No Love for Leo

He is undoubtedly one of the three greatest milers in American history.  He belongs in the same sentence as Jim Ryun and Steve Scott.  Yet Leo Manzano gets very little love.  This Mexican born American who came to running prominence while at the University of Texas, finds himself in a strange situation.  Leo has no shoe contract.

Elite track and field stars get a lot of their compensation from lucrative shoe contracts from companies like NIKE and Adidas.  After winning an Olympic silver medal in London, the first American to medal at 1500 meters since the great Jim Ryun, Leo has no shoe deal.  NIKE severed its ties with Manzano when the two couldn't agree on a new deal.  It seems Olympic medals don't mean much to "The Swoosh."

My guess is that Manzano was shooting for a deal that would put him on a par with NIKE's love child Galen Rupp.  Rupp scored Olympic silver in London as well in the 10000.  But Rupp is a blonde haired Oregonian who fits the NIKE profile perfectly.  While the short, dark skinned Manzano, wrapped himself in not just the Stars and Stripes last August after his stunning performance in London, he grabbed the flag of Mexico as well.  Leo's name doesn't sell shoes like Rupp.

Manzano is the blue collar success story of American distance running.  He doesn't have any American records like Alan Webb or Steve Scott, or set world records like Jim Ryun.  All he's done is be eerily consistent over the last 8 years beginning with his first NCAA title in the 1500 at Texas.  He's placed in the top 3 the United States outdoor nationals at 1500 8 years in a row.

The Czarina loves Leo, all 5 feet 5 inches of him.  We both watched in shock and awe as he somehow eluded a group of runners that boxed him in with 200 meters to go at last week's Nationals and nearly caught Matt Centrowitz, Jr. for his second national title.  His 2nd place finish marks Leo's 8th consecutive national team for the USA.  Yet he still has no shoe contract.

Leo says he's confident something will be worked out.  It would serve NIKE right if Leo snags another medal in Moscow without their shoes on his feet.  He's more like Pre than the Oregon golden boy that has one.

Doing Des Moines

The Czarina and I have been dying to go on a track and field adventure.  We thought long and hard about going to the World Championships this year in Moscow.  But for a variety of reasons we settled on heading to Des Moines, Iowa for the USATF National Championships.  The Czarina would be breaking her big meet cherry at the best meet in the world outside of The Olympics and the World Championships.

We skipped Wednesday which kicked off the junior portion of the meet.  We fe lew into Kansas City for a little family time and kick taste of barbeque before driving north to Des Moines.  We hit the stadium just as the men's 1500 prelims were wrapping up.  We went Thursday night wanting to take in the men's and women's 10000 meters.  Unfortunately we had brought the weather in Fort Myers with us.

The 10K wars started with Shalane Flanaghan throwing down and daring anyone to brave the heat and humidity to stay with her for 25 laps.  Kara Goucher tried and lasted about 3 kilometers before going into a slow fade.  A pack of 3 led by Amy Hastings reeled Kara in but in the end Jordan Hasay and Tara Erdmann would finish 2nd and 3rd.  Hastings was 4th but she has the "A" standard needed to punch a ticket to Moscow, the other two girls don't. 

The Czarina soon realized that watching 10K's require a lot of patience, especially when it's a jogfest like the men's race.  I told her to look for fireworks with a mile to go and sure enough Dathan Ritzenheim delivered ramping up the tempo and running the field off its feet all except for Olympic silver medalist Galen Rupp.

The weather consigned the distance races to the wait and kick category the rest of the meet.  But it certainly made for some hot sprinting with Tyson Gay showing the world and Usain Bolt he's still got some zip in his old legs with a dazzling 100 and 200 meter double.  Then there was a stellar American record from women's hurdling newcomer Brianna Rollins.  It marked the Czarina's first American record and my 6th to go along with 3 world marks I've seen set.

The best racing came in the men's 800 meters.  Duane Soloman ran with guts from the git-go and dared Nick Symmonds to run him down.  He produced a stunning 1:43.27 in taking his first national title while confirming his spot as America's premier middle distance runner. 

The other distance racers were all hampered by the heat.  Getting to witness high school phenom Mary Cain make the 1500 team was certainly an unforgettable highlight.  She let out a primal scream on her way to the victory stand.

The Czarina's favorite, Leo Manzano, managed to sneak out of a box and thread his way to a 2nd place finish behind Matt Centrowitz to confirm his status as one of America's great mile talents following his silver medal in London.

We took a ton of pictures.  But the above is one of my favorites.  Following the men's 5000 champion Bernard Lagat and 2nd place finisher Galen Rupp stopped for a chat with Rupp's coach Alberto Salazar.  Next thing you know the Czarina is sitting at Alberto's feet begging me to take her picture.  I missed when Alberto glanced down wondering who the hell was listening in on his conversation. 

A few moments later we got and up close and personal shot with Bernard Lagat.  He gets a boat load a crap on the Let's Run message born for not being a native born American but Lagat is a class act.  He is one of the greatest distance runners, ever, period.  His longevity in the sport is simply amazing and at age 38, he's got a chance to make the podium in Moscow.

Despite the heat, all in all it was a great meet with three American records all set by the women.  We saw old friends from Kansas City and enjoyed a great competition.

Unfortunately, Des Moines failed the test as a host for nationals.  The crowds were pretty sparse and the facilities don't seem up to snuff.  In fact I've seen other college venues better suited for hosting nationals.  It's hard to compete with places like Hayward Field in Eugene.  It's simply the best place in the world to watch a track and field meet.

Rock Chalk What?

The University of Kansas enjoyed the status of being a national power in track and field for about 30 years.  The Jayhawks were a force in the 50's, 60's and 70's.  It all started falling apart for several reasons. Bob Timmons refused to recruit foreign athletes. Timmons also lost his best recruiters to other schools, men like Thad Talley, Stan Narewski and Gary Pepin, who turned Nebraska into a national track and field power. The final blow was Title 9. Leveling the playing field for women came at the expense of men's track and field programs across the nation. I'm not complaining about it, it's just a fact.

So K.U., which was as good as Oregon, or Florida, or Texas A&M or L.S.U. or any top tier program, started a very slow fade in the 70's culminating with Timmon's departure in the 80's.  The program had a few bright spots in the 80's and 90's under Gary Schwartz with the likes of Scott Huffman, Pat Manson, Michael Cox, Kristi Kloster and Candace Mason, sprinkled through the years, but both the men's and women's program were moribund.  The women's program was particularly anemic and there was a lot of speculation over the last half dozen years how long Stanley Redwine, the man brought in to replace Schwartz, could keep his job.

But then something strange happened. Redwine managed to recruit some good sprinters and a few good field event athletes and the program started to gain some traction. The biggest addition came 3 years ago when Diamond Dixon signed on to become a Jayhawk. Dixon was like icing to the cake.

Last year the women's team stumbled its way to a 4th place finish at outdoor nationals but I honestly didn't think much of it, even though the team had been slotted for the podium. At the NCAA meet if you have a handful of high placers you can crawl into the top 5. But Dixon made me take notice. Especially when she made the U.S. Olympic team and won a gold medal as part of the U.S.A.'s winning 4 x 400 relay team.

Suddenly, I realized that Redwine's team was a force to be reckoned with, boasting a well rounded squad. A 2nd place finish at the NCAA indoor nationals was refreshing. But winning the outdoor title over Oregon, at historic Hayward Field was breathtaking. And they did it without Dixon making it to the finals in the 400. If you had told me that was possible, I would have laughed.

Yet here was Andrea Geubelle scoring in the long jump and triple jump. Paris Daniels scoring in the 200 and helping 2 relays squads earn All-American status along with Dixon running on both squads. Mix in a good Russian pole vaulter Natalia Bartnovskaya, three pretty good throwers and a national champion in heptathlete Lindsay Vollmer and Rock Chalk Jayhawk, Stanley has a national championship.

Redwine will lose a ton of points off this year's amazing squad.  But Kansas will be pretty good next year.  The question is whether he can build on this and compete on a yearly basis with the likes of Oregon, L.S.U. and Texas A&M.  The other question is whether he can breathe some life into the men's program as well.  I saw glimmers of hope even on the men's squad in the last few years but losing a stud like Mason Finley didn't help. 

Is Kansas track back?  I'd say so.  Even though it's not there yet with the men's program, the building of a new track and field only facility will go a long way to making it happen.  Now if we can only get Adidas to give the team neon pink and powder blue uniforms...

3 Shades of Blue

I headed out for a 5 mile run just after 6 p.m. tonight looking like a fashion faux-pas.  But that's not really the point of this post but let me finish the attire first.  I realized about a mile into my run that I had on light blue shorts, a dark blue shirt and a medium blue hat.  It was a hot mess, which got me to thinking about the weather.

Normally in late May a run two hours before sunset is an invitation to a death march.  It's usually incredibly hot and unbearably humid.  But this spring has been anything but normal.  The humidity hasn't found its way to Fort Myers yet. 

Dew points by the end of spring are soaring into the 70's.  But the weather throughout March, April and May has been unbelievable.  It's been downright cool and the air has been, shall we say, crisp.  Running has been a joy.  And that's been an incredible help given the injury plagued February I endured.

Dew point is always the key here when it comes to weather.  I'd much rather run in 85 degree weather with a dew point of 65 than 80 degree weather with a dew point of 70.  Today it was 83 with a dew point of 69 as I headed out the door with rain clouds hanging about.  About 2 miles into the run it started pouring.  It was a blustery, cold rain.  It rained for a mile and while I wanted to be miserable I dare not. 

A month from now I will dream of a day like today.  It will be unceasingly humid and to borrow a phrase from Bob Dylan, hotter than a crotch.  It will stay awful until sometime in October when the humidity finally gets sucked back into the Gulf of Mexico. 

Summer running in Southwest Florida is nasty.  Most of the runners I know here think a long run is 10 to 12 miles.  You suggest going 16 to 21 miles and they look at you like you're insane.  I seriously don't know how the good high school kids make it through the summer.  I know they get up by 6 a.m. to get their miles in, that's for sure.

Meanwhile, I'll start pushing my evening runs back to an hour or so before sunset and limit the length of my runs.  I've been banging away at about 35 miles a week for about 2 months now.  I'll be happy to keep it at 30 through the summer.  It's been great to get through these last 10 weeks pain free.  Here's to building a base for some fall racing! 

40 years and 1 week ago

I was out on a remarkably cool and dry sunset 8 mile run tonight when it dawned it me that it was 40 years ago that I had run my only State Outdoor Championship.  I had been scanning the results of the Kansas State Track and Field Championships earlier in the day looking at some pretty decent results.  As I enjoyed the very unusual weather for Southwest Florida I thought back to the blast furnace heat that had greeted the runners in Wichita.

I had really wanted to run the 2 mile at State.  I've blogged about the spring of 1973 before.  I had run the mile and 2 mile at Regional.  I finished 3rd in the mile blasting the final 300 yards to outrun a kid from Shawnee Mission South named Curtis Martin, now serving time in a Missouri prison, but that's another blog.  I had finished behind 2 sophomores who were bound for greatness, Tim Davis from Shawnee Mission West and Eric Lathrop from Shawnee Mission South.

The 2 mile hadn't gone so well.  A group of 5 was together at the mile and I got hit with an overwhelming wave of the need to go to the bathroom.  I hung on for dear life and tried not to crap by pants.  I finished 4th just a tad over 10 minutes.  I know that Jim Dillon of South and Mike Mueller from Northwest beat me and I think another kid from South was in front of me.  I was pretty unhappy.

The week of training going into State was lackluster.  I remember the big finishing workout was supposed to be a 1320 in 3:15.  That's really not all that fast but it was blazing hot and I slugged my way to 3:22.  It was a sign of things to come.

The trip to Wichita was long and dull.  We went down on Friday.  I didn't even bother going to the track to watch the 2 mile.  I went out to dinner instead with my ex-stepfather who lived there.  I had to share a room with shot putter Mike Wellman who would go on to win State the next year.  Mike had a lot of fun and made sleep a little difficult.

It was blazing hot when we got to the stadium around 11 a.m.  I think our race went off sometime after 2 p.m.  I spent as much time as possible under the stands in the west side of the stadium.  I felt it was too hot to warm up out in the sun so I slowly jogged back and forth under the stands.  I wasn't looking forward to what was to come.

I don't remember seeing any of the other mile finals from the other classes.  I came out from underneath the stands at the last possible minute.  12 runners lined up on the 6 lane, hard yellow track at Wichita State.  I was on the outside.  The gun went off and it was a jogfest.  All 12 runners were within 5 yards of each other for the first two laps.

Just about 10 yards past the 880 mark all hell broke loose.  I'm not sure who made the move but I looked up and the entire field was gone and I was dead fucking last.  I just put my head down and tried to make up ground but the heat was gobbling me up.  I caught a runner about 500 yards from the finish.  The race was unfolding a good 50 yards in front of me at that point.

Clark Hamilton of Shawnee Mission North was battling Kent Adrian from Wichita Southeast for the win.  Clark would take the race almost 10 seconds ahead of me.  If you look at the picture below that's Clark in the black and pink.  I'm hidden from view.  I think this picture was taken just as the break was happening.  I managed to reel in Eric Lathrop from South with about 250 yards to go but that would be it.  I would finish 10th in 4:36. 

I remember crossing the finish line and thinking my feet were on fire.  The heat from the track was searing through the bottom of my spikes and my feet were burning.  I jumped down to the field which was Astroturf and sat down and ripped off my spikes.  The turf was super hot and everything felt like it was on fire.  I quickly got to my feet and made my way to a men's room underneath the east grandstand meekly waving to my ex-stepfather who, much to my surprise, came to see me run.

In the men's room is was cool and dank.  I spotted Adrian and offered my congratulations.  He was in a state of shock.  I think he was surprised that he had run so well.  We both agreed the weather was miserable. 

The only highlight of the day was watching my teammate Tad Scales set a record when he won the pole vault.  It was the first of back to back titles for Tad.  But for me, it would be my one and only trip to the State Outdoor.  What a disaster. 

Alan Who?

A mere 12 years ago the world of track and field was abuzz because of a senior in high school who was poised to break Jim Ryun's land standing record in the high school mile.  Alan Webb smashed Ryun's hallowed mark at the Prefontaine Class running 3:53.43 and would go on 6 years later to set the American Record in the mile hitting the tape in 3:46.91.  Just a half dozen years ago Webb seemed lined up for an Olympic medal at 1500 meters when it all came crumbling apart.

Fast forward to 2013 and Webb, a mere 30 is an afterthought on the American running scene.  Which brings me to the newest high school sensation who is doing things that are for lack of a better term, Ryunesque.  Mary Cain, an outstanding high school runner as a freshman and sophomore, has made a stunning leap onto, the world stage.  Despite her record setting rampage, which began during the indoor season this winter, Cain doesn't seem to be getting a lot of love beyond the world of track and field.

The records started falling for the Bronxville teen in February when she destroyed the American high school record for 2 miles.  She followed that up by taking down Debbie Heald's 41 year old high school indoor record not once but twice, setting the final mark more than 10 seconds under the old one at 4:28.25.  She topped off her indoor season by winning the U.S. Indoor Nationals beating a field of pros with a stunning kick.

The outdoor season started at Drake with another high school record at 1500 meters, ho-hum.  But the fireworks came this Friday night when Mary Cain blasted a 4:04.62.  That blew away Jordan Hasay's once epic record set at the 2008 Olympic Trials (already broken by Cain last year as a sophomore) by about 10 seconds and gave Cain an "A" standard and puts her in a position to go the World Championships this summer in Moscow.  We're talking about a high school junior.  We haven't talked about a high school junior doing things like this since the summer of 1964 when Jim Ryun made the U.S. Olympic Team at 1500 meters.

Getting more publicity than Cain's accomplishments is the fact that professional coach Alberto Salazar took control of her training regiment last winter.  Salazar made it clear after this latest record that Cain was already the real deal, long before he was asked by her parents to guide her career.  Yet despite all of incredible accomplishments, including a national title as a high school junior, you don't see Cain on Letterman like Webb.  There's barely been a mention of her on ESPN.  It's as if all this is happening in some sort of media blackout.

I think short of her winning outdoor nationals this summer and a place on the team to Moscow, I doubt she'll get the kind of media love she so richly deserves.  In fact, even that may not be enough.  You see, while Webb chased the magical sub-4 minute mile and Jim Ryun's venerated record, Cain is chasing records that are largely unknown and rarely discussed outside of the tightly-nit media that covers track and field.  But I don't care.  I can't wait to see her toe the starting line in person in June.  I can't wait to see history in the making.

Remembering Fred White

It seems like Fred White has always been part of the sports equation with me.  As I became "aware" of sports growing up in north-central Kansas, it was men like Fred, Gus Griebe in Wichita and the legendary Bruce Rice in Kansas City that I clued in on.  Fred White died suddenly at 76.  I never knew the man but I felt like I lost a friend.

I first remember Fred doing sports at WIBW.  He and the late Ron Paradis made quite a sports team at the CBS powerhouse.  Every year when they'd televise the K.U./K-State basketball game, Fred would call one half for the Wildcats and Max Falkenstein the other for Kansas.  Right away I could see that Fred was special. 

It didn't take long for the Kansas City Royals to see it to and they hired him away in the mid-70's.  A lot of great play-by-play men and sportscasters have gone through Topeka and Kansas City.  K.U. grad Kevin Harlin ranks at the top of my list as the best, but I'd put Fred at number 2.

As good as he was doing Royals games, I think he excelled at college basketball.  For some reason I enjoyed his pairing with the late Paul Splittorff as his color man when the former Royals great was breaking into the business.  It was just a great combination.

I'd run into Fred at sporting events, in the press box, but I held him in such awe I couldn't approach him.  I feel lucky to have seen his work.  He comes from an era of sports excellence where the Royals produced on the field and great writing flowed from Topeka that produced the Capital-Journal sports writer Bob Hentzen and Rick Dean. 

It feels to me a chapter in Kansas sports history has closed with White's passing.  But I know men like Steve Physioc and Greg Sharpe still carry that standard of exellence that WIBW created through the 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's.