| Scott Anderson's Olympic Trials On-Line Journal:
Part 8 - Happy Birthday Claire & What Makes a Season Great?
Editor's Note:
This is the seventh installment of miler Scott Anderson's Olympic Trials Journal. If you missed his eye-opening installments #1 or #2 or #3 or #4 or #5or #6 or #7 we strongly urge you to read them before reading this installment as they provide background information which makes things a lot easier to understand (especially #1) . To make a long story short, Scott has spent much of the last 4 years preparing for the 2000 Olympic Trials, which he unfortunately didn't qualify for. Click here to be taken to Installment #1.
 July 29, Saturday
July 25
Happy Birthday Claire. My sister turns 20 today and I think for probably the 10th consecutive year, I have not bought her a present on time. I like to think it's because I want to find her the perfect gift. To some extent, that's it. But maybe I am subconsciously still holding a grudge against her
for the birthday of mine a couple years back that she completely forgot. I
think the main problem is my inability to multitask. For instance, I am
currently focused on my journal, my potential career leads, and my running,
in that order. (In other words, I am self absorbed and selfish.) As usual,
I justify my neglect by resolving to compensate with an extra-special gift as
soon as I get back from CA. (This plan usually backfires by putting even
more pressure on me to find a gift, thus making the process even more
stressful.)
Over the past three weeks, I have thought a lot about running. In fact, the
thoughts have overwhelmed me. I have probably typed about twenty pages of
inarticulate notes on memories, observations, and revelations. Okay, I admit
more memories than revelations. This opening of the floodgates is due in
part to the journal writing and in part to the imminent conclusion of my
season and possibly my career. Although I first started the journal for fun,
I now look at it as a cathartic exercise I need to complete in order to come
to grips with the disappointing last few years of my career. The obvious
disappointment is my failure to qualify for the Olympic Trials, but I have
realized that my running is not about making the trials. Like breaking a
four minute mile, making the trials is simply a concrete accomplishment that
the layperson can relate to. I admit that it would be nice to have that "I
qualified for the 2000 trials" accomplishment to justify my past four years
of existence to the non-runner, but I would be just as dissatisfied with my
season had USATF slowed the qualifying time down by 2 seconds, as they did in
'96, allowing me to compete. Maybe I would feel even worse about this past
season, as I would feel guilty for receiving an entry I did not deserve, as I
did in '96.
I like the feeling of working hard towards a goal and accomplishing it.
(That line was for my friend Ernie who criticized my writing for not
including enough clichés, an unacceptable oversight for any self-respecting
professional athlete.) So ever since high school, I have set goals of
improving my times every year. John L. Parker Junior notes in his classic
"Once a Runner," that a runner walks around with their pr figuratively
stamped on their forehead, for all of their brethren to judge them by. We
look at Gabe Jennings and know that he is now "3:35.90," and Steve Holman is
"3:31.5." I try to refrain from this one-dimensional method of judging a
person (especially since it's been bad for my ego recently), but I certainly
evaluate each of my season primarily by my fastest 1500m time that year and
my satisfaction with running is a function of my improvement:
1989 - 4:58 (1600m)
1990 - 4:37 (1600m)
1991 - 4:00.9
1992 - 3:59.6 Last Year of High School
1993 - 3:46.3
1994 - 3:47.5
1995 - 3:42.13
1996 - 3:43.38 Last Year of College
1997 - 3:40.88
1998 - 3:40.28
1999 - 3:42.02
2000 - 3:42.28(You can tell that 1995 was the year I started to get anal because I started
remembering the prs by to the hundredth of a second-maybe it's not a
coincidence that 1995 was the first year of my 5-year plateau.) There are a
few exceptions to the rule that I judge my season by my pr, as in my
sophomore year of college when I had a slower pr than in my freshman year,
but I made more finals, ran more consistently, and most gratifyingly, I was a
member of that year's magical DMR squad. (I am going relive the glory days
for a bit so if that does not appeal, you can wait for the next installment.
Actually these memories are probably more exciting than my theoretical
musings.) The team also included senior Alex Hastings (800m) and fellow
sophomores Andy Collins (400m leg), and, here I apologize for the blatant
name-dropping, Chris Lear (1200m leg), who is the latest luminary in track
and field and author of Running With the Buffaloes, the hot new book on the
turbulent season of the 1998 Colorado University Cross Country team. Ernie
Lee and Matt Metzger, two former teammates, and I were just reminiscing about
the triumphs of that 1994 DMR squad on our way up to Sacramento.
1994 Indoor Heps Championships at Harvard. Princeton down about 20 points to
Army going into the relays. Midway through the 1200m leg of the Distance
Medley Relay, Lear sitting on Mike Bernstein of Army. Top of the
backstraight, Lear makes every Tiger's heart skip a beat as Bernstein
accidentally knocks the baton out of Lear's hand. I don't know if I even
saw this occur, as I was on the other side of the track waiting for the
stick, but I have heard about it so many times that I have a slow-motion
image in my head of the baton twirling into the air over the infield and Lear
performing an acrobatic 360 degree midair twist worthy of Brian Boitano to
recapture the stick while not losing a single stride. We went on to win the
relay (granted, I was running fresh against a tired Jason Stewart who had
just won the 5k in 13:50 a few hours earlier) and the meet. Then there was
the DMR at our first NCAA meet, indoors in Indianapolis, when in the first
lap, Hastings sprained an ankle on someone's foot but somehow managed to hand
the baton off with the leaders. We went on to place 4th, the only time any
of us ever won the coveted NCAA plaques. And finally, the Penn Relays
Championship of America, when we all ran prs on our legs to run 9:35, beating
out the middle distance powerhouses of Georgetown, Villanova, and Seton Hall
and placing second to Arkansas. Everything was clicking that year for us and
in hindsight, I feel like I took for granted that everyone would have a good
day together. Sharing your successes with the people you've trained so hard
is one of the best feelings in running (certainly enough to more than
compensate for the fact that I did not set an individual pr that season) and
we had that consistently throughout that season.
I remember a similar feeling at a Boston twilight race in 1997, my first year
with the Enclave. It was my last chance to qualify for the USATF meet and I
needed to better my pr to hit the 3:41.80 qualifying time. The three other
Enclave milers -- Matt Holthaus, Mark Sivieri, and Andy Downin -- had all
made the finals of the trials in 1996 so they had their qualifying times from
the previous year but we had all had pretty mediocre seasons up until this
point -- I don't think any of us had broken 3:43. So it was make or break at
this meet. At the top of the turn, with 550m to go, I remember passively
watching a gap develop between me and the string of guys following Holthaus
in the lead. Then, I heard the distinct voice of Matt Centrowitz yell
sternly at me to go with them. Somehow, that snapped me out of my malaise,
and I surged to Holthaus' shoulder on the home stretch with 450 to go. I
held on till the last 100m when Siv and Downin passed me. We placed 1-4 in
the meet and all ran under 3:41. I remember high fives all around and Siv
hugging me saying, "You did it." We had all done it, peaking at the right
time, coming through together, at the end of the season. If it could only be
like that every season.
This season has been disappointing for everyone in our miler contingent
except for Mike Ryan, who has transformed himself from a 3:44 1500m runner
into a 3:40 guy in just his first season. Exceeding all expectations,
including possibly his own, Mike capped off his Cinderella season last week
by making the finals of the Trials and placing 10th. But his success puts
him in a difficult situation because none of the rest of us have set personal
records this year. Myers, Honerkamp and I are about 2 seconds off our
personal records; Siv and Jordan a bit more; Terrance Armstrong, half a
second slower; Teddy Towell, who ran 4:00 indoors, and my roommate KJ who
also showed promise indoors are both injured. The only other person to pr,
Sammy G, ran well all year, posting two times of 3:40.7 (just shy of the
Olympic Trials qualifying mark), and breaking 4 minutes in the mile for the
first time, but even his season ended on a bitter note, as he flew out to
Sacramento and failed to get into the trials on appeal.
When I saw Mike for the first time after the semifinal heat in which he
qualified for the finals (with a new pr of 3:40.47), I enthusiastically
congratulated him. To my surprise, he didn't seem as ecstatic as he should
have been. In fact he seemed pretty down. As I thought about it, I realized
he was probably politely refraining from showing too much excitement in order
not to aggravate my feelings of disappointment.
Editor's Note: Scott's going to have to reevaluate his season as he ran 3:38.70, a personal best of 1.4 seconds. Please feel free to email you comments to Scott at saa@alumni.princeton.edu. Lots of people have really enjoyed his journal and have inquired about contacting Scott and he said he'd be happy to receive any emails.
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