PUBLISHED 10/24/2007
"Toward the end, we didn't have any discussion about tying. We didn't need to. It was part of our friendship, our trust in each others. And we could both feel it in our body language out there. There was no surging. There was no testing the other guy. We were running side by side. Together. In total trust.
"This was the race where Jeff Galloway paced Jack Bacheler the whole way, and then just stopped a few feet before the finish so Jack could finish third and make the Olympic Team. Jeff had already made the Team in the 10,000, where Jack was disqualified. So Jeff's only role the whole race was to get Jack onto the Team."
EUGENE, 1976, FIRST, 2:11:51
"Bill and I knew we were the favorites, and there was an unstated understanding that we would run together. We wanted to press a little to get the lead, and then to relax. With about 2 miles to go, Bill slowed some, so I turned to ask him if something was wrong. "Yeah, one of my legs is giving out on me," he said.
I asked him if he wanted me to slow down and wait. "No, you go ahead," he said. So I finished 7 seconds ahead of him. That was the race where Don Kardong came from way back to finish third, and then he took fourth at Montreal. Bill's leg was still bothering him in Montreal. I think that's the big reason why he finished 40th. But to his credit, he never made any excuses about the leg.
"I was in really good shape for this race, and I think we ran 2:09 pace much of the way. I remember, three days before the marathon, I went onto the Hayward Field track to do a 4-mile tempo run. I picked a time when I knew the Oregon track team and a lot of other guys would be on the track or hanging out. Then I did my 4 miles at a little under 4:30 pace. I finished in just under 18 minutes. I wanted to make sure the word would get out about how fit I was."
ON THE 2007 TRIALS, LETTING THE LEADER(S) GO, AND THE CENTRAL PARK LOOP
"This is the kind of course where someone could actually steal the race. Someone could get out so far that they could disappear around the corners. If you're planning to finish in the top three, you pretty much have to go with any runner with credentials who tries to make a break. Once someone's gone, it's hard to catch them if you can't see them, and Central Park's got lots of turns to help front runners get out of sight. If you see them, you can notice the gap closing if you start to catch up, and that helps you relax and run strong. If you can't see them, it's much harder. This is something that worked to my advantage on the twisting course in Munich. I got so far ahead, no one could see me."
ON THE BENEFITS OF PARTNER RUNNING
"If there was ever a course where pairing up with another runner could help you, Central Park is the place. Everyone's going to want to tuck in at some point, and follow up a hill. Just for relaxation if nothing else. And then maybe you return the favor on the next one. You don't need to find someone of the same ability. All the good runners are going to be together to some point."
ON TAKING THE LEAD
"In a race like the Trials, you don't want to take the lead for a step until you have to. If you do go to the front, you'd better be prepared to stay there to the end."
ON THE FEAR AND PRESSURE OF A TRIALS COMPETITION
"You can't be afraid of anything, you can't let the pressure get to you. After the Israeli massacre at the 1972 Olympics, if the terrorists were going to strike again, the logical event was the marathon. I had to choose to just shut that out of my mind. Every Trials race is the same. You have to be totally focused on what you're doing in the race. You're not thinking about anything else. You're not worried about what *** might happen.***
"For me, this was one of the things that I always enjoyed the most about competition. It's why we compete, and how we find out what kind of shape we're in. You're so in the moment. You're ready to take whatever comes, and simply deal with it."
