From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Thu Oct 22 2009 - 09:26:52 EDT
http://www.universalsports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=23000&ATCLID=204818488
#
Notes: Asmerom proving his point
Thu Oct 22, 2009 By Joe Battaglia / Universal Sports
Next Sunday, thousands of runners will converge at Fort Wadsworth on Staten
Island for the start of the 40th ING New York City Marathon.
The motivation for each and every runner will be different.
For the elite international athletes, there is prize money and glory. For
the American men there is U.S. Marathon championship on the line. For a
number of celebrities, there is the opportunity to raise funds and awareness
for a number of charities. Others will run to support family members, to
celebrate life after beating illness or simply to push their bodies to their
physical limits.
Bolota Asmerom will be running in New York for the second year in a row to
prove that...well, just because he can.
"I found my niche a long time ago," Asmerom said in a phone interview from
his home in Oakland, Calif. "I'm a runner. I run every race, every distance
I can run. I don't believe in specializing. I think specializing is not in
my nature. I'm just old-school that way."
In an age when runners often fall into categories - "John Smith is a
top-notch distance runner" - or are classified based on their strongest
event - "Jane Doe is pretty good miler" - Asmerom is one of few that is
proving to be competitive on an elite level across a variety of distances.
Asmerom said versatile runners are what drew him to the sport as a teenager.
"What brought me into the sport were those athletes who can do five events
at the same time, like a Kip Keino who could have the world record in
everything," Asmerom said. "I started my career right around the time when
Bob Kennedy ran 12:58 (for 5K). That was the year I graduated from high
school. Every morning I woke up and the first thing I thought was that I've
got to run 12:58. But I also looked at Bob Kennedy as a whole. He's run
7:30, he's broken 3:50-whatever in the mile, he's done great 10Ks. He even
attempted marathons later in his career. Bob was a runner, not as a 5K guy
because that's where he had the American record."
Labeling a runner like Asmerom, who is solid in so many events, can be
difficult (his personal bests). Where do you begin when you pigeonhole a
runner who, just this season alone, ran 3:40.84 in the 1500m, 7:45.89 in the
3000m, 13:24 in the 5000m, 13:58 in a 5K road race, 30:02 in a 10K on the
road, and 63:06 in a half marathon?
One place you wouldn't start is with the 10,000m.
Last November, Asmerom finished a respectable 10th overall in New York,
running 2:16:37 in his first-ever marathon. Yet he has been unable to finish
a single 10,000m race on the track in his professional career. He tried for
the third time this March at the Stanford Invitational but was only able to
complete 20 laps of the 25-lap race, one more than he did in 2008.
"That still puzzles me," Asmerom said. "Last year I was like, ‘Now I've run
a marathon, so I've got to be able to finish this 10k.' I came back and
tried a 10K and got through 20 laps. I did one more than I did the year
before. I was like, ‘Damn, it broke me again.'
"The difference between the 10K and the marathon is that in the marathon you
have things to look forward to, You know you get a drink every three miles
so that kind of breaks up the monotony of just running the same pace. Or you
might get a hill, or go into a different part of town. When you're doing 25
laps, every lap is pretty much identical and that's a long time to be
focused. I think that's the part of it that's most challenging for me."
Asmerom said he didn't have too much difficulty making the transition from
running predominantly on the track to competing in his first marathon a year
ago.
"The biggest challenge, mentally, are the questions like, ‘Am I really
prepared? Am I going to hit the wall? After 20 miles, what's going to
happen?'" Asmerom said. "Physically, you almost have to transform your body
from trying to run 56s or 57s all the time to a person who your coach is
telling you to run 72s. You're like, 'Seventy two seconds? What is that? I
can run that backwards.' But then you realize after running 72s for like
five miles, you're practically sprinting. Then you're like, ‘How am I
supposed to keep this up for 26 miles?' Surprisingly, it all comes together.
You just have to be able to trust in your ability."
He added that you also have to believe in the training that you put in,
something he was not overly confident in last year. This time around,
Asmerom said been able to maintain the speed he uses on the track while also
developing the core strength and endurance needed to excel over 26.2 miles.
"Last year, I still had my track legs so I was going out a little too fast
all of the time and not being able to finish those workouts because every
workout was like 20 miles long," Asmerom said. "This year, I was able to
just build on that and get a little more controlled and focused and kind of
get the big picture. I am still able to do some pretty good 200s and
quarters but I am still able to do those 23-, 24-mile runs and 12-, 13-mile
tempos and I'm okay to come back the next day and do it again. My legs are
not wobbling anymore and things like that."
That improved training has Asmerom entering this year's race with a more
positive outlook.
"I want to put myself in a situation where I could potentially win," he
said. "I'm not going to disrespect anybody in the field by saying I'm going
to beat them. But the only way I can make sense of running 26 miles is for
me to believe that I have the possibility of being competitive or being a
contender."
Asmerom said his time goal is to break 2:12. He said that to do so it will
be important for him to run with the lead pack for as long as possible.
"I tell other runners all the time that you want to be near the front all
the time because that's where the energy is," said Asmerom, who coaches at
the University of California, his alma mater. "There is a bubble around the
top pack and you got to jump in it if you can and not settle for the second
one or third one. I want to envision myself in the front pack. If I can stay
in that pack for 20 miles, that's a win for me.
"Last year, a lot of people told me, ‘Don't go out the first half because
it's all about the second half.' I listened to them but I still died the
second half. I finished the race but I didn't use the best tactics because I
took myself out of the front pack. I want to put myself in the mix. I think
one of the biggest lessons I learned was that you don't want to create too
big of a gap in the first half of the race because it's only going to get
longer in the second half. If I'm not being competitive then I'm just out
there tempoing and then it's not a race anymore."
This much is certain: With another respectable finish, Asmerom will prove
once again that he is one of the most versatile runners in the American
ranks.
And what could be cooler than that?
"This year, I've run every race from 1500m up now to the marathon," Asmerom
said. "That's it for me, to be able to prove to myself that I can run every
distance possible, and that I'm still competitive with the very best at the
highest level. I opened with a 3:40 in my 1500m coming back from the
marathon. That lets me know that I can run even faster in the mile and
because I have that speed, I should be able to hang with the very best of
them in the marathon also.
"I don't know if it's logical to think that way, but it's so exciting to be
able to go from one of the shortest distance races to the longest one and
still be able to compete and have respectable times. I thrive on that. One
day, maybe I'll end up being just a 5K guy or just a marathon guy, but I
don't know if I'll have a lot of fun. And if I'm not having fun anymore,
what's the point?"
Ins and outs
Derartu Tulu of Ethiopia has been added to the women's field for the ING New
York City Marathon 2009 on Sunday November 1 it was announced Wednesday by
race officials.
Tulu, 37, won Olympic gold in the 10,000m in 1992 and 2000 and returned to
take the bronze at the 2004 Games in Athens. She is also a World
Championship gold medal winner at 10,000m in 2001 and the 2001 World Cross
Country Championship winner. In 2001, Tulu won the London Marathon. She
finished third in the New York City Marathon in 2005.
Tulu joins a women's field featuring two -time defending champion Paula
Radcliffe of Great Britain, 2000 winner Ludmila Petrova of Russia, who was
second last year, Yuri Kano of Japan, Christelle Daunay of France and the
reigning Boston Marathon champion Salina Kosgei of Kenya.
New York race organizers also announced this week that three runners in
their elite fields have been forced to withdraw due to various physical
complications.
A leg injury has caused Paul Tergat of Kenya, who won the men's race in 2005
and 2006, to pull out. The same injury caused him to miss the Lisbon
Half-Marathon earlier this month.
Irish Olympian Martin Fagan has been nursing an injury to his Achilles
tendon, according to manager Ray Flynn, and scratched from New York out of
fears of further injuring the tendon during the race.
Jelena Prokopcuka of Latvia, a three-time Olympian, is unable to compete
because she is pregnant.
Next stop, finish line
Race organizers nationwide take note: Train tracks through your course
layout might pose a problem.
Officials and participants in the Des Moines Marathon on Sunday learned that
lesson the hard way when the race leaders were forced to stop and wait for
about a minute about 400 meters from the finish line to allow a train to
pass before running resumed.
When the train finally went through, Simon Sawe of Kenya sprinted to victory
in 2 hours, 24 minutes, 50 seconds, not a bad time but not as fast as a
speeding locomotive.
Race director Chris Burch told the Associated Press that the train passing
through during the race was an unfortunate circumstance beyond his control
and that Sundays are usually slow days for the Iowa Interstate Railroad
through downtown Des Moines.
Remarkably, Burch added that no changes are planned for the race route next
year, only greater communication between organizers and the railroad.
Low key, fast time
When Haile Gebrselassie toes the starting line, it usually accompanies
hordes of attention and press coverage. But somehow, the Ethiopian managed
to fly under the radar last week before running in the Oporto Sportzone
Half-Marathon in Portugal on Sunday.
Gebrselassie, the world-record-holder at the full marathon distance, won the
race in 1:00:04, shattering the course record of 1:01:25 set last year by
Sammy Wanjiru of Kenya. After the race, Geb told reporters that he could
have run even faster had it not been for strong winds.
Million dollar man
As if running fast is not enough of an incentive for Kenya's Sammy Wanjiru,
plenty of money is being dangled in front of him like a carrot.
On January 7, Wanjiru will look to defend his title at the Zayed
International Half-Marathon in Abu Dhabi, a race that carries a $300,000
prize for the winner. A victory by Wanjiru, who pocketed $175,000 for his
course-record victory at the Chicago Marathon and secured $500,000 for
winning the 2008-2009 World Marathon Majors title, would give him nearly one
million dollars in winnings in four months.
But this race won't be easy money for Wanjiru, the world-record-holder in
the half marathon at 58:33. His competitors will include Patrick Makau, who
has run two sub-59-minute times and five more under 60 minutes, and
four-time world champion Zersenay Tadesse of Eritrea.
Making the conversion
Kim Smith already holds most of New Zealand's distance running records. The
Olympian, who starred collegiately in the U.S. at Providence College, picked
up another at the World Half Marathon Championships in Birmingham, where she
finished seventh in 1:09:35.
Smith's days on the track appear to be numbered. After the World Half, she
told the Star Times that she will begin a permanent shift to road racing
beginning in 2010 with the goal of competing for Olympic gold in the
marathon in London in 2012.
"The only reason to run the marathon is to compete with the top women in the
world," Smith said. "I am pretty high up there in the 10k, so I need to be
running fast by the time 2012 comes around."
Smith competed in her first full marathon in New York last fall. She was
suffering from a cold at the time, and by the first mile was really feeling
sick. By the 30K mark, she had to drop out.
The experience seemed to turn her off to the marathon, but her positive
result in Birmingham has changed her outlook. Smith said she will run in the
Flora London Marathon in April and has set an ambitious goal of finishing in
2:25.
"Last Sunday was a positive step," she said. "Trying to do New York put me
off; it seemed a bit too hard, but this has definitely got me excited to run
a longer distance. It felt easy, so the plan now is to run London and see
how the marathon goes."
In their shoes
When three runners died in a 16 minute span during last Sunday's Detroit
Free Press/Flagstar Marathon, Joe Shay knew exactly how the families of
those men were feeling.
On Nov. 3, 2007, Shay lost his son, Ryan - one of the nation's top distance
runners - when he died during the U.S. Olympic men's marathon trials in New
York City. Shay collapsed 5.5 miles into race and was pronounced dead 45
minutes later at a New York hospital.
"Could you please let the families know, if they need to talk to anybody, my
wife, Susan, and I will be there for them," Joe Shay told the Free Press.
The autopsy results, released four months after his death, concluded that
Shay, 28, had died of natural causes, when his heart went into an irregular
rhythm.
The Wayne County Medical Examiner's Office has determined that more tests
are needed before determining the cause of death for the three men who died
during Sunday's race in downtown Detroit. The runners were 36-year-old
Daniel Langdon, 65-year-old Rick Brown and 26-year-old Jon Fenlon.
Since Ryan's death, Joe Shay said he and his wife have reached out to others
who suffered similar tragedies. He said they'd like to mail the families of
Langdon, Brown and Fenlon silver angels, tokens that were sent to them after
Ryan's death to help them cope with their loss.
Sweet tweet
Last week, Universal Sports reported that organizers of the Columbus
Marathon partnered with a local Ohio-based web-design company to allow
runners to tweet their times and locations on the course in real time (read
more). A computer chip embedded in runners' numbers sent out the information
as the runners crossed five sensors on the course, allowing their friends
and family to follow them by phone, Twitter or on Facebook.
The application, called TweetMyTime, was designed by huber+co. interactive,
and successful early results could lead to the incorporation of such
technology in more races in the future. Although complete data is still
being compiled, Nate Riggs, the communications director for huber+co.
interactive, reported that approximately 1,800 runners signed up for the
application, with more than half coming in the final few days before the
marathon. TweetMyTime trended on Twitter for a couple hours for the terms
"Passed 10" and "Halfway," and ranked No. 1 on Google trends for about three
hours.
Marathon queens
Living legends Joan Benoit Samuelson and Grete Waitz will be joined by a
future all-time great Deena Kastor at a special evening of conversation and
question and answer open to the public October 29 from 6:30-8 p.m. as part
of the TimesTalk series at the New York Times building. For tickets and more
information go to http://www.nytimes.whsites.net/talk/index.php and or call
1-888-NYT-1870.
On the 25th anniversary of her historic gold medal win at the first ever
women's Olympic Marathon in 1984, Samuelson will be running this year's ING
New York City Marathon on Sunday Nov. 1. Waitz is a winner of a record nine
New York City Marathon titles. Kastor, the 2004 Olympic bronze medalist, is
the American marathon record holder and winner of both the London and
Chicago marathons in her career.
History lesson
Wayne Baker will deliver a lecture titled "The 1908 Olympic Marathon and How
It Created The Marathon Distance," at 1 p.m. on Saturday at the Westfield
Memorial Library on 550 E. Broad Street in New Jersey. The lecture, which is
free and open to the public, will cover the famed duel between Dorando
Pietri and Johnny Hayes and how it brought about the standardized marathon
distance of 26 miles and 385 yards. Baker will show photos and artifacts
from the Shore Athletic Club's Johnny Hayes Collection.
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