Still Running (weakly). Issue 160

PAST – inspiration – Watching Sawe’s London Marathon this year, I thought back to some of the great athletic moments I’d actually been there to witness.  Here’s my Top 10:

10. Crystal Palace 1974 – in the aftermath of the European Championships where Brendan Foster, Ian Thompson, Alan Pascoe and 4x400 boys won gold, the Coca Cola meet’s highlight for me was Roger Mills setting a new world mile walk record of 6:08.9.  He had earlier placed fourth in the European 20km, upgraded to the bronze through a Russian’s positive drugs test.  He only just made the line in Rome, staggering across the track.  The BBC presented him with his delayed medal on Sports Personality of the Year: when interviewed, he said he, “was afraid the Italian police were going to arrest me for being drunk and disorderly.”

9. Crystal Palace 1973 (well, I lived just down the road!) – Brendan Foster, in the throes of his move from 1500 up to 5000, set a new 2 miles world record of 8:13.8 to beat Lasse Viren’s 8:14.0.

8. Withdean, Brighton 1982 – in the GB v Spain v France walks match, Jorge Llopart was the star in my eyes, clocking 2:40:04 for 35km.  He had earlier won European 50km gold in 1978 and Olympic 50km silver in 1980 – Spain’s first ever medal in athletics.  He had the most beautiful race-walking style I have ever seen.

7. Crystal Palace 1978 – Steve Ovett, fresh from his European 1500 gold, took on Henry Rono, 2 Commonwealth golds (5000, 3000 SC) and 4 world records (5000, 3000, 3000 SC, 10,000) that year, over 2 miles.  Rono threw everything at the Brit, but Ovett deployed his trademark kick to win and break Foster’s record with 8:13.5.  As I have recounted elsewhere, having passed the Kenyan, Ovett slowed to wave to the crowd, but we wanted to see a world record, so we shouted at him to get a move on!

6. Raul Gonzales of Mexico was readying himself to rewrite the 50km walk world record when he came to Milton Keynes for the Lugano Cup (world team championships) in 1977 and won that event, despite being challenged and being sick on the last lap!  The next year he would take the world record from 3:52:45 to 3:41:20!  He then collapsed in Moscow 1980 (an ambulance followed him for miles as he weaved across the road) but made amends in Los Angeles four years later with silver in the 20km and gold in his speciality.

5. Crystal Palace 1974 again – the Coca Cola meet featured yet another 2 miles race, where Foster used his midrace surge to triumph over a stellar field, which included Viren, Jos Hermans (world hour record) and Steve Prefontaine, my hero, who ironically failed to finish for the only time in his career.

4. On the last night of the London Olympic athletics programme, Jamaica beat the USA to set a still-standing world record of 36.84 for the 4x100, with Usain Bolt quite impressive on the last leg!

3. Sabastian Sawe’s 1:59:30 has to be up there.

2. I still consider Paula Radcliffe’s 2:15:25 from London 2003 to be the greatest marathon ever run by a woman.  I was a little way behind her that year.  When I crossed the line, I saw that someone had chalked up, “PAULA 2:15:25.”  We all just shook our heads in approbation and wonder.

1. On the same night as the Jamaican triumph, we were lucky enough to see Mo Farah complete the distance double in the 5000.  The drama of the last few laps had to be seen to be believed – and even at the death Gebremeskel looked to be closing with 50 metres to go.  The sound that we (the crowd) made caused such vibrations that the photo finish equipment failed to work.

PRESENT – perspiration – Morgan Lake withdrew from the UK Championships this past weekend.  A prodigious talent, Morgan won gold at both the heptathlon and the high jump in the 2014 World Junior Championships in Eugene.  She set a British record of 2.00 last year, also being selected as Team Captain for the Tokyo World Championships.

Predictably but sadly, the news of her withdrawal from the UKs was met on social media by a barrage of negativity with so-called athletics fans saying things like, “bet she’s still getting lottery funding” and “she must have been tipped off about drugs testing.”

Morgan Lake has a minor niggle and, in a year when medals are on offer at home Commonwealth (Glasgow) and European (Birmingham) championships, she is wisely being cautious.

The above online remarks are of course without any basis in fact.  I would add here that I have chatted with Morgan more than once and, whilst this is no definitive proof of innocence, as if she needed any, she is one of the most charming, genuine and modest world-class athletes I have met.

Good luck, Morgan!

FUTURE – suggestion – “Don’t let Hemery slow it down,” shouted Billy Smith to the US athletes accompanying our 1968 Olympic 400 hurdles champion, David Hemery, on this December 1966 session of 3 sets of 2x400 in 59 on Boston University’s indoor track.

Desperately tired after the first two sets, Hemery tries to bargain with the coach at the start of the last one: “If I do it in just under 58, can I just run the quarter?” i.e. just do one 400, not two.

“Do the set.”  (Smith knows where the value lies.)

“What pace?”  (A delaying tactic.)

“The same – get it started.”  (No quarter given.)

He does the set.  “Are you going to vote for me as the good guy of the year?” asks Smith!

Now Hemery is one of the most disciplined athletes I have ever come across, but even he, in extremis, could ask for mercy.

Brendan Foster won the 1974 European 5,000 metres by injecting a 59-second lap with 5 circuits to go.  His crucial session in preparing for this – and proving he could pull it off, that it was worth attempting – was a series of very fast 200 metre efforts, with only 30 seconds between. 

Completing these sessions taught him that he could indeed kick in the middle of a race and not get into debilitating oxygen debt.  Wanting to maximise the value of that session, Foster would often cut the recovery between the last couple of reps down to little more than 20 seconds!

Whilst Hemery was begging for more time to recover, Foster was voluntarily accepting less.  He was here asking for the session to be harder, not easier!

In interval sessions like these in particular, we will often find ourselves hanging on, it being all we can do to complete the set.

But, on those rare occasions when we feel we may be able to give more (by going faster, by doing more reps, or, in Foster’s case, by having a shorter recovery) then why not increase the value of our session by going for it?