July 10, 2004- Update from Sacramento by Rojo
Jorge Torres, Carrie Tollefson, Tim Broe, Jason Lunn, Anthony Famiglietti update

Pre-Trials News and Notes -
On Friday, July 9th, agent Mark Wetmore who runs Global Athletics and Marketing, Inc. held a press gathering in a hotel suite in Sacramento.  A slew of his top American stars were there and we spoke with Jorge Torres, Carrie Tollefson, Tim Broe, Jonathan Riley, Tim Broe and Anthony Famiglietti.  

Kudos for Mark and his athletes for making it as easy as possible for press to get a slew of material. Here is what they had to say (well what everyone had to say except for Riley as we're a bit behind).

Jorge Torres - On the state of his health as he missed some time earlier in the year.

"It's good. I'd say I'm about 98% healthy," said Torres who then added that he thought it was basically impossible for a distance runner to be 100% healthy as there always is going to be small pains.

Torres said he took 4 weeks of and then had 4 weeks where he was running a day on and day off due to the injury. When asked if he'd approach the race any differently because he doesn't have the Olympic A standard, the 2003 world championship finalist at 5k said, "Not really. Every race I run, I try to win."

Carrie Tollefson -
Tollefson enters the Trials as one of 6 women with the A standard in the women's 5k.  Her pr of 15:04.07 set on May 1 at the Cardinal Invitational represents a 17-second pr for the Minnesota native.  But by now success is not something that is new to the 27-year old Tollefson. Her success in running began in 8th grade when she won her first of 5 consecutive Minnesota high school cross country titles.  She followed up her high school success by becoming the first woman ever to complete the victorious 3,000 and 5,000 double at NCAAs in 1999 for Villanova, where she was a 5-time NCAA champion (cross country 1997, indoor 3k 1999 and 2000 and outdoor 3k/5k in 1999.

When asked about her mileage, Tollefson says it's slowly increased since college. She now runs about 90 in the fall, 80 in the winter, 70 in the spring and less during outdoors.  Asked if she's intimidated by the fact that a slew of African women have been running in the 14:30 range in Europe this summer, Tollefson refused to fall for the bait the reporter had set for her of 'Oh American's can't compete on the international level.'   Tollefson responded, "We're getting closer.  I think this season has been a great year (for the Americans) with six under 15:10 so far."

Tollefson was asked a lot of questions about the possible participation of accused drug cheat Regina Jacobs, who may be allowed in despite her positive test for THG because her appeals process hasn't quite been completed.

"My dad's a lawyer so it's always innocent until proven I guess but it's a little sickening... When you come to these things you have to focus on yourself, if I came her and focused on Regina making a statement, I wouldn't be focusing on myself."

"She beat me at USA cross country nationals (Tollefson was 2nd) and not to say that I won't win one in the future but that could have been my year so that's a little sickening to think about.... You just have to kind of take it and hope that people can believe that there are clean athletes out there."

Tollefson said she said it just didn't seem right that Jacobs, who has tested positive for the designer steroid THG, may be allowed to compete and yet Tollefson herself may get reprimanded for missing an out of competition test recently when she wasn't at home when the testers showed up as she was a short drive away speaking at a kids Bible school meeting.

Tollefson also said she actually hopes Jacobs does compete. "I would like to see her toe the line. It might be nice to actually race her clean," said Tollefson who then added she assumed there was no way Jacobs could still be juiced given the controversy swirling around her.  

When asked about the other 5 competitors who have the Olympic A standard in the 5k, Tollefson let it be known that she is pulling for one of them to do well.  "It would be really nice to be an Olympian with Shalane (Flanagan) as we haven't made it to the Olympics yet" and the other three women all have.

Jason Lunn
The 2003 USA outdoor 1500 champion enters 2004 on both a high and low note. He's feeling good on the one hand because he p.r.'d in his most recent race in Europe before the trials with 3:36.38 at the Super Grand Prix Opap Tsiklitiria held in Iráklio, Greece on July 4th. The bad news was he was an agonizing .18 of a second away from the Olympic A standard which would virtually guarantee his trip to the Olympics in Athens.  Lunn most likely would have hit the standard had he not received been spiked in a big way on the second lap. (We'll try to get a picture of his spike mark later as it's huge - but LetsRun.com's Weldon Johnson was too busy socializing at the press conference to actually do any work)

Predictably, the very first and a good number of the questions given to Lunn involved his opinion of Alan Webb's great season so far. From the very beginning of the press conference all the way to the end, Lunn was extremely praiseworthy of Webb but at the same time, it was easy to see that Lunn is a competitor who isn't conceding victory to Webb. Lunn started off the press conference by saying when asked about Webb, "He's run really well in rabbited races so we'll see what happens in a non-rabbitted race. Championship racing is totally different than racing in Europe. I think myself and other guys in the field have some good tools and I think it will be down to the wire with several of us..

Lunn revealed that his race in Greece really was agonizing as he had a very good race going for the first 1300 meters.  Lunn was out in 56.0 for the first 400, 1:54.0 for 800 which is faster than he's ever gone out before in a 1,500.  At 1200, the clock read 2:52 which is faster than Lunn's ever run for 1200 all by itself.  All he needed was a 30.2 for the final 200 meters but the bear jumped on Lunn's back and he came home in 30.3.

When asked about what he thought of his season so far to date, Lunn said he was very disappointed with his indoor campaign but understood that he mainly struggled as he got sick and anemic at the end of indoors.  Outdoors, he opened up well with two 3:38s but was really gearing everything to getting the Olympic A standard at the Home Depot meet where Lunn actually totally bombed and ran 3:44.  Lunn's press conference was done in conjunction with fellow Nike Farm Teamer Jonathan Riley and they revealed that heading into Home Depot it was clear that some of the Farm Teamers had been training a little too hard. So hard that Riley bagged the race all together. Lunn ran it but bombed. "Things were going well early in the season when I opened up with a 3:38 and ran another 3:38. Then Home Depot came around and I ran 3:44 completely dead-legged."

After Home Depot, Lunn said he faced a dilemma. Stick to the plan of focusing on the Trials or panicking and going after the A standard. He and coach Frank Gagliano decided to stick to the plan. Lunn said the recent pr is encouraging and he's feeling very good about his chances.  In fact, he revealed that he had one of his best workouts earlier that morning. On Friday morning, Lunn ran 10 x 400  meters in fairly windy conditions he said.  He did the 1st 4 with 30 seconds rest in 61 seconds.  He ran his last 6 with a minute rest in 57, 58, 58, 58, 57, and 57 which he described as being "good for me" particularly given that he did it in the morning as he was all done by 10 a.m.

Lunn won last year's USA's in the final 100 meters with a devastating kick. Asked if he was confident in his chances in a tactical race, Lunn responded that he was "completely confident in his kick." Lunn closed in 53.1 for his last 400 last year at USAs and actually closed in 52.6 at the world champs in Paris. Not too many Americans have the ability to do that.

Lunn was then asked some more about Alan Webb and again Lunn was full of praise.  "He's got a couple of things that I don't have. Like Gabe (Jennings) in 2000, he can hammer the last 600 all by himself," said Lunn who added that would be the strategy he would employ if he were Webb.  "He's been running extremely well and consistently well. He's gonna have a strong kick. No one will run away from him."

But while Lunn was very gracious in his talk of Webb, he seemed confident at the same time. "I can run 3:50 (in the mile). I know I can," said Lunn. "Now I can't do it the way Webb did it (going out really hard the first lap). I'd probably do it 1:55, 1:55."

Before ending our session with Lunn, we asked him if his coach Frank Gagliano ever reminded him that one of his own former protégés, Steve Holman, used to enter the USAs as a heavy favorite each year in the 1500 due to fast European times but bomb time in and time out. Lunn said that Gags doesn't talk about Holman too much but "the one thing we talk about is that most of the time the favorite in the men's 1,500 at USAs rarely wins."   

"(Webb) is the heavy favorite but being the heavy favorite is a tough place to be."

True indeed.  Lunn then brought of the names of the surprise winners in recent years - Jamie Harris, Andy Downin, Seneca Lassiter.  The only favorite who has won recently was Lunn himself last year.  Who will win this year? Time will tell.

(Oh yeah one more thing, Lunn said he wouldn't be concerned with time at all at USAs and was confident he could hit the A standard after the Trials).

Tim Broe -
An amazing talk was had with Tim Broe and Anthony Famiglietti. It was great as the two are both very similar (tough steeplechasers although Broe has taken a leave of absence from the event due to injuries of late) in the sense that neither one of them throws out a bunch of spin - the just spit the facts out there as they are.

Broe began his press conference by talking about his injury problems of the last few years. Basically the last two years, Broe has taken 6 months off and run 6 months for various reasons.  Last years after winning the 5k at USAs, Broe called it a season as he had a stress fracture in his back (sacrum).  Broe let it heal but when he started up his back was fine but his foot which had been bothering him as well for the last few years was still hurting.  A trip to Germany revealed that Broe had a cracked seismoid bone in the ball of his foot.  Dr. Amol Saxena (who also has operated on Rich Kenah and Chris Lear) operated on Broe in October and took the bone totally out of his foot.  Broe was completely off from Oct 24 to January 1st when he began to run.

When asked if he cross-trained during that time off. Broe cracked, "What's cross training?" He then added that he spent the time fishing and hunting.  

Broe who ran 13:35 in Rome most recently said the race was total "crap" and said it was a "really long trip for nothing." Broe said going into the race, he and coach Ron Warhurst both determined he was in 13:20 shape plus or minus five seconds. At worse, Broe thought he'd run 13:25 at best 13:15.   Despite the set-back, Broe still thinks he's in that kind of shape.  He said the problem wasn't his fitness but rather the race. It was just way too fast for him.  He thought there would be at the very least a string of guys to catch as the race went on, but instead Broe found himself running all by himself in next to last - almost 100 meters behind the guys in front of him, and everyone in front of him who was having a bad day didn't stay in it, they just stepped off the track.  Broe went through 3k in next to last at 8:01, the nearest guy to him was Arkansas alum Alistair Cragg who hit 3k in 7:50. 8:01 for 3k is exactly 13:21 pace so Broe was running the pace he wanted to run as the Olympic A standard is 13:21. The field was just going crazy fast as Cragg was on 13:03 pace.

Broe wasn't shy about his race plans for the Trials. He said he didn't think anyone would hit the A standard at the Trials as for someone to be able to do that without rabbits they'd need to be in 13:10 shape.  Broe said if the race is slow, "Most guys know if it's slow, I'll go with 1000 meters to go. I'm not going to let it come down to the last 100 meters."  Classic, not afraid to tell everyone what he's going to do.

Broe is pleased with the way his training is going. Comparing it to last year when he also was coming off injury, Broe said he thinks he's a little fitter than last year.  Last year, he had more of a base but he's focused a bit more on "pace" this year. Broe concluded his remarks by saying that if he gets in the top 3, he doesn't "see how I wouldn't get the (A) standard" afterwards in Europe.

During one on one questions, Broe compared being at the 2004 Trials to his experience in 2000 when after just leaving Alabama he finished fourth in the steeple in 8:21.50. Back then Broe said he didn't really have the expectation that he'd run after college. He just sort of jumped in the Trials got fourth and the whole summer was a blur. Only at the end of the summer did he look back and really realize "Wow I almost made the Olympics."

The last interesting thing that Broe said was that he doesn't think he's done with the steeplechase. When he's totally healthy again, he'd like to take a crack at it again as he'd like to try to grab the American record of 8:09.17.

Anthony Famiglietti - Fam's remarks were simply amazing. Now we're probably a bit biased at LetsRun.com as Fam spent some of his Trials buildup in the high altitude apartment of LetsRun.com co-founder Weldon Johnson in Flagstaff, AZ.  But then again I (Rojo) have never really spent any time with the guy and found him to be like a super intelligent but at the same time a bit crazy like Gabe Jennings.

Fam said he's looking forward to the Trials. He hasn't raced very much this year and said that was on purpose.  "This year is so important. I figured I'd rather be less race sharp and totally injury free than anything else."

Fam doesn't think the 8:24 A standard is too hard of mark to get and even went as far as to say it's the type of mark one could get in the prelims.

Fam got the entire room's attention when he talked about how much he'd sacrificed to make it to the Trials and just how poor he was.  Fam said he started college from a very blue collar background. He said he didn't know what college really was all about when he started as he'd been on campus a few weeks and asked someone - "When do we write our thesis?" not knowing that Phd candidates do that, not undergrads.   Fam started college with "negative money" and thus being a full-time runner has been tough, especially given his injury problems the last year or so as he can't road race. Earlier this year, he spent some time with the Running USA Group in Monterrey Bay as it was rent free and he'd been evicted from his apartment.  He said he asked himself, "Am I going to quit running or tough it out?" Tough it out was the decision and Fam thinks all the sacrifices he's made have made him a better competitor as he realizes he's sacrificed his social life and "credit rating", barely seen his girlfriend, never seen his new niece, and more to get here.

"When you go through all of that stuff and you reevaluate why you are doing this, I figured out I want to see just how far I can go. I want to go all the way. The rest of my life can go to crap. I only have short window of opportunity to maybe be an Olympic champion."

Fam said he's ready for the Trials and excited they are here.

"I thrive on pressure. I'm ready for a huge pr."

The rest of Fam's interview was full of interesting anecdotes. He said he doesn't like to tell strangers that he's a runner on planes and instead either tells them he's a regional sales executive or that his father invented the clapper.

David Krummenacker - The 2003 world indoor champ is feeling good entering the 2004 US Olympic track and field trials.  Krummenacker was asked if he might be a little angry given how much publicity Alan Webb has been getting for his 3:32 1500 this year given the fact that Krummenacker ran 3:31 in 2002 and is a world champ. Krummenacker said he's very happy for Webb and thinks it's great when the sport gets publicity.

Krummenacker was very relaxed as he was speaking to the media on the afternoon of his first round in the 800. Krummenacker's main comments were that he's very happy to be healthy heading into the Trials as last year he was injured but still pulled out the win.  "I feel very confident - just being 100% healthy for the first time in a number of years is big." Krummenacker also said some recent 200s that he did in practice in 22 low and 21 high make him feel that his speed is coming around and is where it needs to be.  

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