable, with the top 8 recording bests of 71.16m (233' 5") or better.

Even 4th place joined the fray, as James Lambert responded to early adversity by throwing 3 personal bests to rewrite his own record, now at 72.49m (237' 10").

"I'm finally healthy," Lambert said. "I had a little bit of a knee problem at the end of indoors which kind of hindered me at the (indoor) championship where I lost by two inches."

Consistency in training has been key to his ability to peak so well this season. In addition, he is adjusting quickly to any mistakes.

Lambert said that after his first throw "got way away from me, I moved over so I can stay in front of it, and that really helped a lot."

McCullough said,  "I'm excited that all three of us made the team. It's my first senior team and I'm elated." In Beijing, "I'd like to improve and leave it all out there."

It's the first time since 2009 that the US will be sending all three.

Kruger likes the look of the event's future in the US.

"In most years 76m is going to (win) it," he said, "but it was a great competition. It was a great look as to what the men's hammer throw is going to come to in years to come."

Johnson echoed Kruger's view. "Everyone was awesome! I can't remember a time when everyone was in it, at least since I've been around. The country in general is coming up. We have a lot of good young talent."

Johnson would like to throw 78 metres or more in Beijing, make the finals, "and see if I can get on the podium. Outside of Pawel Fajdek (POL), who is leading he world by three meters, it's pretty wide open."

Johnson sees his throwing career winding down, but he'd like to stay involved in the sport.

"I'm going to phase my way out and start coaching these young kids. It's something I'd like to do - to give back. I've learned so much from so many people on my journey to where I am now."

In US track and field, the men's hammer throw is a resurgent event.

US Men's Hammer

Updated 6/26, 7:26am

Kibwe Johnson urged his second round hammer throw to "Come on!" and "GO!"

It did as commanded at the USATF Outdoor National Championships in Eugene on Thursday when it exceeded the World Championships qualifying standard of 76.00 meters by 22 centimeters.

He later surpassed that with his farthest throw of 76.95m (252' 5"); each was good enough to win.

Conor McCullough (76.09m/249' 7") and A.G. Kruger (76.01m/249'4") will join Johnson at Worlds in Beijing, as each exceeded the championships standard.

The depth of today's results was remarkable, with the top 8 recording bests of 71.16m (233' 5") or better.

Even 4th place joined the fray, as James Lambert responded to early adversity by throwing 3 personal bests to rewrite his own record, now at 72.49m (237' 10").

"I'm finally healthy," Lambert said. "I had a little bit of a knee problem at the end of indoors which kind of hindered me at the (indoor) championship where I lost by two inches."

Consistency in training has been key to his ability to peak so well this season. In addition, he is adjusting quickly to any mistakes.

Lambert said that after his first throw "got way away from me, I moved over so I can stay in front of it, and that really helped a lot."

McCullough said,  "I'm excited that all three of us made the team. It's my first senior team and I'm elated." In Beijing, "I'd like to improve and leave it all out there."

It's the first time since 2009 that the US will be sending all three.

Kruger likes the look of the event's future in the US.

"In most years 76m is going to (win) it," he said, "but it was a great competition. It was a great look as to what the men's hammer throw is going to come to in years to come."

Johnson echoed Kruger's view. "Everyone was awesome! I can't remember a time when everyone was in it, at least since I've been around. The country in general is coming up. We have a lot of good young talent."

Johnson would like to throw 78 metres or more in Beijing, make the finals, "and see if I can get on the podium. Outside of Pawel Fajdek (POL), who is leading he world by three meters, it's pretty wide open."

Johnson sees his throwing career winding down, but he'd like to stay involved in the sport.

"I'm going to phase my way out and start coaching these young kids. It's something I'd like to do - to give back. I've learned so much from so many people on my journey to where I am now."

In US track and field, the men's hammer throw is a resurgent event.

The Heat is the Story

Updated Thurs, 6/25, 7:32am
Note that the trend is upward for even hotter weather, not cooler:

With highs of 99F/37C 100F/37.8C now predicted for Friday's and Saturday's USATF Championships, the weather is the story in Eugene.

Combining forecasts from the National Weather Service, Weather Underground, and weather.com, here are the forecast highs for each day of the championships:

93        - Day #1 - Thursday, 6/25
99 100 - Day #2 - Friday, 6/26
99 100 - Day #3 - Saturday, 6/27
90        - Day #4 - Sunday, 6/28

1. USATF announced that the senior men's and women's 5,000m will be run Sunday morning instead of Sunday afternoon:

Sunday, 6/28 - W 5,000m - new start time: 10:20am 

Sunday, 6/28 - M 5,000m - new start time: 10:45am

2. The men's and women's 20k walks will be a combined race:

Sunday, 6/28 - M+W 20k walks combined race: 8:00am

3. The junior men's 10,000m, originally scheduled for Saturday evening, will now have an early Saturday start:

Saturday, 6/27 - JR M 10,000m - new start time: 10:00am

That leaves several races of 3,000m or more to be run in what are likely to be brutally hot conditions.

The senior women's and men's 10,000m remain at 7:35pm and 8:15pm on Thursday, 6/25, preceded by the first round of the women's 3,000m steeplechase at 7:05pm.

The first round of the men's 3,000m steeplechase remains at 6:10pm on Friday, 6/26, and the women's steeple final remains at 1:55pm on Saturday, 6/27.

The biggest impact of the heat likely will be felt in the multis, especially their final events:

- The men's decathlon 1500m at 7:40pm on Friday, 6/26, when temperatures are forecast to be in the upper 90s;
- The women's heptathlon 800m at 1:11pm on Sunday, 6/28, with forecast highs in the upper 80s at that time of day.

Scant consolation to have 'cooler' temperatures than the men, but the cumulative effect of seven events in such heat will be quite similar.

The heat will have a decisive role in shaping the US World Championships multi-events teams, among many others.

It will encourage sit-and-kick races in the middle and long distances, not that those are anything new to national or world championships. Now these are virtually guaranteed.

Weather and schedule updates will be posted here as warranted.

Shoreline Stunner: Hill's 100m US National High School Record

Sprint prodigy Candace Hill set the US National High School 100m record with her historic 10.98 at Shoreline Stadium in Shoreline, WA, today.

The 16-year-old became the youngest woman in the world ever to break 11.00 for 100m.

“I was hoping to run 11.1,” said the sensational sophomore from Stockbridge, Georgia, “after running 11.21 into a headwind at adidas (New York, 6/13/15).” 

Today’s wind was the maximum allowable 2.0 meters per second.

Hill had a national record on her mind as she shattered the previous record of 11.10 set by Kaylin Whitney at the USA Junior Championships in Eugene, OR, on July 5, 2014.

“I’ve been working on my start and my drive,” said Hill. “I was pleased with my start, but it always could be better.”

While she was hoping for a personal best at the aptly named Brooks PR Invitational, “… there was nothing in my training that said I’d run a 10.9 today.”

When asked if this race might alter her summer schedule, she said, “World Youth is next.”

When asked if she instead might run at USATF Senior Outdoor Nationals, she remained firm.

“World Youth is next,” she reiterated.

The understandably pleased Hill smiled and laughed throughout her suddenly many interviews, but the import of her achievement settled even more deeply when she was informed that her time today would have placed her 3^rd* in this year’s outdoor NCAA final.

“Really?” she asked, with an expression that was equal parts astonishment and surprise.

Hill’s time is also a World Youth (11.10, Whitney, above) and American Junior (11.03, English Gardner, 14 May 2011) record.

*or 2^nd depending on how the wind is factored
- birthdate: 11 February 1999

Cheering 2nd

Cheering champions is the way of Eugene's historic Hayward Field.

But never were the place points more important than this weekend at the NCAA Championships.

In a span of 50 minutes on Friday afternoon, two seconds and a third wrapped up Oregon’s men’s national title, long before its vaunted distance corps took to the track.

4:45 - Blake Haney – 3^rd – 1500m

5:15 - Johnathan Cabral – 2^nd – 110m hurdles

5:35 - Marcus Chambers – 2^nd – 400m

Their 22 points would have placed them 9^th in the team score; add Will Geoghegan’s 5-point 4^th place finish in the 5k and the team vaults into a tie for 6^th with Texas A+M.

1.    85 - Oregon 

2.    56 - Florida

3.    53 - Arkansas

4.    45 - LSU

5.    40.5 - USC

6.    27 - Texas A+M

7.    26 - Texas

8.    20 - Mississippi State

9.    18 - Texas Tech

10.  17 - Illinois

       17 - Penn State

As for place points that made all the difference? They played an even more significant role in Oregon women’s first team title in 30 years.

As thoughtful fan Seth L. observed after the meet, Oregon won the team championships with 4^th and 5^th places Thursday evening when Molly Grabill and Waverly Neer finished 4-5 in the 10,000m to pick up nine crucial points in the team race – the Ducks’ eventual margin of victory.

Perhaps we can get really radical and credit Oregon’s throwers with the win. On Thursday, Jillian Weir took fourth in the hammer while Brittany Mann was fifth in the shot put.

Count ‘em: nine crucial points.

And certainly credit Jenna Prandini’s 8 points in the 200m; these clinched the team title for Oregon late Saturday afternoon.

You don’t always have to finish first to win. Celebrate the champions, yes. But celebrate, too, all the non-winning performances that gave Oregon their two team titles.

Home field not always an advantage

It may seem that Oregon’s repeat hosting of the NCAA Outdoor Championships would always create a home field advantage.

Not so.

Today’s 4x100m relay DQ almost cost them the team title.

How so? It was not only the lost potential team points, it was the chilling effect on the start of the women’s 100m, when champion Jenna Prandini almost left the team title in the blocks.

So sure was she not to false start that she was last out. It almost cost her the race, which she won by a scant one-hundredth of a second. Had she false-started, Oregon would have lost the team title by one point – a ten point swing on a nine point winning margin.

The pressure of being the home team is enormous, and granted, is a problem every other team in these championships would love to have. But passing out of the zone is a different beast when it’s in front of over 11,000 fans with lofty expectations. Much better to do it someplace 3000 miles away, when time and distance can buffer the disappointment of the lost opportunity.

Highlight: Women's Pole Vault

A compelling women’s pole vault competition on Thursday saw Demi Payne (Stephen F. Austin, 15”5”) take the win over Sandi Morris (Arkansas, 15’ 3”).

Each has genetic roots in the sport. Payne’s father, Billy, was a leading pole vaulter in the 1990s and a member of the 1995 US World Championship team.

Both of Morris’ parents were collegiate multi-eventers, and in reference to her father she said, “Now I’ve officially jumped higher than he ever did!”

Morris added, “I had a blast yesterday and everyone who watched did, too… It’s hard when you have competition like this but it’s so much more fun.”

The Last Word

Track Town guru Vin Lananna, on the second-day all-women’s events ESPN ratings,

 which were higher than last year’s combined men’s and women’s finals broadcast:

"All the people who thought the women would not get the attention?

WRONG"

Dynamic Duos and Triple Treats

It started on Distance Night in Eugene. 

In the high school girls mile, .04 separated winner Ryen Frazier and runner up Danielle Jones. It continued throughout the Prefontaine Classic on Saturday: exceptionally close, thrilling finishes, time after time, seemingly one after another.

In fields this deep, finishes this close should not be a surprise; the sheer quantity of them stretched the vocal cords of Hayward Field’s capacity crowd. 

It was the number of them that was a surprise:

W 100

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce 10.81

Murielle Ahoure 10.81

Tori Bowie 10.82

W 100 B

English Gardner 10.84

Elaine Thompson 10.84

W 800

Eunice Sum 1:57.82

Ajee Wilson 1:57.87

M International Mile

Ben Blankenship 3:55.72

Jonathan Sawe 3:55.76

Timothy Cheruiyot 3:55.80

M Bowerman M Mile

Ayanleh Souleiman 3:51.10 

Matt Centrowitz 3:51.20

Asbel Kiprop 3:51.25

Silas Kiplagat 3:51.92

M 400m hurdles

Johnny Dutch 48.20

Bershawn Jackson 48.22

M 3,000m Steeplechase

Ezekiel Kemboi 8:01.71

Jairus Birech 8:01.83

Next to finish were Conselsus Kiprotu and Evan Jager, separated by .08, 8:05.20 - .28.

W  Javelin

Even the women’s javelin was exceptionally close, with a scant 9 inches separating the top 3.

Christina Obergfoll 206’ 11”

Kara Winger 206’ 2”

Madara Palameika 206’ 2”

Finally, does .02 in the men’s 100 count as close? Probably not.

Tyson Gay and Mike Rodgers: 9.88/9.90

Not to be outdone, finishing in a three-way tie for last in the high jump were Donald Thomas (Bah), Jesse Williams (US), and Derek Drouin (Can) at 7’ 4 ¼”.

Meanwhile, a tip of the hat to Allyson Felix and Sanya Richards-Ross for taking each other on, time and again, no matter what the possible personal cost in terms of annual rankings.

It’s a rivalry that defines contemporary track and field, and has the possibility of generating interest of the kind Vin Lananna seeks for the sport, far beyond its current - sometimes cozy - confines.

Does Ayanleh Souleiman's 3:51.1 Bowerman Mile winning time sound familiar?

It was once Jim Ryun's world record time.

World Record(s) in Eugene Today?

Uncommon is common at Hayward Field, 

where stars mingle readily with the night,

and night gives the stars all the space they need. 

Link to Steve Prefontaine tribute: “Steve”

http://www.trackerati.com/2015/05/steve.html

Day 2 - 2015 IAAF Diamond League Prefontaine Classic

There is much chatter in Eugene today about the possibility of a world record.

How realistic is this - and who might the claimants be?

The vertical jumpers have the best shot.

Renaud Lavillenie – pole vault

The French 2014 Male Athlete of the Year (Track and Field News and IAAF) supplanted Sergey Bubka (UKR) as world record holder with his 20’ 2.5” clearance in Donetsk, Ukraine, 15 months ago – with Bubka in attendance. He’ll have to contend with the often swirling winds here, but gentle versions of these could be his ally as much as his nemesis.

Mutazz Essa Barshim – high jump

Bogdan Bondarenko (UKR) and Barshim (QAT) electrified this event in 2014, and many made the case that the men’s high jump was the event of the year.

Javier Sotomayor’s 8’ ½”/2.45m world record has stood since 1992; Barshim (2.43m) and Bondarenko (2.42m) are the best since.

A video of Barshim clearing the bar by the proverbial mile went viral last summer. Nail one of those and that world record is history.

Genzebe Dibaba – 5,000m

Dibaba (ETH) has been on a tear – indoors. Since 2/1/14, she has set new standards at 1500m (3:55.17), 3k (8:16.60), 2 miles (9:00.48), and 5k (14:18.86). The world outdoor record is 14:11.15 by sister Tirunesh.

Much could be on the line today, including who gets first dibs on dessert at the next family gathering.

If it were up to me, that would be settled easily if cousin Deratu Tulu - Sydney Olympic and Edmonton World 10,000m champ - dropped by. Meanwhile, waiting her turn for dessert is third sister, Ejagayehu, silver medalist in the Athens Olympic 10k.

(Shhhhhh… dare I speak his name? Justin Gatlin (200m today) is deeply committed to showing he’s better than Usain Bolt; there’s only one way to do that.)

Meanwhile, have you noticed that the acronym for Mutazz Essa Barshim’s name is MEB? I’m just sayin’…

Distance Dominates

On an evening when distance dominated at Eugene's Prefontaine Classic, few distances were more impressive than Joe Kovacs’ 72’ 7” final round throw in the shot put.

In a scintillating series in which three of his throws would have won, Kovacs reinforced his position as the leading putter in the world this year and the favorite to make the deep US World Championships team.

Germany’s two-time World champion David Storl kept the heat on with his 71’11” in second, while the rest of the stellar field finished over two feet behind Kovacs, so dominant were the leading pair.

Tianna Bartoletta mastered swirling winds with her 23’4” long jump win. Canada’s Christabel Nettey took second in 22’ 11 1/4”; the rising star’s personal best remains fractions from long jumping’s 23’ and 7 meter stratosphere. Surprising in 5^th was World and Olympic champion Britnney Reese.

With his scintillating 27:07.51 10k, Cam Levins smashed the Canadian record of 27:23.63 set by Simon Bairu in 2010. Levins moved through the field dramatically from 7k and stormed to a fourth place finish.

“It’s my first outdoor record, and I’m feeling good,” said Levins. Levins spoke with Bairu before the race and said of his record, “It’s going down!” Right he was.

Next up for Levins is the Portland Track Classic 5k with the goal of achieving the World qualifier.

Mo Farah outkicked Paul Tanui and Geoffrey Kamworor for the win, but was disappointed in the time of 26:50.97. 

Tanui and Farah helped each other by exchanging the lead when the pacers were not as effective for as long as hoped. “We had a chat at the beginning of the race and said, ‘Let’s help each other,’ said Farah. “We wanted to run a fast time.”

Ethiopia’s Yomif Kejelcha blew open the men’s 5k with unofficial splits of 55-62 - before the last 200! Last year's World Junior champion is undefeated on this track.

In spite of his third place finish, Galen Rupp felt that this 5,000m in particular was helpful in establishing where he is in his season, especially after his first scheduled race was cancelled due to lightning wto weeks ago. 

“I was really happy that it ended up being tactical,” Rupp said.  “It’s good practice for the meets coming up, which are probably going to be tactical, too.”  

"Pre"View: Field Events for Friday in Eugene

Uncommon is common at Hayward Field, 

where stars mingle readily with the night,

and night gives the stars all the space they need. 

Link to Steve Prefontaine tribute: “Steve”

http://www.trackerati.com/2015/05/steve.html

“Pre”View: Field Events

for Distance Night in Eugene

Much attention is rightly focused on the magnificent fields assembled for the men’s 5k and 10k for Friday’s Distance Night in Eugene. Links to distance events previews are posted, below.

Not to be lost in the distance drama are superb Friday fields in the men’s discus, women’s long jump, and men’s shot put.

Men’s Discus - 20:03 

A remarkably deep field is missing its king. Robert Harting, World and Olympic Champion, continues to recover from a knee injury suffered in a training accident last fall. Three-time World and Olympic silver medalist Piotr Malachowski (Pol) is one of two favorites in the absence of his nemesis. Gerd Kanter (Est) has a dazzling competitive record in this event with World and Olympic gold and three podium finishes to boot; while his golds seem to be behind him (2007 and 2008), he has a remarkable run of 2-3-3 in the last three World-Olympic-World championships – and he is now 36 years old. Best of the outstanding rest is Iran’s Ehsan Hadadi, with two major meet medals to his credit. Some terrific young talent in this meet… not so much a changing of the guard as adding to it. Should be a dazzling display between Kanter and Malachowski - especially if that evening breeze comes in sideways at Hayward Field.

Women’s Long Jump – 20:06

Brittney Reese is to the long jump as Robert Harting is to the discus: each has consecutive World titles and Olympic championships in the last four opportunities: ’09, ’11, ‘12, and ’13. Reese has the longest PR in this field by almost 8”. Sure to challenge her is the resurgent Tianna Bartoletta, who as Tianna Madison shocked the athletics world with her 2005 World Championship win in Helsinki. Russia’s Darya Khristina has the distance (23’ 1 ¾”) but not yet the titles, while Serbia’s Ivana Spanovic won here last year but has a personal best over a foot behind that of Reese. Eager to break 7 metres and join the 23’ club is Canada’s young Christabel Nettey.

Men’s Shot Put – 20:28

The shot put entry list reads like a royal family tree. Tomasz Majewski – 2x Olympic champion; David Storl – 2x World champion; Reese Hoffa - world indoor and outdoor champion, and last year’s world #1; Christian Cantwell – 3 indoor world titles, one outdoors; Ryan Whiting – 2 x world indoor champion.

My pick? David Storl, highly accomplished for so young a thrower. He is the putter and the present as well as the future. He and Majewski are great big-meet throwers; their PBs are 1’ to almost 2’ behind their famous brethren.

Here are links to a couple of the distance previews from the runnerspace.com meet headquarters page:

10k 

http://preclassic.runnerspace.com/eprofile.phpevent_id=120&do=news&news_id=350500

5k

http://eugene.diamondleague.com/news/single-news/news/mens-5k-a-pre-classicspecialty/tx_news_pi1%5Bcontroller%5D=News&tx_news_pi1%5Baction%5D=detail&cHash=7a7b912f5ef94bc489bb9912cdec589b

I am intrigued most of all by Kenya’s Geoffrey Kamworor in the 10K… he made the Kenyan 5k Olympic team when he was 19. Three years later, this past March, he won the World XC title; he turned a close race with teammate Bedan Karoki into an 8-second margin of victory in just the last 300m. Watch out.

Butch Cassidy and Duck Confit

Butch Cassidy

Caroline Rotich and Meron Simon get my nods as distance running athletes of the week.

Throughout Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Butch and the Kid are astonished at the persistence of their pursuers, and Butch asks repeatedly, "Who ARE those guys?"

Caroline Rotich pulled off her Boston Marathon upset win in classic underdog style: stay with the favorites long enough to sow seeds of doubt, then use your best weapon - her remarkable withering kick - to seal the deal on the upset. No one will be asking who she is anymore.

An interesting note from David Macharia in the Daily Nation, an online news source from Kenya that focuses on East and Central Africa: Caroline Rotich attended high school in Japan - which one?

What else but Sendai Ikuei Gakuen High School, which counts among its many illustrious alumni Sammy Wanjiru, 2008 Olympic marathon gold medalist.

Rotich graduated in 2002.

Duck Confit

 

Meanwhile, continuing to get way too much attention is Oregon's French import, Tanguy Pepiot. If you don't know his name, surely you have seen him in the media somewhere this past week, including ESPN. He infamously started waving to his hometown Ducks on the finish straight at the conclusion of the Pepsi Team Invitational steeplechase on April 13.

Well, not quite the conclusion. He was oblivious to fast-closing Meron Simon of the University of Washington, who applied what we learned in junior high and got to the finish line first.

This makes Simon the real hero of this race. He never assumed what Pepiot did: that the race was over. He left himself in position to win and took full advantage of the exceptional opportunity presented him.

On a silver platter.

Recipes for Duck confit are widely available online; the video of this race, increasingly less so. The more popular the video, the more imperious the Pac-12 has become about enforcing its rights to the tape.

Nonetheless, the videotape, too, remains widely available, and this is good news for Pepiot: it's one tape he's been able to find!

All credit to Rotich and Meron for executing so well the essentials of distance running we teach and learn in Middle School.

Eugene to Host 2021 World Track and Field Championships!

In late-breaking news from Beijing today, the IAAF Council awarded the 2021 World Track and Field Championships to Eugene, Oregon.

The IAAF announcement:
http://www.iaaf.org/news/press-release/eugene-awarded-2021-iaaf-world-championships


The Tracktown USA announcement from Curtis Anderson:

http://gotracktownusa.com/inside_track/2015/04/tracktown-usa-awarded-2021-iaaf-world-championships/

I will be blogging about this stunning turn of events this weekend.

Mark Cullen
www.trackerati.com

Track and Field's Christmas on LetsRun.com

April Fools' Day on LetsRun.com is track and field's Christmas, when you unwrap one delightful surprise after another. Don't miss it! http://www.letsrun.com/archive/2015/04/01/


As for the all-important issue of how to punctuate this holiday, let's leave it to this gem from the Writing Explained website; the author identifies himself only as Jordan and he argues for the plural possessive:

"I happen to agree with the AP Style Guide and the Chicago Style Manual because the plural possessive seems to make more logical sense here. There are multiple fools in the world for which April Fools is their holiday. Following this same logic would also explain why the holiday is sometimes referred to as All Fools’ Day because there are many many fools and this is their day. This is why I would advise anyone writing a paper to use April Fools’ Day, not April Fool’s Day."

 

A Ride for Robert

A veteran track and field observer looks for meaning in the most challenging year of his life and finds it in an unexpected meeting with an Olympic champion.

Thursday, May 29, 2014

A Ride for Robert

by Mark Cullen

Dedicated to Wes VanHooser

Part 1

An Evening with Mike

It's the first “Distance Night in Eugene” - May 27, 2011 - the evening before the Prefontaine Classic. Now an annual event, this is when the world's greatest distance runners assemble to set the course of running for the year - and sometimes the foreseeable future.

Tonight, Mo Farah has his breakthrough win in the 10,000m in one of the top 20 times ever run, and his startling performance presages his London and Moscow double golds. His blistering last lap gets this savvy crowd’s attention – who could ever match that?

Uncommon is common at Hayward Field, where stars mingle readily with the night, and night gives the stars all the space they need. 

I run into my friend, Mike Johnson, head coach of the Western Oregon University team. I am privileged to join him and his family for the entire evening.

Our talk turns to the best: your five favorite performances ever?

As we stand in this hallowed hall of American distance running, Mike and I share a possibly unexpected entry: Robert Harting, we say, the 2009 World Championships.

Robert Harting 

Harting was a heavy favorite to win the discus in front of his rabid hometown crowd in Berlin. He lost the lead to Poland's Piotr Malachowski in the fifth of six rounds. With the crowd going wild - I was privileged to be in the stadium - Harting tossed a lifetime best.

Malachowski had one chance left, but it was clear from the point of release that his dreams would not come true. Like a wounded bird, his disc gave up and dropped well short of Harting's golden Championship record.

Bedlam.

Harting is known for his exuberant celebrations, and at the end of his competitions, the fewer garments he's wearing, the better he has performed. He shreds his tops and performs joyful victory laps.

In London, he celebrated his Olympic gold medal by ripping off his singlet, wrapping himself in the German flag, and storming over the hurdles set for the women's final.

Know that he is 6' 7" (2.01m), 287 lbs. (130kg).

The crowd chanted as he soared over each row and - gifted athlete - he never came close to clipping a hurdle.

Decathlon, anyone?

"You know I love this sport," I say to Mike. "I love appreciating it."

Yet I've always kept a respectful distance between myself and these terrific athletes. An unexpected encounter with even one during the course of a World Championship alters my experience and memory of the event.

Trine Hattestad, Norway's javelin world record holder and World and Olympic champion, will likely not remember the 45 seconds we spent together in Seville in 1999.

I'll never forget it.

Kip Keino and LaShawn Merritt will likely not remember the moment we converged on passport control in Helsinki in 2005. I introduced the gold medalist of the past to the gold medalist of the future, but there was an understanding that my name was beside the point.

Earlier, a ripple had passed through the airplane as word spread that Kip Keino was on board.

“If this plane goes down,” I said to my neighbor, “it’s not us who will be in the headlines tomorrow.”

Cheerfully he chimed in, “Also on board…”

*   *   *

"But if I ever have the chance to meet Robert Harting and let him know what it was like to be in the stadium that night..."

"Yes," Mike agrees, "that would be a special moment."

Part 2

The Voice of God

October 1972. My family was worried.

After 17 consecutive years of school, I took a year off.

“Mark is dropping out of college!”

I knew that wasn’t true. I was torn between history and journalism as majors and did not want to make a mistake.

I had attended Hampshire College in Massachusetts in its very first year, and as it was too much like my high school, it was time for a change. A year after my parents moved to Seattle, I enrolled as a sophomore at the University of Oregon.

The legendary journalism professor, John Hulteng, visiting from Stanford, taught my introductory journalism class. He was eager for me to major in the subject, but I had been on a path for history since I was three years old when my parents gave me the book, America and Its Presidents.

That same fall I enrolled in Bill Bowerman’s beginning jogging class. A week after he was named head coach of the ’72 US Olympic Track and Field team, forty of us gathered near a tunnel of the West Grandstand of Hayward Field and waited for who we assumed would be the 49^th graduate assistant coach.

Out walked Bowerman.

He turned, looked up at us, and bellowed, “Hi, I’m your coach!”

On the track below us, Pat Tyson, Gary Barger, Arne and Knut Kvalheim, Craig Brigham, Mac Wilkins, and Steve Prefontaine were doing intense workouts.

We watched in awe.

When Bowerman said he was our coach, he meant it. He wrote and posted every one of our workouts. He came to recognize us on campus, and even if he didn’t know our names, he always acknowledged us.

One month into running with this great coach, I needed a long run and entered the Eugene half-marathon. I was delighted to finish well under two hours in my very first race, my years on “the dark side” – that would be soccer – having served my distance base well.

Bowerman recognized me in the Autzen Stadium parking lot and walked my way. I couldn’t believe he was going to talk with me.

“Why’d ya stop?”

“Because I’ve been running for only a month.”

This may have been, in his cantankerous worldview, one of the ten or so reasonable answers he received in his entire life. He softened, asked my time, and was genuinely pleased with the result. I was back in his good graces.

Every week Bowerman posted a revised roster of the forty of us – an updated ranking based on our workouts as well as results from intrasquad races on the on-campus cross country course.

Four columns of ten. I started near the top of the fourth and gradually moved through the third.

There was a weekly race, usually against a community college. Before each one our team manager, a tall, longhaired Texan named, fetchingly, Tex, read through the roster. The first seven who indicated their availability were that week’s team.

Each week I sat in agony hoping he’d get to my name, and in late October, Tex finally did. We ran in Bend against the Central Oregon Hot Dogs. Two-time Olympic biathlete, Jay Bowerman, son of William J., was a member of their team. We had our own name: Bowerman’s Hamburgers. We were, after all, raw meat.

This showdown between July 4^th barbecue fodder gave rise to my favorite headline, from the Oregon Daily Emerald: “Meats Meet Meats in Dual Meet.”

We ran on a dusty course on a hot day. In a sport in which low score wins, we scored 33 points. I worked my way into our top five and was a point scorer that day for a University of Oregon cross country team.

“Hey, Tex!”

“Yes, Mark?”

“I scored a third of our team’s points today!”

“Yes, Mark.”

I went to the first track meet of the ’72 season and never missed another for the next five years. Well, except for June that year when my mother put her foot down regarding the untimely conflict between my sister’s wedding and the NCAA Championships in Eugene.

Section A, row 5, seat 5.

I remain baffled that there was even a question. I gave the tickets to my roommate, Kyle Jansson, my friend to this day.

Three months later I found myself in my native Massachusetts and went to a soccer field in Deerfield to watch a childhood friend play. As I pulled into the parking lot, I noticed a Lincoln Continental limousine, a rare sight in this part of rural Massachusetts.

During the game, a familiar face became apparent to me. I let him be a father and left him alone. I was introduced to his wife and explained my dilemma.

She said, “He loves to have this kind of conversation with the next generation, and he’d love to have this conversation with you. Go ask him.”

“In journalism school you will learn a specific style of writing,” he said. "Take all the English, history, and political science you can get your hands on, and you will learn to think about what you’re writing about, and the writing will come.”

“Thank you, Mr. Cronkite.”

Often people say they’ve received direction from the voice of god.

I, in fact, have.

Part 3

History in a Duffel Bag

My sense of history informed my seven-and-a-half year running career, which ended in injury after I ran the 1979 Boston Marathon.

I have long suffered the slings and arrows of being called - not always enthusiastically - a pack rat. I always thought I was saving items for their historic value, a potential that, granted, was usually more evident to me than anyone else.

For reasons I still don’t know, I ended up with my older sister’s green Army duffel bag in my dorm room in Eugene.

In it I placed every pair of running shoes I wore from 1971-79, a total of 28.

A little company named Blue Ribbon Sports was in the process of becoming Nike.

I put all six pairs of my Blue Ribbon Sports running shoes in the duffel bag, and kept three of the boxes.

My podiatrist, Dr. Dennis Vixie, was designing shoes for Nike.

“Here, try these.”

Waffle Trainer prototypes.

Did I mention those cool advertising brochures Nike produced during their first year?

I have almost every one.

A dear friend finally convinced me to put one pair in my safe deposit box.

The Bowerman waffle iron shoes.

One of three hundred pairs made by him by hand.

A rarity among rarities, mine are among the very few he made from a spike plate.

Authenticated by Nike royalty Geoff Hollister, Nelson Farris and Dennis Vixie.

I even remember Geoff selling shoes from the back of his vehicle at the ’72 Olympic Trials. He had parked in my dorm’s parking lot.

I pulled in to park.

Next to history.

Part 4

A Guy Named Wes

I'm not quite sure when it was that 2012 began to fall apart for me.

It certainly wasn't the Olympic Trials in Eugene where I witnessed Ashton Eaton's decathlon world record, the third time I’ve seen a new standard set. Nor was it the last day of the Olympics when I realized that my entry in a highly respected international Olympics prediction contest was to win silver.

Had I only thought of it, this might well have led to some shirt-ripping of my own, though at 60, there seemed to be dramatically fewer times when people might actually have wanted me to do it.

Things began to unravel the second Sunday in July when I sat on an old deck chair and it collapsed. The only thing between the wooden deck and my tailbone was a thin piece of canvas.

The deck won.

I was lucky that I had cracked my tailbone and not broken it, as a break requires a surgical repair. But that was hard to appreciate when standing was far easier than sitting for many months to come.

Four days later I was standing outside when I heard a crash inside my house.

A large painting had not been rehung properly, and one of the few remaining emblems of my Dutch family’s life that evaporated in World War II had come crashing down. It didn’t just fall; it fell over the arm of the couch and ripped in four directions.

Two down and I was nervous about the third.

*   *   *    

Fatigue is insidious.

It doesn’t take hold of you in a day; rather, it slowly and imperceptibly takes a little of yourself, bit by tiny bit, until you forget what it was like to be rested. For four years I suffered from fatigue so disabling I was napping several hours almost daily.

Increasingly, I was frightened, most especially by the dismal history on my mother’s side of the family. She and her two brothers all died at 75 of heart disease.

“How’s that for genetic programming?” we used to joke.

It felt less and less like a joke.

Our bodies are always speaking to us, if only we will listen. I gave up red meat, followed quickly by the wine I so loved to match with foods.

I was listening, but uncertain as to what.

My annual physical exam came to have a predictable ending.

“Shouldn’t I be taking a statin, given my high cholesterol and family history?”

My sleep doctor and internist, trusted providers to this day, understandably put fatigue into the sleep apnea bin and focused on treating the known condition.

When I was 52, a heart scan registered 0/400, meaning I had no arterial plaque whatsoever. Memorably, my doctor turned to a resident and said, "He's my first zero."

Eight years later: 8/400, still exceptionally low for a 60 year old. But to me, eight points meant I was headed in the wrong direction. Now there was plaque where none had been before.

“OK,” said my internist, relenting at last, “I’ll write you a prescription for a statin, but before you fill it, you have to see the director of cardiac rehabilitation at Swedish Hospital.”

Dr. Sarah Speck, who is nothing if not brilliant, has a cardiac wellness business which then was getting off the ground. She approved me to continue walking within a limited range of effort – far less than the heartbeat of well over 140 I register when attacking a poor hill near my house in Seattle. Her business includes a small gym with cutting edge diagnostic equipment. Each staffer has a degree in exercise physiology.

Wes VanHooser, a star soccer player who had just graduated from Seattle University, did my intake interview. For an hour, Wes listened to me pour out my fears.

“Why don’t we do a stress test?” he asked.

This calmly delivered suggestion was not really his to make, but he was the first to perceive I was at the stage that it was necessary.

Days later, I looked over Wes’s shoulder as two lines on the printout, one blue and one red, diverged.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“That’s just you being tough,” he replied, not quite the answer I was expecting. He explained I was pushing myself into oxygen debt, further proof of my propensity for thrashing myself.

Not long after, as the intensity of the test ramped up near its end, Wes turned pale.

“How are you feeling?”

“Well, I have some discomfort near the top of my collarbone, but that’s just my breathing.”

That was not my breathing.

Two weeks later, the full meal deal stress echocardiogram showed both that I had the physical fitness of a 39-year-old and that something was very wrong with my heart.

The only way to find out what was to go in and look.

I did not quite perceive the seriousness of the situation until I met with Dr. Speck’s nurse, Terry, to schedule the procedure.

“Our next available time slot is in 13 days,” she said.

“Let’s see,” I replied. “Monday the 12^th. I have a meeting.”

Terry froze me with a look. If my heart wasn’t going to nail me, Terry’s death stare certainly would.

“Actually, I can miss that meeting…”

The next thirteen days were the most frightening of my life. I had worked so hard in the stress echo test that something felt different – ominously different. Dr. Speck gave me permission to keep walking, but I chose not to.

As I entered Swedish Hospital, I thought as I approached the registration desk, “Well, if I go down now, at least I’ll be going down in the right place.”

In an angioplasty, a tube is inserted into your femoral artery and threaded into your heart. A contrast dye is injected and doctors evaluate the degree of blockage, if any.

The angioplasty showed a blockage so serious it required a stent. Remarkably, there was no plaque anywhere else, and the heart scan almost had been right, with just one small exception.

The scan shows only hard plaque, not soft. The soft had attached to that small amount of hard and, unseen by the scan, had built up a blockage of 85% in the artery aptly named the ‘widow maker.’

I am by now used to the sound people make when they see the before and after images of my heart: they suck in their breath. Low whistling comes next. The space through which blood was getting to my heart was almost immeasurable.

No wonder I was exhausted.

Dr. Speck later explained that I worked so hard in the stress test that I might well have dislodged some plaque and made my condition even worse.

Over time, Dr. Speck revealed herself to be perplexed. “This just doesn’t make sense,” she said. “How could someone with your level of fitness have an 85% blockage?”

She checked the boxes for genetic testing.

The mystery of generations of dismal health on the Dutch side of my family came unraveled.

I carry two genes in rare combination. One causes me to produce cholesterol at a rate 55% higher than normal; 10% of the population carries this gene. The other is known as the ‘stickiness’ gene. This charmer causes all that plaque to adhere much faster than normal.

A possibly deadly combination.

My survival beat astronomical odds.

There are few feelings in my life better than offering this explanation to my family. Now we all can find out if we carry one or both genes, and if so, with diet, exercise, medicine, and sleep, much can be done to ameliorate the effects of this genetic dynamic duo.

*   *   *

It’s a well-known phenomenon that after positive life altering experiences, people feel gratitude and appreciation to a degree they have never before experienced. Many are skeptical of this bit of mysticism, but I’ve found it endures.

I’ve always thought of myself as an appreciative person, as one who tries to find the good, but I’ve never experienced appreciation and gratitude so profoundly. I was surprised that through all of this, I had cried only once. This was unusual for me, as I’ll tear up over moments of beauty even more readily than moments of distress.

The only time I had come to tears was in the hospital when it was suspected I was having internal bleeding from my femoral artery. My soft-spoken nurse, Naveen, became a general. He ordered me to bed. Alarms sounded, lights flashed, an emergency team rushed in. False alarm, but those few tears were tears of abject fear.

I kept waiting for the dam to burst.

Part 5

Man with a Mohawk

I enrolled in a three-month, three-day-a-week cardiac rehabilitation program at Swedish. Even saying the name of the program was difficult for me at first, but as I passed through the halls of this venerable hospital, I came to appreciate my good fortune.

One afternoon, as I stood in line at the hospital’s Starbucks, a young women wheeled in her beau. He was a strapping man, perhaps 27, and to see someone so strong and healthy in a wheelchair looked incongruous. His distinctive look was defined by a tall Mohawk.

One side of his scalp was punctuated by a large, Z-shaped scar. I can only imagine the conversation. “How can we operate on his brain and preserve his magnificent Mohawk at the same time?”

Grace comes in many forms.

I looked at his partner and then at him. He and I looked each other in the eye and nodded.

I think of him

every

day.

On a dank January evening, I drove home from the cardiac class along 12^th Avenue on Seattle’s Capitol Hill. A young father was trying to beat the 6:00pm pickup deadline at his child’s daycare across the street. I stopped mid-block in rush hour traffic, and a driver from the other lane took my cue. The young father looked at me as though he had just been given a reprieve.

A bashful smile, a gentle wave - then he dashed across.

Perhaps it’s easier to give reprieves - no matter how small - when you’ve been given one yourself.

Two weeks after my life-altering procedure, it was Thanksgiving.

No kidding.

Giving thanks was never like this.

Part 6

Seeking Sieg

I took Uncle Walter’s advice and majored in history. The writing bug, however, never left.

I wrote one-third of the 1976 Olympic Trials Souvenir Program and never had more fun than covering events for its daily supplement. Who knew that Bruce Jenner stories would have such traction almost four decades later?

Through the late 70s, I wrote race reports and athlete profiles for the World Publications tabloid, On the Run. My big break was supposed to have been a cover story on Gerry Lindgren, but the paper folded a week before my deadline. I still have 85 pages of transcripts of interviews with the Sparrow as well as his coach, Tracy Walters.

The Stinky Foot, Lindgren’s legendary Tacoma running store, was where I conducted three interviews with him. When I returned to clarify several details, he had famously disappeared.

Work took over as my history teaching career took a surprising turn into athletics administration and a policy making role in Washington State high school athletics.

It was Don Kardong who said after the ’76 Olympics that he wanted to find a job that would allow him to continue to train at a high level, and so he got a job teaching.

He wondered why his mileage fell to 20 miles a week.

So it was with my writing.

*      *      *

The day before the ’76 men’s Olympic Trials marathon, I sat in a meeting room in race headquarters in Eugene. I was not introduced to the men on either side of me until this impromptu gathering was over.

A fairly animated discussion took place: with Frank Shorter and Billy Rodgers heavy favorites for the first two spots on the Olympic team, who would take the third? It took a long time to get a word in, but finally I said, “Don Kardong,” and they all turned and looked at me.

Why Kardong?

“Because he has the best balance of distance strength and track speed in the field. If he’s close to third at 20 miles, watch out.”

That got interested nods and murmurs of, “OK, we’ll watch for him, too.”

Kardong was fourth at 20 miles and took coveted third by 56 seconds over his Stanford teammate, Tony Sandoval.

To my left was Joe Henderson, editor of Runner’s World magazine, and to my right, the voluble coach of the Greater Boston Track Club, Billy Squires.

Henderson graciously told this story in his Runner’s World report on the race, concluding with, “Kardong wasn’t even on my list, which shows how much I know.”

The 1988 Seoul Olympics took place in late September and early October. I had entered the Track and Field News Olympic prediction contests several times before, but this time I was coaching cross country and decided I’d show my runners there was more to the sports world than Michael Jordan.

What was intended as a thumbnail sketch of each event turned into a preview of all 47, with an explanation of each of my medal picks. Twenty-four pages later, I was finished. This became a quadrennial exercise and in 2012, I posted it online. My website, Trackerati, was born.

*   *   *  

Summer of 2013. Early July. Nine months after my greatest trial. I was beginning to find my stride again.

As I parked in the neighborhood near Swangard Stadium in Burnaby, British Columbia, for the Harry Jerome Classic, I pulled in behind Canadian Olympian and national javelin champion, Curtis Moss, and at the end of the meet he invited me to join him and his coach for dinner.

We were joined by other coaches and athletes, and it turned into one of those memorable track and field evenings when people who have never met bond through our common language. I told his coach about my fledgling website, and he emailed me a few days later to say that a press pass was waiting for me for that Saturday’s Victoria International Classic.

So it was that the great Canadian coach, Don Steen, Dad of ’88 Olympic decathlon bronze medalist, Dave, got me my first press pass since the ‘76 Olympic Trials – a brief interlude of 37 years.

I thought to send a link to my article about the Canadian meets to Track and Field News, and much to my delight, they posted it in the left hand column, “Today’s Headlines,” for the world – well, my world – to see.

It was exhilarating. For the first time, I began to find joy again, and going to the two Canadian meets revived me.

Hours after the Victoria meet my elderly Dad suffered a massive, disabling stroke.

Even though he was in Maine and I in Seattle, I kept long-distance vigil through the summer and did not venture far from home.

I took up race walking, of a sort, and twice traveled to Portland to work with a coach. She marveled at my lack of flexibility: my true physical inability to master the style after many years of running in a straight line.

Undaunted, I entered a 5k and was delighted to make my goal of breaking 12:00 per mile pace my first time out. This earned me 8^th out of 8 in my age group, tough company when it’s the Bowerman Athletic Club 5k on the Nike campus in Beaverton.

At the beginning of August I felt that biennial tug and arrived in Moscow for the last seven days of my seventh World Championships. I pledged to write every day, and kept in touch with Sieg Lindstrom, Track and Field News’ Managing Editor, with whom I’d struck up a correspondence after the Canadian meets.

T+FN is certainly the most prominent track and field resource in the United States and, with Great Britain’s Athletics Weekly, one of two key sites in the world. Far more than the track and field world tunes in during World and Olympic championships, and the T+FN center column, “The Day’s Best Reading,” has achieved holy grail status among track writers.

It’s hard for me to understate the importance of this publication in my life. I’ve read it since my days at Oregon, and several times I’ve joined their tours to World and Olympic Championships. Through these I have made more friends than I can count, most especially the track and field family I affectionately call “my posse,” whom I first met in Sevilla in 1999, the very same night I met Trine Hattestad, in the very same place.

The Moscow tour stayed in several hotels and, knowing my posse, I registered at one of them in the hope of finding them there. I wrote Sieg to let him know I’d made it and asked where he was staying. We were all at the same hotel.

I put the word out that I’d like to meet Sieg and the result became almost comical.

Every morning at breakfast: have you found Sieg yet? No.

One of the tour staffers, Lloyd, became my seeking-Sieg general, and every day he said some version of ‘but he was just here!’ I hadn’t seen a photo of Sieg, but I’m convinced that at some point he and I were mere feet from each other.

One evening I did a sunset trek to Red Square and retraced the route I took with 23 students on a bitterly cold January night in 1986.

I sat ringside in an outdoor restaurant and watched the human parade.

I was startled by what sounded like boots with metallic toes marching on the rocks of Red Square. Images of a bygone era came to mind. I jumped, expecting the military, and instead saw a young woman go by in six-inch heels, a form of intimidation altogether different than the kind favored by previous dictators.

Or not.

Christmas carols have always held deep resonance for me, and suddenly over the restaurant’s sound system came the haunting melody of one of my favorites, “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming.” I was touched by the image of the resilient rose blooming, against all odds, in the midst of winter.

It’s one thing to know this may be the last time I’ll have a night like this, I thought. It’s quite another to know I might never have had it at all.

*   *   *

On Friday of the World Championships, I decide to head to Luzhniki Stadium for the morning sessions to see what they have to offer. I used to attend these religiously, but came to feel at the end of each Worlds I had only skimmed the host city.

This morning it’s the shape of the sunlight that captures my attention. On one of my color-coded index cards, I jot down “Teardrop of Sunlight,” and four hours later post an article by that name.

At midnight I return to my hotel from post-meet festivities with my posse and fire up my ten-year-old laptop. Remarkable how seamlessly it works here in the land of comcast.nyet.

There’s a message from my longtime dear friend and teaching colleague, Sue Patella, and Supa asks if I’ve seen the front page of the Track and Field News website.

I hurry to the site and scroll up and down the left side. The absence of my article surprises me just a little, it apparently having dropped off already. I’d noted before that material comes in so quickly during major meets that a posting might not stay there long, but even this seems quick to me.

But I do understand; after all, it’s Friday of the World Championships.

My eye drifts to top of the center column.

I burst into tears.

Part 7

A Ride for Robert

Ever since the addition of Friday’s Distance Night in Eugene, I’ve done myself the favor of flying.

I’ve got this one down.

The 5:30pm nonstop from Seattle. Arrive at 6:35, pick up the rental car, make a beeline to Hayward Field in time for the men’s 10,000m at 7:50.

It’s 2013 and I’m in the waiting area at Sea-Tac Airport.

I’m on the phone with my nephew, George, who has just graduated from college. He and a buddy are at Crater Lake as part of a national parks tour that is so similar to the one I did when I graduated that I wonder what else is genetic.

A shadow passes.

“George,” I whisper, almost a hiss. “George,” I say even more insistently.

“Uncle Mark?”

“Robert Harting just walked by.”

“Who’s Robert Harting?”

“The Olympic and three-time World champion in the discus. He must be on my plane to Eugene.”

George cracks up. He knows how important this is to me.

“I’m going to introduce myself to him and hope that I embarrass myself as little as possible.”

“Well, Uncle Mark, good luck with that.”

And so I tell Robert Harting what it was like to be in the stadium that night.

When you pick up a rental car at Mahlon Sweet Airport in Eugene – it must do something good for the soul to always come home to a place called Mahlon Sweet – there’s only one way out. The exit funnels you past the airport’s main entrance.

There looms Robert, busily consulting his phone, looking up and down and seeming perplexed.

On my way out I had noted the absence of a Nike limousine, and having learned, in fact, that you do live only once, I pull over, roll down the window, and say, “Robert, may I offer you a ride to your hotel?”

He peers in and it takes a moment to register.

“Yes. Thank you.”

I take, surprisingly, only one wrong turn on a route I know well, and we are driving along the banks of the Mackenzie River.

This man is not the man of the shirt-ripping public persona the world knows. Here he is in person: quiet and thoughtful, insightful and introspective.

Truly a gentle man.

I ask him of his interests beyond the track, the travel, the business – he is, indeed, a corporation.

“Well,” he says, “I enjoy working on my Masters - doing the research, reading, writing - I very much enjoy the writing.”

“Well,” I ask, “what is your topic?”

“The shoe.”

The single greatest accomplishment of my life is that I did not drive into the Mackenzie River.

Startled, I explain my collection, and he becomes animated. We agree that he’ll get in touch by email and I’ll send him my inventory and notes. Later, I think of two books he might like as well. He doesn’t have a card, but I give him mine.

Friends are skeptical. “Do you really think you’ll hear from him?”

“Yes,” I answer with calm assurance.

It’s remarkable how well you can come to know someone in a short period of time. He is a man of honor and I’m quite sure I’ll hear back.

Later that evening, Keninisa Bekele, the greatest male distance runner of the last decade, jogs his victory lap at Hayward Field. I extend paper and pen and the following week present his autograph to a twelve year old student of mine whose family is from Ethiopia.

Standing next to me as I encounter Mr. Bekele is the photographer, Marty Stitsel, a Seattle-area running compatriot from the ‘70s, who invites me to join him for dinner. I’m sitting two down from Doris Brown Heritage, five-time world cross country champion and women’s distance running pioneer.

As I walk back to my hotel, I wonder if I should just leave now, as a weekend which begins with Robert, Keninisa, and Doris is clearly not going to get any better. I stay for the Prefontaine Classic the next day anyway, the universe having twisted my arm.

Three weeks later, my inbox:

“Hi, Mark, this is Robert…”

Epilogue

Much of my life has returned to normal now, except that at work, people assess what’s on my plate every time I eat. Challenging physical fitness activities have replaced lengthy naps. I’m sleeping far better and even had the opportunity to celebrate an overuse injury.

Life is the same but normal is not.

Often I wonder how fast the plaque built up the first time and when my fight to slow it, and its inevitable return, will intersect. In my new world, tick-tick-tick is not always the sound of my heartbeat.

Nonetheless, I more than take joy in being here, at my remarkable luck at having walked in to have this addressed, and long I will wonder how I can possibly adequately thank Wes VanHooser.

My joy and excitement about the possible are back. After all, I’m here to experience them and awake and alert enough to appreciate them. I started writing again and just wish I could let Professor Hulteng know. I missed him by one year.

Meeting Robert at the end of an arduous year meant that magic still could happen - though, of course, the real magic happened on an operating table at Swedish Hospital.

But to get there, sometimes a different kind of magic is required: a guy named Wes breaks protocol and saves your life.

* * *

Today is 364 days since I met Robert.

As there is no men’s discus at the Prefontaine Classic this year,

I’ll have to find another way of getting those books to him.

But tomorrow I’ll fly to Eugene again.

You just never know who’s going to be on that plane.

* * *



Link to "Teardrop of Sunlight"
http://www.trackerati.com/2013/08/teardrop-of-sunlight.html

Link to "Tribute to My Posse"
http://www.trackerati.com/2013/10/tribute-to-my-posse.html


copyright 2015 by Mark Cullen. All rights reserved.