The Legend of Craig Davidson

Pick up the latest issue of Runner's World and you'll find an article about one of my favorite people in the world, Craig Davidson.  When I moved to Phoenix in 1987 I was looking for a group to go on long runs with and a co-worker suggested calling Runner's Den.  Craig answered the phone and invited me to join his Mummy Mountain group in Scottsdale.  It was the start of a friendship that is now in its 22nd year.

Back then Craig was running a lot of miles.  He was routinely logging 140 to 180 miles a week.  At the time he was one of the best ultra-runners in the United States.  The article in Runner's World focuses on his ability to find money while he runs.  I can testify to his uncanny knack for spotting coins.  I can remember countless times running in the early morning darkness on a pitch black stretch of asphalt.  We would be deep in conversation when suddenly he would vanish.  I'd look back over my shoulder to see him stooped over picking up a penny.  How he could see it in the dark is beyond me.

Craig find all manner of items like firewood, water fountains, tools, and bicycles while putting in the miles.  He'd stash them by the side of the road and pick them up later in the car.  His garage was full of junk. 

But the most important thing you should know about Craig that the article doesn't reveal is what a good man he is.  He may well be the nicest human being I've ever met.  I don't think there's a soul in Phoenix who puts on a pair of racing flats that doesn't know Craig.  They'd all testify to the fact that he is a great ambassador for running and an even better friend. 

I Heard it from Howard

NBC is for sale.  The network is a shell of what it used to be.  Jeff Zucker's done an excellent job of destroying the Peacock.  The last stroke was putting Jay Leno on at 10 p.m.  I have nothing against Leno, but it's as though Zucker gave absolutely no thought of what it would do to the late newscasts at the local affiliates.  NBC owns nine affiliates, several in the biggest markets.  So far Leno's not done any ratings favors for those O & O's or the hundreds of other affiliates around the country.

That's why something I heard from the King of All Media Howard Stern makes sense.  Stern believes that if Comcast is successful in its bid for NBC it will abandon the last hour of prime time.  Stern hates Leno and I think his fantasy is for Jay to fail and for Comcast to realize Zucker's folly and pull the plug.

But there's some reasonable rationality to Stern's prediction.  Prime time programming costs are ridiculously expensive.  I think a lot NBC stations would welcome the opportunity to put on newscasts against the rival FOX stations.  Given the shrinking viewing numbers during prime time the move would make sense, however the last time I checked a ratings diary that last hour of prime time still catches the most viewers. 

I'm not holding my breath but I am wondering if Comcast is listening to Stern.

In the Presence of the Lord

 Tom Dowling chatting with Joan Benoit Samuelson at the Olathe Medical Center Run 1991

Joan seems more interested in Sam who is catching a ride on Tom's back

After St. George the slow, arduous process of growing up started.  It's still a work in progress but I had to work at bringing balance into my life because in 1990, the way I was living my life wasn't working.  Tom Dowling certainly knew that.  Since the first time I had met him in 1985 he would poke and prod hoping that I would straighten up and fly right.  He never gave up on me.

Tom will probably rank as the most unforgettable character I have ever known.  He had this unique ability to make you believe that you were the most important person in the world to him.  He did this not just with tens of people... but hundreds if not thousands.  It got to the point that a group of us simply called him "The Lord."  As blasphemous as it sounds, you just had to be around him to understand the reverence we held for his views on running.  Tom would expound on Lydiard training, Eastern mysticism, and speculate on whether abstaining from sex would help in the lead up to a big race.  He was all over the map.  Many times you would just shake your head and chuckle, but he had a way of looking into your soul and getting at the heart of a problem.

In high school he was something of a phenom out of New Hampshire.  His big claim to fame was winning the Penn Relays boys two miles.  One notable competitor in that race was Bill Rodgers.  Tom started college at Kent State, home at the time of college mile star Sam Bair.  From what I can discern from his stories Tom didn't have the maturity to handle college life and being away from home so he ended up leaving school.

By the 1980's he was married to Marcia and they were both successful high school running coaches.  His claim to fame was coaching Cathy Schiro, now O'Brien.  A two time Olympian, as a high school junior she ran with the leaders at the 84 Olympic Marathon Trials before fading at the end to finish 9th.  She set a high school record that still stands and won the Footlocker Cross Country title that year.

Around that time Tom and Marcia ended up in Kansas City working at a progressive health club called Health Plus.  Tom and Marcia ended up in KC in 84 working for a progressive health club called Health Plus and I met them in 86.  Tom and Marcia conducted a summer and winter running program for high school kids and about half of the top area high school runners came out of that program.  By the late 80's most of the area high school coaches hated Tom who unabashedly took credit (and rightfully so) for the accomplishments of their runners.

About a year or so into our relationship he asked me to travel to Dallas to meet the great Peter Snell.  This Lydiard coached runner had won three Olympic gold medals.  When we landed in Dallas and went for our rental car Tom didn't have a credit card.  Marcia didn't trust him with one.  I rented the car for him and we went on an adventure that included spending the night with Peter and his wife Mikki.  They couldn't bare the thought of us staying in a hotel.  I videotaped about an hours worth of conversation between Tom and Peter.  It was an unforgettable trip.

A couple of years after my St. George PR Tom decided that he needed to run a Boston qualifier.  I gladly paced him for the 26 miles over one of Kansas City's notoriously hilly courses.  He started pitching a fit about 18 miles but a coke break at 21 revitalized him.  As we made our way over the last three miles the streets were lined with signs on stakes with the names of competitors on them.  Tom demanded that I find his sign and carry as a sort of standard barer.  I did so for the last two miles and he had his qualifier.  

In 1994 Tom started having fainting spells while running and it was found he had a heart defect (just like Hank Gathers) and they finally got him on medication by early 1995.  He had just gone for his last treadmill stress test, passed with flying colors, got into his car to drive to work and suffered a fatal coronary.  He left Marcia and very young sons Sean and Sam.  His memorial service filled the Unitarian Church on the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City.  It was the same church were about four years earlier he had drug me off to see Ram Das, one of the most amazing experiences of my life.

Just before Tom's death I had just moved back to Lawrence and started grad school.  It was probably the most turbulent time in my life but Tom was there offering his sage counsel.  I had talked to him one on the phone last time not more than a couple of weeks before he died.  He had always worried about me and he was being his usual encouraging self.  I can't remember much of the conversation but what's always struck me is that I remember telling him how much I loved him.  Knowing that helped ease the pain of losing Tom.

He played a major role in putting my life on the right path and thanks to him I have two dear friends.  It's been almost 15 years and rarely a day goes by when I don't think of him or something he said or did.  He wasn't a saint and I'm sure he was a handful for Marcia at times.  And I choose to believe his impact is still being felt across this country in the lives of the thousands of runners he coached.  

30 for 30

ESPN has been running a series of documentaries every Tuesday at 8 p.m. EST called 30 for 30.  I have been very critical of ESPN for the past ten years or so because of the way it presents sports, especially SportsCenter.  30 for 30 shows just how good the World Wide Leader can be when it wants to be. 

Tonight's espisode was called Without Bias.  It was the story of Maryland basketball star Len Bias.  It was an amazing hour of television.  I've also watched the other 30 for 30 documentaries on Muhammed Ali and Larry Holmes, it too was outstanding as was the story of the Baltimore Colts Marching Band.  The only one of this series so far that lacked any punch was a look back at Wayne Gretzky, the greatest hockey player who ever played the game.

If you get a chance watch 30 for 30.  It reaches beyond the hardcore sports fan and reveals a big part of the psyche of America.

Revisiting our Halloween fun

We decided to make light of our current situation for this Halloween.  We went to a birthday party for a three year old this Saturday, I went as myself, The Unemployed Bum, while The Czarina went as Miss Stimulus Package.

You can't see the back of my t-shirt which says "Crack is Wack."  The Czarina had fun handing out 100 dollar bills with my face on it.  I'm sure the Treasury Department wouldn't appreciate the humor.

The highlight of the birthday bash was watching the birthday boy try and break a pinata filled with candy.  The only problem was the damn thing was made with cardboard, making it impossible to break!

 

Watching the kids scraf down all that candy left me with quite an appetite.  So we went out for some fine dining after the party.

The Czarina tried to ditch me for this Zombie Waiter.  I think the blood stains got to her and she decided that she preferred the ketchup and mustard stains on my shirt.

Three months

This Halloween marks the end of three months of unemployment, or should I say the beginning of month four.  This isn't the first time I've been jobless.  I had a four month stretch in 1994 but the circumstances were quite different because I was still getting a paycheck while I searched for another job.  Plus I was running 70 miles a week or more and that certainly kept me occupied and tired.

Since my right hamstring blew out two months ago the running has been put on the back burner.  The job search seems never ending.  In fact I'm convinced the job search contributed to my current hamstring/hip problems from sitting at the computer all day searching the web for jobs.

The unemployment check almost covers the mortgage on the house.  It misses the mark by about a dollar.  I get an allowance from the Czarina.  I must say she's pretty generous.  She didn't have a job for about the first three months of our marriage.  I finally made her take a job at K-Mart.  She looked great in that smock.  Of course that very week she finally got a legitimate job offer.

Most of my free time is spent filling out the job applications at USAJOBS.  I've been applying for Public Affairs positions with the government.  Some of the applications are like taking a college test.  Take the time and check them out.  It's about as bad as the old freshman English comp finals at K.U. which were pure torture.

The television side of the search has been a little more interesting.  I've had some nibbles but only a couple of decent bites.  Some of the jobs where I think they would be interested I don't hear squat.  The one's I've heard from have been surprising.  Part of me suspects that some of the news director's are scared of my experience.  I don't want their freaking job.  If I got a news director's job that would be fine.  But I've come to realize that there's nothing wrong with being an executive producer. 

I've kept my hand in the game so to speak by freelancing for the local paper covering high school football and cross country.  Thank God for the endless patience of the sports editor Ed Reed.  You would think after 30 plus years of television experience I would be a pretty good reporter but sometimes I make mistakes.  I think a lot of it is rust.  Doing it once a week isn't the same as doing it everyday. 

The best part so far is I'm not depressed or stressed out.  Even better is the Czarina isn't going nuts about it, yet.  I think it could get dicey when the unemployment runs out.  I wonder how I would look in that K-Mart smock?

St. George

Somewhere tucked away in a box of old mementos or perhaps thoughtlessly tossed away in a landfill is visual evidence of my greatest accomplishment in the marathon.  More on that photo later, but what you see above will have to do for now.

I left Phoenix in April of 1990 and returned to my old job in Kansas City.  I remember putting in a 100 mile week (only the second time in my life and first in more than 15 years) in the final week of March when the temperatures had already hit triple digits in Phoenix.  The scorching temperatures were a nice parting gift.

The problem with moving as many people far more wiser than I would constantly remind me of was that wherever you go, you are.  I needed to move but unfortunately I wasn't ready to grow up.  But I digress.

Running in Kansas City is awesome.  You have to combat the hills, the wind, and all manner of other weather conditions that toughen you up.  I ran some pretty decent races and appeared to be on track for the goal that was looming ahead in the fall, the St. George Marathon.

Spring racing was so-so.  A cold after one 10K and a half hearted effort at Kansas City's oldest road race, Hospital Hill, did little to inspire my confidence.  The first part of the summer was a malaise of self-abuse and unfocused training.  But something started to click in my head in August.  With St. George just two months off  I started piling on the miles like a desperate squirrel hiding nuts for the winter.  By September I was putting up 100 plus mile weeks.  Even in the midst of the big miles I ran a PR for 8K.

The tip that I was capable of something really fast came two weeks out from the marathon when I went for a 26 mile training run with Steve Riley.  Steve was just getting into running at the time and was on his way to becoming one of the best masters runners in Kansas history.  Steve had it in his head that he wanted to run a full marathon that day and break three hours.  Normally I won't run faster than 7:15 pace for a long run but I couldn't look like a complete wuss.  We took four water breaks and I ran 26 miles on a very warm September morning in 2:56.  Not bad for a training run.

The morning of the big race was perfect.  You start six thousand feet above the city of St. George in a small mountain range.  It's always cold and pitch black at the start.  At some future date they added portable lights but not in 1990.  The first seven miles you glide gently downhill.  Craig Davidson was there, he's never missed a St. George, ever.  He took off and left me in the dust.  I was being very careful knowing after seven miles, a mountain climb awaited then the hills.

I hit seven miles coasting along at six minute pace and started the grueling climb to mile eight.  It took about 6 minutes and 40 seconds.  I used the next five miles to recover, staying between 6:15 and 6:25 pace waiting for the dash downhill.  I hit the halfway mark in 1:21:30 ready for blast off.

The first major downhill comes at about 14 miles.  It took me 5:36.  By mile 15 I could see Craig ahead and by mile 16 I glided by him chugging along at 5:45 pace.  He glanced over not looking too surprised.  At mile 20 I caught another old friend from Phoenix and he looked over exclaiming, "Man you must be in shape!"  Mile 21 was my fastest of the race in 5:32.  Mile 21 to mile 25 are straight downhill and then you flatten out for the last mile to the finish.  I was being very careful not to push too hard because I knew I was going to break 2:40. 

By mile 25 I was starting to feel tired from the effort but I knew I had left myself some margin for error.  For a time it looked like a sub 2:37 was possible but I had slowed too much over the last three miles and a final mile in 6:10 brought me across the line in 2:39:34.  I was well satisfied but I did wonder if I had trained hard for four months instead of two what the results might have been... 2:36... 2:35.

I ordered but one picture from the race, a shot of me hitting the finish line, which I gave to Tom Dowling.  The picture disappeared with Tom and all I have left is the certificate below, the race number, a finishers medal and an age group award plaque.