Cheering for Amy

Amy Cragg after her 3rd place finish. Photo by Paul Merca.

Malinda and I decided to go out on the marathon course at the 2017 World Championships and watch and cheer for the women’s race. By the time we got on to the course near St. Paul’s Cathedral, the race leaders were nearing the halfway point. Great Britain’s Alyson Dixon had built up an early thirty second lead but there was a large chase pack of runners including Amy Crag and Serena Burla. By the time we saw the runners again, they were at the 30K mark and we noticed that Cragg was leading the front pack of about fourteen runners.

Amy Cragg (nee Hastings) has qualified to represent the USA at five global championships since 2011 in three different events. She was fifteenth in the 5,000 meters at the 2011 Daegu World Championships. She was eleventh and fourteenth in the 10,000 meters at the 2012 London Olympics and 2013 Moscow World Championships. She was ninth in the Marathon at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Cragg is no stranger to competing in these big races. She has made steady improvements but hadn’t yet truly contended for a spot on the podium. Going into this race her personal best in the marathon was 2:27:03, only the twenty-second fastest time out of all the competitors. But that’s why they run the race.

We decided to move closer to the finish line to cheer. Malinda picked a spot on a tough uphill section that we later estimated was about one kilometer from the finish. “This is where she’ll need cheering the most,” Malinda reasoned as we found a spot on a barricade to tie our USA flag. I found a wifi signal and started to monitor Twitter for race updates.

The. Move. Has. Been. Made. @HastyHastings surges just past the 35 km mark. Who will go with her?? 👀 live on @NBCSportsGold! #IAAFWorlds

— USATF (@usatf) August 6, 2017

.@HastyHastings breaks away with Chelimo, Kiplagat & Cheyech. No guarantees on who makes podium. Still anyone’s race! #IAAFWorlds

— USATF (@usatf) August 6, 2017

These five meters are the difference between a World Championship medal, or 4th for Amy Cragg at #London2017 https://t.co/jtUiKCUPik pic.twitter.com/ZRV5VAK0j1

— FloTrack (@FloTrack) August 6, 2017

.@HastyHastings battling for bronze currently with Cheyech. They keep trading positions for third. Cherimoya & Kiplagat are 5 seconds ahead.

— USATF (@usatf) August 6, 2017

When these last two tweets came through, I told Malinda to get ready because from the time stamps I could tell they were only one or two minutes away.

Here came the lead motorcycle, then the truck photographers, and, after a small gap, the Toyota with the Seiko clock displaying the running time of the race on top. Chelimo and Kiplagat ran by, but I hardly noticed them. I leaned over the barricade and craned my neck to try to see around the corner. There they were, Cheyech with Cragg a few steps back. “Come on, Amy!” we shouted, “Dig deep!” She had a determined look on her face as she attacked the hill. At that point a man in a blue Nike shirt sprinted by and yelled to Amy, “She’s slowing, Amy. She’s all yours.” I looked at Malinda and said, “That’s Amy’s husband.”

 

We quickly untied our USA flag and took off running, trying to keep up with the husband (Alistair Cragg). Alistair is a former elite runner himself and I was trying not to spill my coffee, so we didn’t keep up. Then I saw a bar and thought that we should go in and see if they have a television. Right as I got to the door, Alistair came out. A man wearing a red Bowerman Track Club shirt was with him. Since they were leaving, we knew there was no television in that bar so we didn’t even go in to look. We all took off running in the direction of the finish line. I started putting it all together and realized Bowerman Track Club shirt guy was Cragg’s coach, Jerry Schumacher. Somehow Jerry and I got slowed down by some slow moving pedestrians and Alistair and Malinda got ahead of us and out of sight. We passed another bar. I looked all around and didn’t see Malinda. I thought to myself, “Do I go in the bar or keep running down the street?” As I contemplated my decision and the possible ramifications of each option, I heard a voice shout, “Jerry, they got one!” We turned and saw Alistair pointing inside. So, it was Jerry Schumacher. But more importantly, The Liberty Bounds had a TV!

Jerry and I raced inside. I glanced around trying to figure out if Malinda was there or not. Initially I didn’t spot her but then I heard her voice, “She’s got it!” We were all staring at the television and screaming for Amy. “Where’s the finish? How much farther?” Alistair asked. “It’s just on to the Bridge,” I shouted back. I did compose myself to take this wonderful picture of Jerry, Alistair, and Malinda gazing at the screen.

After Amy crossed the line in third, Jerry and Alistair hugged. Malinda bear hugged Ailstair and told him congratulations. Jerry pointed at Alistair and shouted, “That’s the husband of third place.” And then Alistair shouted, “And this is the coach!” I patted them on the back as they took off running towards the finish to join Amy.

Malinda and I looked at each other and said to each other, “Wow!”

Lessons in perseverance – the Olympic Trials 10,000 meter races (Part 2)

In Part 1, I re-capped the men’s 10,000 meter race. This part 2 will include a recount of the women’s race and a summary of how both races were lessons in perseverance.

The women’s 10,000 meter race did not feature nearly the same number of Olympic A standard runners as the men’s race. When Jennifer Rhines scratched a few days before the race, there were only four runners left in the field who had the Olympic A standard. One of them (Shalane Flanagan) had already said that if she qualified in the women’s 10,000 she would decline her spot to focus on the Olympic marathon instead. That left the three other A standard runners (Amy Hastings, Janet Cherobon-Bawcom, and Lisa Uhl) all but assured of the three Olympic spots. As long as they finished the race and no new runners achieved the A standard during the Olympic Trials 10,000, Hastings, Cherobon-Bawcom, and Uhl would be London-bound.

The rest of the field, other than the four mentioned above, were in the same situation as Dathan Ritzenheim. In my opinion some of them should have banded together to try to run the Olympic A standard pace (1:16 per lap for a 31:45). Based on their qualifying times, Alisha Williams (32:03), Deborah Maier (32:12), Meaghan Nelson (32:14), and Alissa McKaig (32:14), seemed like the people who stood the to benefit the most from a fast pace. They could realistically run 31:45.

When the race started there was almost an immediate four-person breakaway group that included Williams and Maier as well as Wendy Thomas and Natosha Rogers. Rogers’ is a great story. This was just her fourth career 10,000 meter race. In her debut she ran 34:18. Then she ran 33:47 at NCAA Regionals and then 32:41 to win the NCAA Championship. Now she was running with the big girls at the Olympic Trials.

Lisa Uhl stops to tie her shoe

After two laps on A pace, the inexperienced Thomas started to slow down and no one took the initiative to go by and get the group back on pace. I would learn later that during the third lap Uhl stopped to tie her shoe and Flanagan went to the front of the pack and purposely slowed the pace down so that Uhl could easily catch back up. When Flanagan slowed the pace, people collided and Rogers fell but quickly got back up and sprinted to re-join the front group. Maier then decided that she wanted to go for the A pace and she went to the front. She would lead until the halfway point, at times opening up three to four second lead on the chase pack. Maier would reach the 5K mark in 16:14, with the chase pack at 16:16. It would take a 15:30 last 5K to hit the A standard – possible but unlikely.

Hastings assumed the lead and clicked off laps between 1:17-1:18. The chances of anyone running the A standard went from unlikely to non-existent. The Olympians were going to be Hastings, Uhl, and Cherobon-Bawcom. Still, the final laps were exciting as Hastings, Rogers, and Flanagan battled for the win. I was super impressed that Rogers, who came into the race with only a 32:41 PR and fell earlier in this race, did not back down from the more experienced Hastings and Flanagan. In the end, Hastings sprinted to victory in the final 100 meters with Rogers running another PR (31:59) to edge out Flanagan for second. Uhl was fourth and Cherobon-Bawcom was seventh.

Earlier I mentioned that these 10,000 meter races were lessons in perseverance. At the US Olympic Marathon Trials in Houston in January, Dathan Ritzenhein and Amy Hastings both finished fourth. They were both one spot away from making the Olympic team in the marathon. They were both devastated.

Ritz – 4th in the Olympic Trials Marathon

 

Hastings – 4th in the Olympic Trials Marathon

Less than six months later, Ritzenhein and Hastings got back out there and battled again to make the Olympic team. There were no guarantees they would make the team on the track. There was no guarantee they wouldn’t come up short and be devastated again. But they both got out there and took the chances. They risked bitter disappointment for the chance at their Olympic dreams. For this reason alone, I was rooting for both of them to make the Olympics in the 10,000. It would be a nice example of people enduring a disappointing situation and then coming back and having success – persevering, if you will. That’s why it made me smile to see the emotional tears of joy from both Ritzenhein and Hastings after their 10,000 meter races. They persevered and they deserved it!

 

Ritz – 3rd in the 10,000, Olympic Trials going to London

 

Hastings – 1st in the 10,000, Olympic Trials going to London

Fourth Place

The 2012 US Olympic Marathon Trials took place in Houston on January 14.

Zoila Gomez, Khalid Khannouchi, Blake Russell, Trent Briney. What do those four runners have in common? They were the fourth place finishers at the 2008 and 2004 US Olympic Marathon Trials. Fourth place. When talking about Olympic spots, fourth place is the most painful place….in essence, the first loser. The top three go on to compete in the Olympics. Fourth place just leads the hundreds of others who must wait four more years for another chance.

For Dathan Ritzenhein (aka “Ritz,” who was a 2008 Olympian) and Amy Hastings (no Olympics yet), they reluctantly add their name to the Gomez, Khannouchi, Russell, and Briney list. If it’s any consolation, four years after her fourth place finish, Russell qualified for the next Olympics in the marathon. In addition, both Ritzenhein and Hastings can still race at the 2012 US Olympic Track & Field Trials in June to try to make the Olympic team on the track. Both of them have pretty solid chances of making the team in either the 10,000 meters or 5,000 meters. Ritzenhein is a former American record holder at 5,000 meters and was sixth at the 2009 World Championships in the 10,000 meters. Hastings is coming off a season in which she made the World Championship final in the 5,000 meters in Daegu.

“Trying out for the olympics (sic) is being willing to serve your heart on a platter along with a knife and carving instructions.” That was US professional runner, Lauren Fleshman’s Facebook status the other day. Fleshman would know. Although she has been the USA Champion for 5,000 meters twice (2006 and 2010) and competed at three IAAF World Championships (2003, 2005, and 2011), she has endured two disappointing “tryouts for the Olympics” (also known as the Olympic Trials). In 2004 she was injured and unable to compete. In 2008, she faded to a non-Olympic team qualifying fifth place.

The US has a very objective system to qualify for the Olympics. Four years of training comes down to one race. It’s all or nothing. It insures that the US Olympic marathon and track & field athletes have earned their spot on the team, having endured the pressure that accompanies the Olympic Trials. Before the 2012 US Olympic Marathon Trials, I read a line that stuck with me, “trying to add the word Olympian to their name.” By placing in the top three, one qualifies for the Olympics and does have the word Olympian associated with their name for the rest of their life. That’s quite the reward, but with such a mighty reward comes pressure and the potential for disappointment – thus “serving your heart on a platter with a knife and carving instructions.”

As it turned out, of the six qualifiers (three men and three women), only one truly added Olympian to their name. That would be Desiree Davilla. For the other five, this is a return trip to the Olympics. This will be Meb Keflezighi’s third Olympics, Ryan Hall’s second, Abdi Abdirahman’s fourth, Shalane Flanagan’s third, and Kara Goucher’s second.

It is no wonder that Ritzenhein and Hastings were so distraught at the finish line of the Olympic Marathon Trials. Both of them shed tears as the reality that they did not miscount, they were fourth, set in.

Ritzenhein, who was only eight seconds behind Abdirahman for the coveted third place spot, was described as disconsolate at the finish by bloggers covering the race. Despite running a PR, in post race interviews he said things like “Obviously being fourth is the worst place to be, and I’m trying not to react in the completely negative, but the marathon has been a continued problem. I’m not saying that I will never run another marathon but I am going to shift my focus back to the track. I am really going to focus on the disciplines and distances that I am good at.”

Hastings, who finished over 70 seconds behind Goucher,  said in a Runners World interview that she had known for the last two miles that she was not going to finish in the top three but that she held back tears for miles 25 and 26 because crying then would affect her breathing. But the tears rained down when she finished. Still, she composed herself to attend the post-race press conference as the official USA Olympic Marathon alternate. That takes some class.

There’s something noble about being fourth at the Olympic Trials. I wish I were the fourth best at something out of everyone in the USA. If that something happened to be an Olympic event, all the better, but I’d settle for being fourth American at anything. The sting of fourth place will be there for a while for Ritz and Hastings but hopefully over time they will be proud that they gave it their best and they will rebound to battle for an Olympic spot in the future.