webmaster
© Copyright DEHAI-Eritrea OnLine, 1993-2010
All rights reserved
From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Thu Sep 09 2010 - 09:54:35 EDT
"When you see Meb Keflezighi, who is originally from Eritrea, win in
New York, do you feel any kind of fellowship with him?
SB: Oh yeah. Meb has always been an inspiration for me. Growing up,
before I even knew who Meb was, the Eritrean community in Regina used
to call me Little Meb. He's known all over North America. Being able
to race against him for the first time (in New York) is actually
going to be pretty awesome for me, and that's something I'm looking
forward to. He's had a lot of success as an Eritrean-American and I'm
hoping to duplicate that success as an Eritrean-Canadian"
http://racingnews.runnersworld.com/2010/09/a-brief-chat-with-simon-bairu.html
A Brief Chat With Simon Bairu
09/08/2010 12:44 AM
By Peter Gambaccini
Photos by 1) Victah Sailer and 2) Andrew McClanahan/Photo Run
Simon Bairu, 27, who set the Canadian 10,000-meter record of 27:23.63
this spring, will make his 26.2-mile debut at the ING New York City
Marathon on November 7 along with Tim Nelson, who was his teammate at
the University of Wisconsin and is now part of the same Oregon Track
Club training group coached by their former college mentor Jerry
Schumacher. Chris Solinsky and Matt Tegenkamp also made the
Wisconsin-to-Oregon move. While at Wisconsin, Bairu was the NCAA Cross
Country champion in 2004 and 2005
Bairu won the Rock 'n' Roll Arizona Half Marathon, just his second
career race at 13.1 miles, in 1:02:47 this winter, defeating American
marathon ace Ryan Hall. Bairu was 13th in the 2010 World Cross Country
Championships. He's the reigning Canadian champion for 10,000 meters
and has been his nation's cross country champion seven times. Bairu
was born to an Eritrean father and an Ethiopian mother who fled the
war between their two countries and ended up briefly in Saudi Arabia,
where Simon was born. The family then lived for a short time in Greece
before moving to Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada when Simon was three.
When we called Bairu, he told us "I just got back from driving Shalane
to a massage" (Shalane Flanagan is also part of Schumacher's group and
is also doing the ING New York City Marathon).
Are there workouts Shalane Flanagan can do with the guys – long slow
runs, for example?
Simon Bairu: Yeah, usually the way we do it is we double almost every
day. We'll do our longer run in the morning and then we'll do a
35-minute jog or shakeout in the evening before doing our strength
work. So she'll do that with us once in awhile. For the longer stuff,
at first her plan was to stick it with us for as long as she could and
then blow herself up, but I think that was starting to catch up to
her, so we kind of just do our own things on the longer runs and then
try and coordinate the shorter runs together.
In this build-up to the ING New York City Marathon, are Tim Nelson and
you working out together and doing the same stuff?
SB: Yeah, we do all our workouts together. It's kind of cool. We've
been in training camp (together) for about eight years now. Nothing's
really changed.
Some of these professional groups form with the idea of creating
marathoners. When yours was formed, did Jerry Schumacher make it clear
that there was a timetable that would lead toward your doing a
marathon?
SB: Yes and no. Jerry had indicated to me, even when I was a senior in
college, that the marathon was eventually going to be my event. But
at the same time, he wasn't really pushing that idea. He just let me
mature mentally and physically to the point where I wanted to do the
marathon. For the longest time, I was kind of intimidated by the
marathon and I didn't want to run it. I thought it was too daunting
for me. But eventually, I started to warm up to it and we started
doing some mileage and testing out how my body would react to stints
of high mileage training. It just got to a point where we said "okay,
we're ready for the marathon," and that's where we are today.
Have there been some things about the adjustment to marathon training
that have been tough? I imagine you're doing longer hard runs than
ever before, right?
SB: Yeah. You know, I was actually going to debut last year in New
York and my body just wasn't handling the high mileage as well as I'd
wanted to, and I just started to break down after awhile. It was got
to the point where I couldn't do workouts that I was doing in college.
We just decided to back off a little bit, take some down time, and
just get used to the mileage without the intensity of it. That was
probably the best thing I could have done, because this year, the
training's just been phenomenal. I've been able to not only do the
mileage but actually get in some high quality workouts along with the
high mileage.
And you're making your marathon debut in New York City, which is not
the easiest course in the world. What was the thinking on that, rather
than doing something like Chicago?
SB: Because we didn't want the first marathon to be a time trial type
of thing. My background has always been as a cross country runner.
That's always been my strength. We wanted to find a tough course where
you can have the hills and you can have challenges on the terrain, and
that is New York for you. It's one of those races where a 2:09 can win
it, and will win it most years. We knew it was going to be a tough
race and there weren't going to be any rabbits in it. It's about as
similar to cross country as a marathon gets.
You won the Rock 'n' Roll Arizona Half Marathon in January. The big
news there was that you beat Ryan Hall. He was in marathon prep for
Boston, but taking down someone that highly regarded is always a
confidence booster, isn't it?
SB: Yeah. I have a lot of respect for Ryan. He's a great athlete. I'm
confident I didn't get Ryan's best shot, seeing as he had bigger goals
at the time. To be honest, beating Ryan or not beating Ryan was not
really the point of that race. The training was going well, and just
to be able to run 62:47 and feel the way I did was more the key than
who I beat and who I didn't beat in a race. That was really all we
were looking for, to get in a good pace and see how my body reacts to
it.
When you ran your 27:23 for the 10,000, you weren't thinking about the
marathon yet, were you? That was really a peak track effort, wasn't
it?
SB: We knew before the race that that was going to be the end of the
season for me and I wanted to make sure I went out with a bang. I
think my legs were a little rusty, just coming off of World Cross
Country. But the race was honest from the beginning and the plan for
me was to just hold on for as long as I can and then finish strong at
the end. I was definitely happy with it. We were peaking for that
race, and after that, I took a month off.
Partly this depends on what you do in New York, but you might have
some choices to make regarding what events you want to do at the 2011
World Championships and the 2012 Olympics.
SB: Working with Jerry, we always take it one race at a time. To be
honest with you, New York's going to determine what I do at Worlds
next year. Right now, the focus is New York. After New York, if it
seems like I could be a serious medal contender at the World
Championships, I'll think about that seriously. But right now, I
haven't really decided whether I'm going to do the 10K or the
marathon.
I don't know how close knit the Canadian running community is, but are
you friends with Eric Gillis and Reid Coolsaet and will you be
watching with a lot of interest to see what they do at the Scotiabank
Toronto Waterfront Marathon on September 26?
SB: I definitely will be. I see those guys at meets and I talk to them
through e-mail once in awhile. I know Eric Gillis had a really good
(marathon) debut considering that he held back a little bit. That's
always a good sign. I think Reid Coolsaet will do just as well as
Eric, if not better. Those guys are pretty similar. Its going to
interesting to see how Toronto goes.
There's a lot of continuity in your running life since you started at
the University of Wisconsin. You're still with Jerry, your coach, and
still with some of the same guys. There aren't too many world class
runners who've been with the same bunch of people that long. It's like
being part of a family, isn't it?
SB: Oh yeah. There's really an emphasis on team. As individual as the
sport is, we care about what the other guys are doing. And that helps
me. If I'm doing something wrong, Matt Tegenkamp or Chris Solinsky is
going to pull me aside and tell me "start doing this more, or start
doing this less." Just having guys on the team who not only care their
own interests but other people's interests really helps you excel.
Another thing that's great about that is we all kind of do the same
training. So when we see that training pay off for someone, we know
we're all going down the right path. Seeing how great Chris' summer
has been ( Solinsky set a U.S. record of 26:59.60 in the 10,000 and
ran three 5000s under 13:00) gives me the confidence that we're doing
the right thing here and I just have to keep buying into Jerry's
system and I'll be alright down the road.
You moved to a few different countries before you were three years
old. Do you remember any of that at all?
SB: No. It's one of those things where you look at pictures and hear
the story so many times that you think you remember. It might be like
a false memory. I've definitely heard plenty of stories about my time
in Greece and I've seen pictures. I'm able to make a picture from
those things, but I really don't have any memory from Saudi Arabia or
Greece, to be honest.
When you see Meb Keflezighi, who is originally from Eritrea, win in
New York, do you feel any kind of fellowship with him?
SB: Oh yeah. Meb has always been an inspiration for me. Growing up,
before I even knew who Meb was, the Eritrean community in Regina used
to call me Little Meb. He's known all over North America. Being able
to race against him for the first time (in New York) is actually
going to be pretty awesome for me, and that's something I'm looking
forward to. He's had a lot of success as an Eritrean-American and I'm
hoping to duplicate that success as an Eritrean-Canadian.
We applauded when Solinsky and Tegenkamp broke 13:00 for 5000 meters,
but they almost have to do that to even make an American national team
now. Since Canada has fewer runners of that caliber, is there less
pressure on you?
SB: The thing with everyone in our group is we put more pressure on
ourselves than anyone else ever could. I really feel the same amount
of pressure because I expect great things for myself. I'm here in the
States representing Canada. That's the way I look at it; I'm
representing an entire country, in some ways. The pressures I put on
myself are a lot greater than anyone else, and I know for Chris and
Matt, it's the same thing. For as much pressure as you think there is
on them from the media or other people, the pressure they put on
themselves is probably ten times worse. I think that's kind of what
fuels us.
Well, that quote you had up with your KIMbia bio, "everything is
possible for those who believe," it seems like that's a key element of
your group. Americans, not long ago, used to aim at running 13:20 for
5000 or barely breaking 28:00 for 10,000 and those were considered
major accomplishments. Obviously, you guys have much stronger belief
in yourselves than that.
SB: It all comes back to Jerry. Like you say, we're fortunate to be
with him for so long. He's always tried to instill in us not to have
any barriers in our running. Breaking 27:00 for Chris Solinsky–before
the race, people would have told him how impossible that is. But for
him, he was just running, he was just going to run as hard as he could
for 25 laps. And that's all he did. He wasn't really thinking about
the time.
It's the same thing for all of us. We don't set those barriers. I
truly believe I can put myself in a situation where I can win New York
in my debut marathon. To some people, that sounds a little odd,
considering I've never run a marathon. And they might say "why put
that kind of pressure on yourself?" It's not the pressure I put on
myself. I'm breaking down those barriers that have been set up. You're
not supposed to aim for a win in your debut marathon. At the end of
the day, it's just running. And that's all you do…There's so much
intrigue behind the New York City Marathon. At the end of the day, I'm
just happy that I can have this as my memory of my debut marathon.
That's going to be pretty cool.
----[This List to be used for Eritrea Related News Only]----