The 3000 meter race was set up perfectly for Mary – the Russians weren’t there, her main competition was an unproven Budd and eventual winner Puica – the race was on American soil in L.A. How could she possibly lose? It was because of the curse of course, which I attribute to Billy Mills, which I’m not sure he deserves. To recap: No American  has won any track event past 800 meters since Tokyo 1964 even though there have been some great US athletes who should who were favorites. Take the career of Mary – she could have had up to 8 chances to win Gold. ’76 injured, ’80 boycott, ’84 decided not to run the 1500, ’88 injuries and did not qualify. So she had ONE chance only to win the only competition that matters and you can see what happend.

Is it some sort of conspiracy, but there is no video footage anywhere 0f Mary falling. There is one Youtube vid that shows it, but the story is about Puica and the fall is but a side thing. Here is the best I could find – very dramatic pics

But what made her bad ass IMO was taking on the Russian Queens at the ’83 world championships. Let’s set this up.

1. Mary had never faced the kind of competition where she ran in a pack – because in the US almost no one could keep up with her
2. Europe and especially the USSR dominated womens distance running – there was no way some skinny American who liked to run from the front was going to win – no respect.
3. This was the Cold War Era, it wasn’t about seeking love and peace with the THEN Soviet Union – it was about being better than them at everything from making nuclear bombs to winning gold medals

And this is where the excitement and intrigue was. For some younger people its hard to imagine the knd of nationalism that existed in both countries. It was all about what country was the best and so when Mary Decker raced the Russians it was national pride on the line. The pressure was crazy, Mary was the best US womens runner of ALL TIME – if she couldn’t win, our nation was a failure.

As for me, I was and am for better or worse a product of that era. I bleed red, white and blue and I take it personally if we win (USA chant) or lose (totally devastated. So when I watched Mary in the 1500 sprint the those last 200 meters just her and the 3 Russian Queens I was jumping and yelling like a tweeny at a Jonas Bros concert. And when she dug down and passed the Russian at the last 10 meters, crossing that finish line in front, I was genuinely proud.  And that is why is was a bad ass.

Here is Mary’s greatest moment. The announcers can’t even contain themselves 

The most memorable Ovett moment I can think of was the previous video I showed where Ovett dropped out midway during the Olympic 1500 because of bronchitis or something and Coe won. If you remember to keep your ears open during London 2012 and you’ll catch Ovett cracking on British Track because he works for Australia now.

The main compliment I can say about Coe is that he was a winner – the guy went for it hard in an angry sort of persistance that is difficult to describe. The 800 and 1500 meters in the early 80′s were dominated by the Brits; with Coe’s rivalry with countrymen Ovette and Cram are legendary. Coe won 2 Olympic 1500 meter Golds in 1980 & 1984 along with countless other awards and World Records (if you want details see Wiki).

Here is what I think is Coe’s greatest victory – at the LA ’84 Olympics. The race has such interesting sub plots. Steve Ovetts breathing problems, Steve Scotts training in the Arizona Dessert to try and build up his indurance to be able to push the early pace and wear people down – that obviously didin’t work. Coe after the finish gave kind of a wierd stiff double hand point up towards the stands like a mad robot. Apparently what it was – was a defiant “take that” to the British press that criticized him all year and that he wasn’t gonna win. Sebastian Coe, one of the greatest middle distance runners of all time?

In addition I saw many an athlete also at the Sacramento’s outdoor T&F Meet and at SF’s Examiners Indoor T&F Meet (Emon Coughlin anybody?) at the legendary Cow Palace. So the next set of blog entries will focus my thoughts on various great runners mostly pre 2000.  There is also a sub theme which I will explore, called the Billy Mills Curse – who I think is the last American, man or woman to win an Olympic Gold in something beyond the 800 meters. Mills who’s pictured on my blog won the 10,000 meters in Tokyo in 1964. I’m not suprised that Lagat suddenly got cement legs at the Beijing Olympics – He’s American now and the curse continues – Ryun, Pre, Decker, Jacobs.

HERE HE IS – Running Brave himself. The deconstruction of the race is awesome – the elbow then the sprint. CRAZY!!

Those ultra marathon dudes are amazing. THey get up at 3:30am, run 20 miles and then go to work. OK maybe they’re amazing and loco. I just gotta motivate myself to get out there. Maybe by writing it down here where I know at least 2 people will read it – It’ll get me going again.  

It’s part of running to get hurt. A co-worker was looking into a 50 mile trail race and we were looking at the times of people from last year, but what really caught my eye were that many of the runners were in their 40′s to 50′s. That is totally awesome – to age with endurance. So I’m gonna just suck it up, get reasonably healthy and get back out their rain or shine. I wanna be 50 and be like, “yo doc, for my birthday I ran 50 miles I almost had kidney failure, but it’s all good - hook up the vicodin!”

The sense that I felt most often during my race was silence. Especially on hills where nobody said anything as they concentrated on getting through the climb. Whenever I decided to pay attention there was nothing to hear. I wasn’t running hard enough to hear my breathing or my heart pounding. I think, I did however hear my sweat glands pumping like a 24 hour oil refinery.

One of my favorite authors, Shusaku Endo wrote a book called, “Silence” about a Spanish Priest in 16th century Japan who lived in poverty and obscurity, facing torture and death all for his faith – but when he prayed or meditated he didn’t feel anything. No sense of God anywhere. OK I’m not comparing running to ”una experiensa religiosa” (guess the singer?, he has a distinctive mole), although some may equate running with torture.

My point is when things are going good, you feel great at mile 10- encouragement is not an issue. Heck the dude cheering people on dressed up like the Donnie Darko Rabbit would probably lift your spirits. But when things go bad????? How do you generate internal inspiration?. Just as the Priest never got an answer I don’t have one either. I’ll have to revisit this later.

For now, everyone’s different. But maybe I should stick with my ipod and play the Rocky song da da da …. da da da…. da da da…. da da da….Maybe I’ll even have enough energy to knock out Darko on my way to the finish line.

The gruelling part was not feeling 100%, maybe feeling 65%. The night before the race I still had a fever and so ended up sweating it out. Now think about the person you know who sweats the most – I guarantee they gots nothing on me. It was so bad that my wife had to wash all the sheets, covers and pillow cases that came within a 3ft radius of my body.

During the race  I’m like the Axe sweaty guy: my sweat ratio is like 1.33lbs /mile . All that to say, although I carry 45oz of water with me, drink at all the stops and drink a lot at home – it wasn’t enough. Somewhere around mile 11 I started cramping and it was time to go into survival mode. Survival mode is not fun, it means conserving energy so that you can finish, but not crash or take 3hrs to finish. Anyway, i finished about 20 minutes later than I wanted – but I finished and i’m happy and I had enjoyable meal with some great people. 

The other bad timing factor is that I got sick last night. Probably the swine flu – since I work around sick people all the time it’s very possible – I shoulda got that shot. No matter, Unless I wake up tomorrow and can’t walk i’m still running. THis is one of those “test of will” runs – overcoming the elements, the unforseen, the outside forces, yourself.

One of the most amazing sports documentaries I have ever seen is of John Stephen Ahkwari- in the 1968 Olympics he was the very last runner to finish the marathon in total darkness. Bloody and bandaged – falling over as he stumbled the last miles – he never gave up. His famous quote when asked why did you keep going?, “my country did not send me 5,000 miles to start a race, they sent me to finish it.” I remember seeing the footage as a kid…so damn inspiring.

I think another reason why I want to run – to experience a moment of pushing myself and not quitting. Accomplishing something I wasn’t sure I could. If I start faltering in the race, I’ll pretend I’m John Stephen Ahkwari and drag my ass across that finish line.

 My quote. “I didn’t pay $65 dollars to start the race, I wanted that shirt”. yeah, not so inspiring.