Running with the Buffaloes

by Chris Lear

  Once there, they were surprised that Goucher was overlooked as one of the favorites. Instead, all of the pre-race talk was centered around local favorite Mebrahton Keflizighi of San Diego, Matt Davis of Oregon, and Bob Keino of New Jersey. “Adam,” says Flower, “was a little miffed at the lack of respect.” “This is great,” she told him, “because they [the RUNNING WITH THE BUFFALOES

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  favorites] were not left alone. They couldn’t even get lunch. I said, ‘Okay, wait till tomorrow.’”

  On race day, Flower says, “Adam could hardly wait. He had no fear, just a sheer joy about being there and competing. He had fire in him.”

  There was one major hill on the course, and this is where he envisioned breaking away. Keflizighi had broken from the pack with a mile and a half to go, and Goucher plowed up the hill, catching Keflizighi.

  On the descent, Goucher rolled away from the field to win the Foot Locker national cross country title in 14:41. His widowed grandfather was there to enjoy Goucher’s win along with the rest of Goucher’s family. “It was,” Goucher recalls, “a great moment for the family.” His grandfather passed away a week and a half later.

  For Flower, Goucher’s accomplishment was all the more impressive because of everything he had had to overcome. She says:

  I love Adam like a son, and he has not had it easy. His dad left when he was in the fifth grade, and his mom struggled to raise him and his two sisters. It was a financial struggle; she was trying to make it a good life for them, and he was the man of the house forever. He worked throughout high school, sometimes closing restaurants at midnight, to pay for his own expenses and fees . . . He struggled with his dad leaving, and his mom made up for it . . . [but] he had it a little hard . . .

  Goucher’s tough upbringing did not deter him in the least. In fact, Flower says that Goucher was the most coachable athlete she has ever had. “He listened. He was loyal to me as a coach, and he listened to what I said, no questions asked. He never doubted what we were doing. He believed in it. And he always expressed his gratitude.”

  Goucher did not have to have blind faith in his coach. She was a proven competitor herself, and she studied the sport, because she

  “wanted to know why you did what.” She took exercise physiology and sports psychology classes at CU Colorado Springs, she earned her USA Track and Field Level One coaching certification, and she sought out advice from anyone who could help, including Ed Burke, the US Olympic cycling physician, who explained to her athletes the physiology of heart rate training. She also studied because she “felt a real responsibility to be careful with what I did with Adam, with someone with such big goals.”

  Goucher appreciated the enormous effort she put into her coaching. She laughs when she recalls an incident that occurred during the recruiting process: “A prominent coach said to Goucher, ‘Hey, I hear you have a girl coach.’ Adam told him, ‘Yeah. And if you got a problem with that, you can go to hell!’”

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  After Foot Locker, Goucher says, “I was just fried. For so long I had visualized it, and when it happened, I was ready to be done.” He still ran the U.S. Junior Cross Country championships in Memphis, Tennessee, and the race was a disaster. Wearing a soft orthodic in his racing shoe for the first time, he developed tremendous blisters, and finished a disappointing eleventh, missing the U.S. team by four spots.

  His health worsened on a trip to Chiba, Japan, for an international 8k race. He finished a respectable fifteenth in a field of 600 runners, but on his cooldown, he severely sprained his ankle, and the injury effectively ended his high school career. All that was left for him to do was decide where to attend college.

  ON TO THE UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO

  Flower was “bombarded by college coaches. I got at least a call a night.” Goucher listened to Flower’s counsel, “but the whole decision was Adam’s. I was there to help him.” Both were impressed with then Wisconsin coach Martin Smith, but Goucher clicked with Wetmore immediately. “Adam convinced me,” Flower says, “more than Mark convinced me, that Mark was a good guy.” In spite of being taken aback by Wetmore’s ponytail and relaxed appearance, “Mark,” Goucher says, “would fire me up.” In the end, Goucher decided on Colorado. “I could sense Mark had what it takes to make me the best I can be.”

  Flower will be in Kansas to cheer on Goucher in his last collegiate race. She will be looking for the fire she saw when Goucher won the high school national cross country title as a senior, and she will be praying for another victory.

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  Tuesday, September 8, 1998

  The Buffalo Ranch

  4 p.m.

  It’s My Last One, Bitch!

  In years past milers have commenced at the end of September. This year Wetmore is starting them earlier—over the hilliest part of their course—

  so that they will be ready for the sweeping hills in Lawrence at the end of the year. The men will do these today at “elevation date pace”—what they could do right now for a race at altitude. They run milers three more times this season, and each time, their cumulative times should be faster than the last. They will run their last session of repeat miles on the track.

  That last one is always on the schedule, so they will get to see where they stand next to teams of years gone by before the Big Dance.

  Wetmore gathers his men together before they start the workout.

  It is brutally hot. They listen attentively as he addresses them all: Today is either three or four or five miles. They’re slow. I’m giving you a deliberately slow set this year. This time of year is high-level aerobic long specificity. I want you doing about what you’re supposed to be doing up here, this time of year. I wanted to give you four sets [of milers workouts]

  this year instead of three like last year. When in doubt slow down. Men, the PFB’s [peach fuzz babies] are doing four, the rest of you are doing five, but controlled.

  The runners are doing the mile repeats on an eight-minute cycle, so Wetmore splits them into groups so they all get the right amount of rest.

  (For example, if Goucher runs a mile in five minutes, he will have three minutes rest before the next mile repeat.) Tammy, their trainer, has set up a van at the finish line of their mile repeats so they can hydrate after every interval. He instructs them to stay cool. He says, “Tammy’s got Gatorade, water, and Miller High Life in three separate coolers. I want you taking water after each one. Actually, it’s better on you than in you.”

  Goucher is assigned five miles at 4:50, while Friedberg, Napier, Ponce, Reese, Severy, Tessman, and Valenti are assigned five at 5:10.

  Another group is doing five at 5:20, while the freshmen (peach fuzz babies) are doing four miles at 5:30. Batliner, Roybal, and Blondeau still are not up to going, so they run four to eight miles on the course at 6:30

  pace. Bat’s calf is a bit better, but still sore. “It’s a little looser,” Bat says,

  “but it’s still there, whatever my fucking problem is.” Bat and Wetmore are getting nervous.

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  As they line up to begin the workout, one change is readily apparent.

  Slattery wears running shorts for the first time. “I was sick of all the shit,”

  he says. Wetmore is one of the first to notice. As they are stretching he tells him, “You’re a minute faster already. Just because of those shorts.”

  From Wetmore and JD’s vantage point at the start of the interval they can see the men head out and up the big hill. They disappear then for the majority of the interval before Wetmore and JD catch them for the last 100 meters.

  As Goucher comes down the stretch at the end of the first mile, Wetmo
re checks his watch and is satisfied that he is running under control. “Good, good,” he says. “He listened.” “[4]:52” Wetmore says.

  Goucher checks his watch and yells over his shoulder “51!” Severy and Friedberg lead the charge across the line for the rest of the men in 5:12.

  It is the slowest mile they will run. Friedberg is on Sev’s heels the whole workout and they average 5:07 a mile. In Batliner’s absence, they are establishing themselves as the early two and three runners.

  Wetmore moves around onto the hill before the start of the second mile. It is here that he will offer some of his best pointers. As the freshmen start the climb he instructs them to “release, relax, and flow down that hill, don’t fight it. A lot of energy is wasted fighting it. I don’t expect you to master it, today you practice it.” To the group he says, “Okay, easy up the hill but then you gotta gain it back down the other side.”

  The strategy of going slowly up the hill and then charging is advice that is counter to what most coaches teach. It is a survival tactic at this elevation since it is next to impossible to recover once in oxygen debt.

  In order to race well here, the best bet is to conserve energy going up the hills by slowing down the pace, or at most maintaining it. In races, while their opponents are recovering from charging up the hill, the CU

  guys start to roll. The strategy is particularly effective late in races when a rapid rise in effort sends guys into oxygen debt more quickly. Since the CU runners have maintained an even effort throughout, in the last mile or even the last kilometer they are still feeling good. It is then that they kill you.

  Goucher struggles on the next two miles, running 4:53 and 4:55. He is working harder than he has yet this season, and his exertion is apparent in his final preparation before each interval. With five seconds to go he high steps to the line while taking several audible deep breaths where he forces the air out, “WHOO, WHOO, WHOO!”

  Robbie struggles just to run. His right knee is swollen, tight, and full of fluid. He is still able to run 5:21’s today while getting all the lift in his right leg from his hip flexor. Like the others, he suffers under the intense sun. They all dump water over their heads for some relief from the heat RUNNING WITH THE BUFFALOES

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  before taking off onto the fourth interval. As they climb the hill, someone is right on Goucher’s shoulder. “Who’s running with Gouch?” Wetmore asks incredulously. Closer attention to the long powerful stride reveals the answer: Slattery.

  Goucher is none too happy to have the frosh sitting on his shoulder.

  He turns to Slattery and says, “Run your own workout!” Slattery responds as any self-respecting Jersey boy would: “I am. It’s my last one, BITCH!”

  Goucher does not respond. “Okay,” he thinks to himself, “if you’re gonna run with me, you’re gonna pay.” What happens next is no surprise.

  “He took off,” says Slattery, “and I died.” Goucher runs 4:54 and he is followed by Severy and Friedberg in 5:07. An exhausted Slattery crosses the line in 5:14. He stumbles off to the side and vomits. “I shouldn’t have eaten those freaking corn chips at lunch,” he says.

  Goucher still has one more mile. He nails it, running 4:50. Sev and Friedberg finish a great workout with a 4:58, leading a charge of guys under 5:10. When Goucher finishes, he pulls Slattery aside for a little talk.

  “It’s a process,” he tells him. “My body took two and a half, three years to adapt to Wetmore’s workouts. Don’t feel bad about getting your butt kicked; it’s part of being a freshman in college.” He later tells Wetmore of his little talk with Slattery. All Wetmore can do is shake his head. “Yeah, he’s a strange bird, isn’t he? He’s hard to communicate with, but that’s OK, the best ones are.”

  Goucher is also salty about the workout itself: “It sucked so hard. I know I ran too hard. I wasn’t feeling good. I don’t know if it was the heat or whatever. He said to be controlled. It wasn’t controlled.”

  Wetmore has several possible explanations for Goucher’s inability to hit his splits. He tells the guys, “I’m pretty sure the miles are 20 to 30 meters longer than last year. But, that’s OK, what matters is what happens the next time, the next time, and the time after that. The last time, nothing can go wrong, right?” That is right, because the last one is on the track. Wetmore’s other explanation for Goucher’s difficulty is just as valid: “Twenty-two [miles at the Aqueduct] two Sundays ago.”

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  Wednesday, September 9, 1998

  Flagstaff Mountain

  3:30 p.m.

  Flagstaff Again

  Most of the men are doing another thirteen up Flagstaff today. O’Mara and Batliner are among the missing. After another disappointing workout yesterday, O’Mara has gone AWOL. (He is spotted later running alone on the Creek Path.) Wetmore addresses the team while they stretch. He instructs them on some eligibility matters that must be resolved, and then he exits the gym to catch a plane to Dallas for some Big 12 meetings. He would rather be with the team, as most coaches would, but this is part of the bureaucratic tedium he must reckon with daily.

  The lanes are being painted on the new indoor track today. The mondo surface looks fantastic. It is being completed just in time, for the Torres brothers are coming into town next weekend for their recruiting trip. Anticipating this, JD asks the runners returning from Flagstaff if they could have a social function that weekend to allow the twins a chance to meet some of the runners. It is important they have a good time and really like the team, because Wetmore and CU will not be able to offer the twins full scholarships for their first year while practically every other school in the country will be offering them the moon.

  Batliner does not join his teammates up Flagstaff. Instead, he goes for an easy ten miles down Fourth Street to Wonderland Lake and back. He skipped all his classes today to tend to his sore calf, spending the entire day alternately massaging it, icing it, and stretching it. The therapy has paid off because his calf feels better today than at any time since he first injured it. He runs without a hitch.

  He could have run up Flagstaff with the others, but he elected not to.

  Batliner’s restraint is admirable. In a sport that demands compulsion, sometimes the hardest task is having the confidence to rest. As he runs easily along Fourth Street, he tries to deduce why his calf is injured. He is running more volume than a year ago (85 a week), and, like Goucher, he has upped the intensity. Whereas last year he ran twelve miles easy on his recovery days, this year these runs have been at 6:30 a mile at the slowest.

  “Even my easy days are intense,” he says.

  He is not second-guessing himself for upping his intensity, because it is, as Wetmore would say, the next logical step. But he is questioning not doing calf exercises that he started doing last winter after an up-and-down weekend in Boston. That weekend he ran a huge PR in the 3k—7:58—to automatically qualify for the NCAA’s. The next morning he RUNNING WITH THE BUFFALOES

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  hit the bank of the Charles River for a twenty-mile run. His calf cramped on him, and as a result he did not run again until indoor NCAA’s. Once up and running, he performed calf raises diligently before every run to get good blood flow going. The routine served him well. He trained uninterrupted through the start of the outdoor season—until a stress fracture in his fibula threatened to sideline him yet again. Despite another bout of intermittent training, he finished a stellar third in the steeplechase at outdoor NCAA’s.

  A new year upon him, he began to “feel invincible,” and ceased doing his exercises. He is starting them again now, and on Friday morning he will attempt his first workout in over a week. He knows no one counted on the rise of Ponce and Friedberg (Bat says, “They’re definitely All-American material now”), but even with their em
ergence, if Batliner goes down, CU’s title hopes might go down with him.

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  Thursday, September 10, 1998

  Balch Gym

  3:15 p.m.

  More Trouble

  The guys are OYO (On Your Own) today for some easy jogging and strides. Ponce stops by the gym to stretch before heading out. He has a slight lump under his eye. Trouble often seems to find Ponce, and as he went back to his place last night after practice, it found him again.

  He went to the Varsity weight room in Dal Ward to lift after practice yesterday. By the time he rode his bike back to his abode it was already after eight o’clock, and he had yet to eat dinner. When he got there, he found someone had parked in a “No Parking” spot right in front of his door, making it impossible for him to get inside.

  He waited a minute to see if someone was going to come move the car, and when no one did, he slammed his bike against the car in frustration. A guy was walking by as he did this—the owner of the car. An argument ensued and, underestimating Ponce because of his small stature, the man started swinging at him. Ponce is small, but he is wiry and remarkably quick. Ponce did his best De La Hoya impression on him, and before the guy could react, he was down. He did not wait around to see if Ponce could dish out any more. He scrambled for his keys, climbed into his car, and left.

  Ponce is distraught about the rumble. His freshman year he was in-volved in a similar incident that went one step further. A party he was attending got busted by the cops for underage drinking. There were close to a hundred people at the party. Only one person got put in cuffs and taken away: Ponce. “Why,” he thinks, “am I the one always getting into these altercations? Is it because I am Mexican?”

  He had a conversation with Wetmore then, and Wetmore offered

  him some advice that he thinks about now. “Look, Oscar,” he said then,

  “four years from now, it won’t matter. It’s not about white, black, or brown. What everyone gives a damn about is green, and you’ll be telling the punk who told you to go back to the hood, ‘Here are the keys to my Lexus, don’t scratch it.’”