Abebe Bikila---a marathon legend

Some of you may know I am a bibliophile of the first order and thus I am constantly on the lookout for new books that relate to one of my many interests.  I came across a relatively new  (2008) book about Abebe Bikila called Barefoot Runner by Paul Rambali that focused on the marathon great at the local library.  For those of you who don't know, Bikila was the first African to win an Olympic Gold Medal---and might have been the first African to win any type of medal for that matter.  Furthermore, he won back to back Olympic Gold medals in the marathon in the 1960 Rome Olympics as well as the 1964 Tokyo Games---a feat that had never been accomplished since the Games revival in 1896 up to that point.
I didn't really know what to expect when I began reading the book and quickly discovered it was a fictional account of both Abebe's life as well as that of his Finnish coach with quite a bit of intrigue surrounding Abebe's position with the Ethiopian Imperial Guard thrown in for good measure which was his nominal "job" when he wasn't training.  All in all an insightful book that gives you a wide angle lens type of view of  the type of environment Bikila was dealing with in his rise to Olympic glory. 

Unfortunately, I don't think the writer has a running background and thus gives scant attention to the training regiment that Bikila followed to transform himself from mediocre to a world leading marathoner in a few short years.  I can't really recommend it as a good read since the author made up the dialogue and weaved it together within the confines of certain historical events of record.  Plus, it really gives the impression that Abebe was a child like figure who simply did as he was told and all but negates the tremendous amount of will power any true runner knows must exist within one's mind to achieve the type of success Bikila enjoyed. 

I first became aware of Abebe Bikila as part of a series put together by Bud Greenspan regarding Olympic greats in various sports in which he was prominently featured when I was in high school.  Unfortunately, I looked on youtube for the series but couldn't find the section on Abebe.  I also learned that Greenspan put together another documentary in 1971 called "The Ethiopians" which focused on their marathon running prowess in which Abebe was obviously the most prominent example at the time though Abebe's teammate Mamo Wolde also won the 1968 Olympic marathon.  If anyone knows how to access a copy of "The Ethiopians" online or otherwise, let me know because I would love to see it. 

However, in my search I did come across some amazing footage from the 1964 Olympic marathon, though the commentary is in Italian, it is still worth a view.  Along with seeing some great runners like Ron Clarke and Billy Mills competing in the marathon, the footage includes many of the athletes stopping at an aid station, an Irish athlete walking(!) during the race, plus another who collapsed and had to be transported to a local hospital along with Abebe pulling away near the conclusion of the contest.  It really is amazing how much the sport has changed since the mid 1960's since it is clear many of these athletes, the best in the world at the time, were rather cavalier in their race tactics and/or training that led to several blowing up during a marathon.  Check it out:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajGwbZpO1_E

Four years ealier Abebe burst onto the international stage with an unexpected win at the 1960 Games.  Amazingly, up until right before the Ethiopian athletes were preparing to depart for Rome Bikila wasn't even on the team---he was a last minute replacement for Wami Biratu who broke his ankle playing soccer!  The footage of Abebe running in 1960 is famous because he opted to compete barefoot due to the shoes he was given being ill fitting.  Talk about making the most of your opportunity.


David Maraniss discussed Abebe's accomplishments and his inclusion in the author's book regarding how the 1960 Olympics changed the world; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMFXN_iRJ2w

The debate over the Tiger Mother

The Wall Street Journal recently published a piece by an Asian American Yale Law professor named Amy Chua about how she was raising her two daughters that has elicited quite a bit of feeback--as in 5,000 comments on the WSJ website, a few death threats and hundreds of emails.  The Journal had titled the piece, "Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior" and it was an excerpt from her upcoming book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. 

In a nutshell, she was extremely demanding of her children and would force them to practice their musical lesson for three hours a day and they couldn't even think about receiving anything short of straight A's in their school work.  I was really fascinated by the story and just came across a follow up piece about the inevitable controversy when more westernized parents put their two cents in. 

In the follow up piece Mrs. Chua was discussing her husband's laid back approach to parenting and asking him whether he had any dreams for their daughter's future, and then asked, if he had any dreams for Coco?  He began laughing because Coco is their dog!  I am not sure what to make of that question, but it cracked me up.  Here is a link to the original story;    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704111504576059713528698754.html

Here is a link to the follow up story where Mrs. Chua discusses the backlash, asks about Coco, and perhaps is doing a little backpedaling;  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/16/fashion/16Cultural.html?src=me&ref=homepage

American Triple T Ohio Race Report Part One

Several of my friends have asked me about my experience at the Triple T race and I thought a race report might be illuminating for those of you interested in a somewhat unusual race format offered over three days of competition. For those of you unfamiliar with the race, the Triple T involves competing in four triathlons over three days. The race organizers have held the event for many years in Ohio in May, but in 2010 they expanded to an identical race weekend format in North Carolina on October 8th through the 10th in addition to their normal format in Ohio where I competed.  Another unusual aspect of the Triple T is that all the competitors are given a triathlon jersey that they are required to wear in all four races.

The standard uniform for the weekend featuring the Triple T jersey

  

The competition starts off with a short sprint triathlon on Friday evening. The distances are a 250 meter swim course, a 5 mile bike followed by a 1 mile run. On Saturday morning all the competitors gather at 7:30 a.m. to begin an Olympic distance triathlon (although the run is approximately 1/3 of a mile longer than a standard 10k at 6.55 miles). Saturday afternoon is yet another Olympic distance race, however, this time you bike first, then swim and finally go out for another 6.55 mile run. Assuming you still have your game face on after the Friday sprint and two races on Saturday, Sunday morning at 7:00 a.m. is the final event; a half ironman distance race in the standard swim bike run order. A final twist that makes Triple T unique is that you can race as a solo competitor or as part of a two person team. If you opt for the team route you can draft off of your teammate only in the third and fourth events on the bike which would probably strike many of you as odd, to say the least, given the rules governing most USAT triathlons.

A fairly typical Triple T racer wearing her TT helmet, Trakkers jacket, and Ironman Canada shorts and matching backpack presumably to intimidate the competition(??)

In pondering whether to recommend this race to my friends I would say that I can think of two good reasons to tackle this race; the first reason is that you are an ironman finisher or hope to complete one shortly and are looking for a different type of challenge. This is not a race that would be a good idea for the casual triathlete, or even those who regularly tackle sprints and Olympic distance triathlons. If you aren't an ironman distance finisher, you are considering signing up for your first one, but are worried about whether you can complete a full 140.6 race and think that if you can handle Triple T Ohio, then an ironman distance race is doable.

However, if you aren't an ironman yet, you don't want to spend 600 bucks to possibly become a DNF at a WTC ironman. Thus, Triple T is a good reality check to gauge your ability to handle 140.6 miles of swimming, biking and running. Granted, at Triple T there are some significant breaks between races thrown in to make it somewhat more manageable compared to a full ironman race and at approximately half the cost of a WTC event it is a decent bargain.

The second reason I can see to compete at Triple T is simple; to find out how tough you really are. That may sound bold, but believe me, these courses are seriously tough with hills on the run and the bike in particular that will test the endurance and strength of all but the most skilled climbers. These courses were not designed to be fast, but difficult and perhaps even punishing on your legs depending on your ascending skills. You will suffer and you will probably be seeing numbers on your Cateye, Garmin etc.....that you would think are funny were it not for the fact that you are supposedly racing.

At one point going up a steep hill on the bike I looked down and was averaging 4-5 mph and going as fast as I could. Good times. I passed a guy on the bike during the half ironman going uphill and his comment to me was that, " I really want to downshift to another gear....but it won't go any lower because I don't have any easier gears". Exactly! I was riding a triple crank road bike for the race with 24 gears and I spent some significant time in the granny gear over the course of those three days. I can't imagine doing this race with only a standard double crank, though I know many racers did just that. Of course, I am not a great climber owing to some extent to my serial flirtation with the Clydesdale division where excess weight is a serious disadvantage once the road becomes vertical. So, be prepared to suffer on some long steep hills. I didn't get out and measure them exactly, but I believe over the course of the weekend there are approximately five hills that are at least a mile in length. You cover at least one such hill in each of the sprint and olympic races and ride up the same hill (named Thompson hill I believe) twice in the half ironman race. Plus, those are not the only hills on the courses....just the most memorable because they were LONG.

There are plenty of other hills to frustrate your ability to ride anything like a pace you are accustomed to at a typical triathlon race with a relatively flat course. So, no matter what your Olympic or half ironman times have been in the past...you would be better off forgetting them for the weekend of Triple T. They will only lead you to frustration and possibly a DNF after you blow up trying to ride harder than you body will allow on these courses. Many of my friends have raced at Ironman Kansas 70.3 and for comparison purposes I would rate the Kansas bike course as a 3-4 in terms of level of difficulty compared to a 9 or 10 on the half ironman bike course at American Triple T.

Friday evening was the first race and I drove to the race site with JP, a friend from St. Louis, who was also competing in the solo division. Owing to my tardiness in getting underway on Friday morning we managed to arrive about 15 minutes before the cutoff time to check in at 4:30 p.m. The race was set to begin at 5:00 p.m. so we rolled over to the tent and officially checked in with our ID's and USAT card. Mostly that was a blur....although I do remember something odd about this race. There were no official paper numbers for the competitors requiring a race belt. They did hand us two wrist band type of numbers; one to attach to our bike and the second one to attach to our wrist. This was to allow only the actual competitor to walk out of transition with their own bike. Basically it was to prevent someone from stealing a bike. Ok....I was cool with that. We did get body marked on our left bicep/shoulder with a race number in black magic marker and we also received an ankle bracelet with a timing chip. Incidentally, the race volunteers collected the chips as competitors finished each race and you would pick them back up again before each subsequent race. JP and I went back to the car and grabbed our bikes and gear and headed to the transition area to set up.

This picture was taken on Friday afternoon at the time we checked in

A general observation here; almost every competitor that I saw looked like a seasoned veteran of countless triathlons. Plus, it seemed like quite a few folks had raced together previously at this race since there seemed to be a bunch of, "Nice to see you, what have you been up to?" conversations going on in the transition area. I had debated wearing a wetsuit for the 250 meter swim and in the end opted to go without one. Of course I made this decision without ever having put one foot in the water which was probably not the wisest move. I left the wetsuit at the car and once we reached the beach I was surprised to see the field seemed split about 50/50 with half the folks wearing wetsuits and half going without one. Interesting, since I assumed I would of been in the minority wearing one. Oh well. Too late to go back to the car. Plus, it was 250 meters......even a pathetically slow swimmer like yours truly can manage to get through a 250 sans wetsuit right?

The battle over gates in Ladue

So, maybe the rich really are different than the rest of us. I just came across this story at STLtoday about several lawsuits filed by residents of Ladue because they have been denied a permit to erect a gate on their property and how there are two different factions lining up on opposite sides on the issue of whether to allow gates to be erected in Ladue. It is hard for me to imagine this being an issue anywhere else in the metro area except perhaps Ladue, Huntleigh, or Frontenac. In other words, this is a "problem" that exists solely among the top 2% or so of income earners in America. Here is a link: http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/4e1ae6be-b084-5d06-b6a0-7fcadcf570fd.html

Books

I am a big believer in the idea of learning through reading, so naturally over the years I have picked up a few tomes on the various aspects of my athletic endeavors. Here are some of the books in my personal library related to running, cycling and triathlon. I picked up two copies of the Marla Runyan book from the St. Louis County library since they occasionally sell their books for next to nothing (50 cents normally) when they no longer deem it necessary to keep various older ones in their inventory.

Go! St. Louis Marathon 2011

Well, I just signed up for the 2011 Go! St. Louis Marathon for what will be my third time in a row. I had toyed with the idea of skipping the race to take pictures of all my friends and instead running a marathon a few weeks later in Illinois. However, the fact that the latter race would conflict with the Berkshire Hathaway meeting and I would incur additional costs for the Illinois trip versus staying in St. louis to run I bit the bullet and went with the local race.



It is kind of surprising too in the sense that I was extremely upset with one facet of the race last year and vowed not to sign up again due to what I viewed as poor race planning. The race organizers had set up an extremely narrow corridor to shuttle the runners through with food and drink tables once you finished. I grabbed a water bottle and one or two smaller food items and figured I could come back later and get more. Wrong! Once you exited this narrow strip you were cut off from food and drink except for a free beer ticket that I ended up giving away to a friend.



In addition, they had erected fencing on the site of the finish area and you basically had to walk around an entire block to get to the other side. Normally walking an entire block would be no big deal but after running a marathon I was in no mood to be without access to food and water plus having to walk much further than necessary to get to my car or back to the area near the finish to look for my friends, some of whom had yet to finish after running 26.2 miles.



Incidentally, I had been to other races that had the same type of set up of cordoning off the runners from spectators but the difference with the St. Louis race was that the corridor was so narrow that you couldn't find a spot to sit down and linger to ingest your food and drink and go back for more like you can at other races. Plus, there were no signs to advise you of that fact that once you leave that area you can't get any more drink or food compared to signs apprising everyone of this fact I had seen at Rock & Roll half and full marathon events for example. Or, if there were such signs I never saw them. Other than those two aspects I thought it was a very well managed race. Still, those factors irked me for quite some time after the event but after eight months the annoyance has abated and now I know what to expect in 2011.



The course itself is kind of hilly and not really conducive to running a fast P.R. Nevertheless, I ran my marathon P.R. last year at Go! running 3:50. Ironically, I had estimated my fitness months before the race as being in about 350 shape by the mid April race date and so set a goal of running sub 350. Of course, I just missed going under the goal by something like 20 seconds! but still ran about an eight minute personal record. Not a bad estimation though considering the race is 26.2 miles long.

Bricks of a different sort

My triathlete friends are familiar with the idea of brick workouts; for those of you new to the notion, it basically means completing two different types of workouts one immediately after another. So, biking and then running for example. Since I haven't been either swimming or biking lately my bricks have involved lifting weights and running. For the past month I have been going to Fleet Feet in Fenton on Wednesday nights for their weekly 5 mile group run. These days group runs are keeping me engaged with the sport since once I get out there with other people I feel fine and am glad I showed up. I harbored momentary hopes earlier in the day of getting to the store an hour early and doing a second loop of the course to bump up my mileage but that didn't happen.

So, with about 20 extra minutes I checked the crossfit.com website and noticed a workout of the day that I knew I had time to complete; it was 75 power snatches for time. The workout called for using 75 lbs however I consider my right shoulder to be tentatively healed and this was a brand new movement for me I decided to play it safe by using a 40 lbs. barbell. In retrospect it was too light a weight, although I definitely was feeling the burn nonetheless. I had to take four to five short breaks throughout my march to 75 reps in 5:30. I probably should have used either a 50 or 60 lbs. weight but staying injury free was more important than lifting a heavier weight.

After a few more short exercises I was off to Fleet Feet. I arrived at the store in time for the group picture and then we were off for the 5 mile run. It was dark, I hadn't brought my light with me since it didn't seem to help very much last week and thus in an act of karma teaching me a lesson I managed to roll my ankle on a rock within the first mile. I immediately stopped and thought I might have to turn around and go back but was able to walk around on it and opted to keep going. I ended up running with/near a group of three other runners for the majority of the remaining four miles of the run. We finished the route in about 43 minutes which included two fairly large hills much faster than I expected. Overall it was a good run.

I stopped by the gym again on the way home and managed to get in my leg extension and leg curl regimen which I will have to discuss at some point. I had managed to almost forget about rolling the ankle until I took off my shoe at home and realized the ankle wasn't too excited about my putting my full weight on it unsupported. It looks like I will have to take off from running for a day or two to let it heal since it wasn't any better this morning.