55	I am inspired by Billy Mills

The person who inspired me most grew up on the Pine Ridge Native American Reservation in South Dakota. Billy was selected to attend a boarding school where he discovered that he could run faster than other boys in the distance events. Realizing that this could be his path to success in life, he worked very hard and won a scholarship to the University of Kansas.

Billy has a positive sprit and envisioned himself becoming one of the best distance runners in the NCAA. This did not happen. He came to believe that his best events were longer ones and set his sights on the 10,000 meter. His coach, however, wanted him to run shorter events, and lots of them. The training prescribed on the university team did not prepare him for his 10K event, and he did not achieve what he thought was possible during his four years in Lawrence, KS.

Post graduate running programs were few in 1961, but Billy found one: The U.S. Marines. After his officer training, he was assigned to the team at Quantico, VA, setting his sights on the Olympic 10K. His times were not yet good enough to qualify for the U.S. Olympic Trials, but he felt strongly that he would improve and qualify. Progress was slow.

A college running friend of Billy’s returned to his native country after graduation (Australia) and trained with the 10K world record holder at the time, Ron Clark. Every week for about three years, Billy would get his “intelligence report” detailing Clark’s workouts. Billy tried them and was usually unsuccessful. But at the end of the hard portion of his workout, Mills envisioned that Clark was just ahead of him, so he shifted into his best finish “kick” and imagined himself zooming by the world record holder, breaking the tape and becoming the Olympic champion. Almost every day for three years, this fantasy world was enacted.

In 1963, I went to watch the National Cross Country championships in New York City with some college friends. At the meet, I looked up an alumnus of my school, Wesleyan University, who was Officer in Charge of the Marine Team. When he discovered that I might be interested in applying in a few years and that I was interested in the 10K, he introduced me to Billy.

I instantly liked Billy. I didn’t understand it at the time, but there was something about his attitude that impressed me. Later I came to understand that he had a subtle confidence that I had not encountered before. Mills was probably ranked about 25th going into that race. Without bragging, he told me that he was going to finish near the top. He did.

I followed Billy in Track & Field News as he continued to improve, qualified for the Olympic Trials and then, unexpectedly, made the team in the 10K and the Marathon. That experience made a major imprint on me. If Billy could come out of obscurity and make the Olympic team, maybe there was hope for me.

Billy Mills was not our best 10K runner (Lindgren) and was not ranked very high among the entrants in the 1964 Tokyo Olympic 10K. But somehow, he sensed that he had a chance to win. There was no trial heat, only a final with over 60 athletes running 25 times around the track.

The excitement and focus drove Mills to push the pace and at halfway he realized that he had run only one second slower than his fastest 5K. He was feeling the overexertion and feared that he had spent his resources. He looked for a place to drop out. Just before he stepped off the track, he glanced into the stands and happened to focus on one person: his wife, Pat.

He couldn’t drop out with her watching, believing in his dream, so he decided to just finish the race. This released the pressure to win. Several runners passed him and then a group of about four runners went by. Something intuitively told Billy that he should go with that group and he did. Ron Clark was one of those runners.

Billy admits that he doesn’t remember very much about the last four laps. He was exhausted and running on instinct, trying to put one foot in front of the other. The group passed one runner after another, and as they approached the “bell lap” (one to go), Billy was in lane 2, with Ron Clark in lane 1. They were approaching a slower runner who was a full lap behind, and Clark tapped Billy’s arm, trying to get him to move out so that both could pass the runner. Billy was so “out of it” that he didn’t know he was being nudged. So Clark finally shoved Billy out into the 4th lane and passed the runner.

The third member of the group, Mohammed Gamudi from Tunisia, was right behind, saw the altercation and took off after Clark. His arms were swinging erratically as he passed Mills and the sharp part of his elbow hit Billy very hard in his upper arm, hitting a nerve. The pain was great enough to wake Billy up and the reflex brain sent a primitive message from his playground days: When someone whomps you, you whomp them back. But his slow-twitch endurance muscle cells were spent and he could not respond. The front two runners moved away from Billy, and were about 30 meters ahead as Billy rounded the curve and looked at the finish only 100 meters away.

Billy was living the situation that he had rehearsed almost every day for three years. Without thinking, he did what he had programmed himself to do. And because he had practiced sprinting at the end of his hard workouts, he had trained his fast twitch muscle fibers to respond.

Mills zoomed by Gamudi and Clark, broke the tape and became the Olympic champion. This is the greatest upset, come-from-behind victory in the history of the Olympic 10K.

 

56	I am inspired by Lee Kilpack: Racing cancer

In 1996, Lee Kilpack was diagnosed with breast cancer, with lymph node involvement. She began a treatment plan of surgery, chemo, and radiation. Lee had never exercised. The diagnosis was a shock to her spirit, and the treatment tested her body, mind, and willpower.

By 2000, things weren’t looking too good, and she felt bad most of the time. Then, one morning she woke up with the desire to start taking care of her body. She hired a personal trainer that day. By 2001, she was walking every day. Later that year, she had inserted some running into the walks. In 2002, Lee walked the 3-day, 60-mile Breast Cancer Walk and raised $3,000 for the cause.

“If I had to choose between my old pre-cancer life as a somewhat depressed, overweight, unmotivated and unfulfilled couch potato and my current life with cancer, it’s easy. I’m energetic, happy, motivated, and love life each day.”

Lee Kilpack

The training for and the completion of such a strenuous event resulted in a big letdown in motivation, with extended recovery from injuries, aches and pains. Lee struggled and finally started running regularly in December of 2003. After the ’04 New Year, Lee set a bigger goal – to finish a marathon in November. The training program she chose was too adverse and she became injured in September. She didn’t give up.

In early 2005, Lee’s doctor cleared her to start running again. She picked up my conservative training program after attending my Blue Mountain beach retreat. I worked with her via email and often found it hard to hold back her energy and drive.

The training for the Marine Corps Marathon was more of a challenge than most because she relocated to the Gulf coast to volunteer for relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina – squeezing in runs after exhausting days. Somehow, she also hikes, cycles, and paddles hard in her kayak; on the “off days,” she doesn’t run. She finished with strength.

She regularly gets screened for tumor markers. While the tests show her out of the normal range, her doctor does not see a threat in the near future and supports her running.

“I don’t know what the future holds for me. If it is metastasis tomorrow, I would be OK with that. What a good life I’ve been given. My health and happiness have never been better. What my oncologist doesn’t understand is what a dynamite combo vitality and endorphins make.”

 

57	I am inspired by Mavis Lindgren: Marathon records after age 80

Mavis Lindgren was a sickly child and sickly adult who was advised against exercising. She almost died of a lung infection in her late 50s. During the recovery, her new, young doctor had the shocking opinion that she should walk with her husband and kept recommending an increase in the distance she covered.

Surprisingly, Mavis found enjoyment as she felt her body come alive with improved endurance. In her 60s, she took up running with husband Carl and quickly surpassed him. Into her late 80s, she was setting age group records and had not even suffered a common cold since beginning her running career.

At about the age of 85, she slipped on a cup at the 20-mile water station at the Portland, OR, marathon. Officials helped her up and tried to take her to a medical tent. She quietly brushed them off, saying that it was a surface injury. After she finished, however, she went to the medical tent to find that she had been running with a broken arm.

 

58	I am inspired by Dave Wottle: Don’t give up

Because he was very thin and feeble, the Wottle family doctor recommended that Dave exercise and suggested running. Dave felt at home on the track team. Like many distance and middle distance runners, however, he had to work hard to see modest improvements in junior high and high school track. At Bowling Green State University, he improved significantly every year, and Dave moved to the top of the NCAA rankings. He was at his performance peak during the 1972 U.S. Olympic trials.

While the commentators were expecting running legend Jim Ryun to win the U.S. trials 1500 meters, Dave won easily. He also had no problem winning the 800 meter. During a workout the week after the trials, Dave injured his knee. Three weeks later, when we reported for our Olympic tour, Dave was still injured and had not been able to train.

The coaches wanted to send him home and bring in a healthy runner. Dave refused. Reluctantly, the coaches supported Wottle. By working with the athletic trainers and the medical team, he was able to run, and he gradually regained some conditioning.

After the gun fired on his first 800 meter heat in Munich, Dave was at the back of the pack. He struggled to move up as he rounded the final turn, passing one runner, then another. At the finish, he leaned, and finished third – the last qualifier for the next round.

Due to conditioning issues, Dave ran a similar race in the next two qualifying heats, coming from behind to barely qualify for the finals.

In the final, the competitors clumped together, going for the gold. Unfortunately, Dave could not keep up and had fallen about 30 yards behind at the halfway mark. Many competitors would have stepped off the track. But Dave set his sights on the next-to-last competitor and caught up with him as they rounded the final curve.

Two runners bumped one another and Dave darted between them. He ran inside to pass three more and outside to pass another group. As he approached the finish, there was a line of the leaders ahead, and at the last minute a parting occurred – Dave dove through, broke the tape, and won the Gold medal.

TV announcers were amazed at his finish spurt, but this was not the case. His 200 meter splits were almost identical. Dave knew what he could do and stuck with his plan.

At any given point, logic showed that Dave Wottle should have given up his spot and let someone else run. Dave won because he did not give up.

 

59	I am inspired by Lasse Viren: When you get knocked down, get up

During the Munich Olympics, the star performer in my event, the 10,000 was not well known going into the games. Unlike most athletes who move onto the world class scene over a 4-8 year period, Lasse’s times were not spectacular. When I checked on his performances the year before the Olympics, I noted that he had finished 17th in the European Championships 10K.

Lasse’s joy was running through the wilds, mile after mile. He loved forest trails and had a variety of routes and workouts. About the only time that you saw Viren on a track was during a race. But as Lasse ran his trails, he would envision being in the big race, responding to various challenges and coming back strong. In the trial heat of the 10,000 Lasse ran a smart race and qualified easily without seeming to be very tired. None of the experts I spoke with before the 10K final predicted that he would finish in the top 5.

The 10K final evolved into a strategic race. With about 8 laps to go (out of 25), there were 10 runners tightly bunched, all in position to win the race. With no warning, Lasse was tripped by a runner and he fell into the infield of the track, rolling over.

The first action that impressed me was that Viren ran straight back to where he had been tripped. If he had tried to run the tangent he would have taken too many steps on the infield and been disqualified. There was no doubt in my mind that he had rehearsed this possibility.

The second impressive act was not trying to catch up with the field in the first lap or two. Lasse gradually caught up with the pack over the next 2 laps, but he didn’t stop there. During the following two laps, he passed one runner at a time.

With two laps to go, Viren moved into the lead and continued pick up the pace every 20 yards or so. There were several runners near him with half a lap to go, but Lasse steadily moved away from them. He not only won the Gold, but he set a world record.

Viren won the 5K gold medal in Munich and returned to Montreal four years later to capture gold in the 5K & 10K and finish 5th in the marathon.