Running with the Buffaloes

by Chris Lear

  It is an aggressive plan to get well, but “the doctor understands the urgency better than most. Either I push now, or I don’t even bother and rest for indoors.” Before Sev’s death, he was planning on running again this season. Now, even knowing Sev would want him to compete, he is not sure.

  His emotions are constantly changing. Says Batliner, “Every hour, it’s completely different.” And while he wants to run for Sev, for the most part, “I get this numbness you get when you feel empty. That’s how I feel about this whole thing. It’s empty, just not quite there.” It does not help that while he has been cross-training, he is not nearly as fit as he was before he got injured. Like the others, his training is what gives him RUNNING WITH THE BUFFALOES

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  confidence, or as he puts it, “my training and fitness govern my mind. My mind is completely reactive to my physical strength and my fitness.”

  His comeback starts this weekend in Ft. Hays. Earlier this week, Wetmore told him he is going to run three miles at 5:30 pace, but Batliner talked him into rethinking it and letting him run the full five miles. “I’m sure I can handle five miles, real slow like an AT.” The key words here for Bat are “real slow.” He admits it would be tempting to race all out if he feels good, “but I don’t want to get carried away and end up with another injury, even if it doesn’t bother my leg. I want to run 5:30 miles, really back-of-the-packing it. Running with the bluebirds and the hack squad, the puppy dogs.”

  On Tuesday after practice, the seniors had a seniors-only meeting in the gym with Wetmore. They debated whether or not to honor Sev with a symbol of some sort on their uniform. They discussed wearing a patch, and Reese and Goucher suggested wearing armbands with Sev’s initials embroidered in them. Reese and Goucher were adamant about doing some thing, but others, like Jay Johnson, were not so sure.

  Wetmore let them debate the issue among themselves before put-

  ting in his two cents. “I have 49 percent of the vote,” he said, “and you have 51 percent. My feeling is, we don’t advertise here at the University of Colorado.” He stressed that everyone in the country knows what happened, and he does not feel wearing an armband to commemorate Sev’s memory will serve any purpose but to satisfy the expectations of those outside the team.

  Goucher was the first to disagree with Wetmore when Wetmore left the field house. He stressed to his teammates not to be swayed by Wetmore. “It’s our decision,” he said, “not Mark’s.” The seniors could not come to a consensus on the issue, and it remains unresolved.

  Batliner has been thinking about it since then, and he concurs with Wetmore. “This whole business about the armband makes me think of what Chris would appreciate, and it’s just kick ass, you know, get it done.

  That’s what he was all about.”

  Sev attacked his activities with a blinding devotion. Says Bat, “He had this ferocity, this tenacity. He threw himself into so many directions at the same time. I don’t know anyone who has been able to do that, and so modestly, so quietly.”

  Bat recalls meeting him for the first time as a freshman when they ran up the highest peak in Colorado, Mt. Elbert. “I met him at Mt.

  Elbert when we were freshmen. He set the record by eleven minutes, untrained. It was unbelievable. Afterwards, he strides up to me because he’s so cordial and soft-spoken. It was almost weird, like ‘ Whoa, what’s his deal, where’s he come from?’

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  “I remember the second run we ever did in Boulder. Me, Goucher, Tommy, Jay Johnson, Sev, and [former teammate] Colby Cohn were talking ourselves up. We were saying, if we just do the work and get the job done for four years, we’ll win the national championship when we’re seniors. It’s funny how it ended up, we’ve all had such different experiences.

  Sev would run 120 miles a week, and Tommy would be lucky to get 95.

  Everyone had different plans going, but we thought . . .” His voice trails off.

  No one could have imagined it would unfold like this, “It’s just what happens, I guess.”

  Fortunately, Batliner has other passions besides running to turn his energy towards and help him cope with the loss — mainly his paintings and his writing. He is a double-major in English and Fine Arts — an ac -

  com plish ment in itself considering he was, by his own admission, “a very shitty student in high school.” He is excelling in both, with a 3.87 GPA in his majors. He credits not his professors, but Wetmore for transforming him into a diligent student. “I don’t know if he knows how much of an effect he’s had on me. Most of my accomplishments are in some way inspired by him. Running for sure, but good grades and things like that as well. Somehow he managed to get the idea of being a renaissance man into my brain. You get your run done, then you go get the job done doing something else. He’s made me realize my potential.”

  For him to realize his running potential this season — whatever that may now be — he will have to outsmart his competition. This means biding time, and running a typically conservative CU race at NCAA’s like he has seen his teammates run so often. If executed well, Batliner can run a race that transcends itself, that becomes a work of art. He says, “a well-crafted race is one of the most beautiful things you can watch. I’ve been completely moved by races. [For instance] Alan [Culpepper] winning the 5k [at NCAA’s two years ago] was completely unbelievable. We watched it on TV, and he was not a factor until he decided to make himself one with 500 to go. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, he took off. He ran 1:08

  for the last 500. It was unreal.”

  In many ways, a race is analogous to life itself. Once it is over, it can not be re-created. All that is left are impressions in the heart, and in the mind. Two weeks ago Sev had talked to Bat, telling him, “I can’t wait for you to get back. It was so good when it was me, you, Zeke [Tiernan], and Clint [Wells].” “He wanted it like it was two years ago,” Bat says, remi-niscing about the lunch-pail starless crew that exceeded everyone’s expectations and took third at NCAA’s in Tucson in 1996 without Goucher.

  “Those were the glory days,” says Bat. “We didn’t realize it then. We knew something cool was going on, but we couldn’t put a finger on it. It takes a couple years to realize how cool it was.”

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  Friday, October 16, 1998

  Peaberry Coffee Shop

  11:45 a.m.

  Memories

  Goucher is recovering from his 6:30 a.m. run: sixteen repeat quarters in 63– 64 seconds with 200 jog. It was a good anaerobic workout, the first one of the year, and despite some pain in his upper left quad, Goucher feels good. “Today,” he says, “I felt the speed coming back.” Ideally, he would like another two weeks in the 90’s. “From there,” he says, “I want to concentrate on just feeling good. I want to let Mark know I don’t need 90 miles a week until the week before Nationals. I want to go for a good taper. Wetmore usually has a slight taper. For me, I want to make sure my legs are sharp. That’s most important, that my legs feel good.”

  At Pre-Nationals, he didn’t have the sharpness “to just boom! Ex-plode! So to some extent, I’m really excited. I’m gonna drop to 75, 80 and really start feeling good.”

  But with Severy’s death, it is hard to get too excited. Goucher is leaning on his teammates to help him work through his grief. “Since it happened,” he says, “I think the team has become closer, more of a family. You have us all sitting there emotionally drained together, hurting and crying and holding on to each other. It’s as if we’ve created what we assumed was there, but we didn’t realize how much we love one another.” On Tuesday night, “Tom, Roybal, Oscar, Johnson, and me just held on for 20 –

  25 minutes, crying, talking . . . More than teammates we have a friendship.

 
; It’s like Mark says, when you spend three to four hours together every day with blood, tears, and pain, you become inconceivably close. A lot of people don’t realize that. We didn’t to some extent, but now we do.”

  Goucher is convinced his teammates will run better than ever now at Nationals. “In many ways,” he says, “it’ll be spectacular. Every step we’ll have Sev with us in our memory. That’s why many of us want armbands.

  But no matter what, he’s gonna be there, if nothing else whispering in our ear, ‘Kick that guy down! Get him!’ That’s what he’d be saying. That’s what he’d be doing.”

  Goucher thinks often about his last conversation with Severy, when they landed at DIA after Pre-Nationals last weekend. “Hey,” Sev told him, looking straight into his eyes and clenching his fist, “I’m proud of you, man.

  You ran awesome today.” Sensing doubt in Goucher’s eyes, Sev reassured him, “You’ll destroy that guy when the time comes.” Goucher then told Sev not to be discouraged about his performance, telling Sev that he, too, would rise at Nationals. “We’ll all be ready,” he said, to which Sev responded, “Yep. No doubt about it.”

  For Goucher, winning the national crown has never been so important.

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  Saturday, October 17, 1998

  Ft. Hays State University Tiger Invitational

  Ft. Hays, Kansas

  11 a.m.

  Tornado Coming — PFB’s!

  At 7:30 a.m. yesterday morning, right after the Varsity had finished their quarters, Batliner and the junior Varsity runners boarded a couple vans for the long monotonous trip east through the plains of eastern Colorado and western Kansas to Ft. Hays — smack in the heart of Tornado Alley in Western Kansas. As they headed east out of Boulder the sunny blue skies turned dark and gloomy. A storm was heading west across the plains, and at 2 p.m., a fierce hailstorm broke over Denver and swept its way into Boulder. Fortunately, the Varsity was already done for the day, and the Bluebirds rode through the storm en route to Kansas, but a soli-tary figure had to endure the onslaught. Slattery, staying in Boulder because he is redshirting, got nailed while running an eight-and-a-half-mile tempo run at the Buffalo Ranch. Said Slattery, “That’s the worst shit I’ve ever run in in my life.” And he was the lucky one . . .

  After checking their bags into the Ft. Hays Days Inn, the team drove over and checked out the flat, fast course before heading back to the hotel for some R&R. While some stayed and relaxed in their rooms, most went to the movie theatre down the road.

  Lorie Roch was in the theatre, and just after the movie started, sirens started blaring. She did not think much of it, but then a shrieking woman ran into the theatre screaming for her kids. Roch then knew this was not a joke. It was not a warning, it was an actual tornado alert!

  She calmly went back to the ticket window to get a refund for her ticket when a woman told her, “Don’t worry — the mayor is here.” Lorie thought incredulously, “What difference does it make if the mayor is here?”

  before she gathered the team to head outside.

  Back at the hotel, Wetmore was standing on the balcony outside his room, watching the chaotic scene unfold. He could see an ominous looking black cumulus cloud approaching, but he did not see the funnel cloud itself. Nevertheless, cops were racing up and down the boulevard, and a cop shouted at him through his megaphone to get the hell down off the balcony!

  The tornado touched down five miles outside of town with enough force to pull several houses off their foundations. Fortunately, that was the extent of the damage, but whistling winds throughout the evening suggested the race conditions would be anything but peaceful . . .

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  The runners woke up to 20 mph winds and a 50-degree morning.

  While unusual, inclement weather at this meet is not unprecedented.

  Two years ago, Wetmore says, “the wind was roaring.” Last year calm conditions prevailed and current redshirt Matt Napier ran a 24:40. He later earned All-American honors, so Wetmore knows that anyone who approaches that time today is pretty fit.

  The wind could slow things down but the grass on the course is manicured like a golf course fairway, and the course is flat as a pancake.

  The men’s race will not lack for a squad to get out and push the pace.

  The Dodge City Kansas Community College Squad is here, and their contingent of African all-stars has been tearing up the cross country circuit all fall. Two weeks ago when they raced at the Cowboy Jamboree in Stillwater, Oklahoma, they beat Oklahoma State and gave Arkansas a run for their money. Their top man, Eliad Njuhi, defeated Arkansas’s Sean Kaley by seven seconds to win the 8k race in 24:21.

  There is much at stake today for the CU men. The hard fact is that Severy’s death has opened a spot on the Varsity for Big 12’s next weekend. Matt Elmuccio and Jay Johnson appear to have the best chance of earning that spot today. The Mooch beat Johnson by two seconds at the Shootout, but Johnson has vastly improved since that race. And if Batliner cannot go next week, there will be two open spots.

  The men take off their winter caps and sweats and head towards the line with a few minutes to spare. They appear relaxed, and Batliner has experienced no pain in his calf while warming up. Nevertheless, there is something about Bat’s appearance that draws Wetmore’s ire. From the looks of him, he has spent more time at the Village than in the pool. He is significantly larger than he used to be. The striation that was once visible in his upper body has disappeared. The additional weight will do nothing to help relieve the pressure on his shin.

  Dodge City, moments

  before the start.

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  The five Kenyans, a South African, and the token American that make up the Dodge City Squad put their hands together in a little huddle and jump up and down before the start. They laugh as they do so, and by the looks of their chattering teeth and ceaseless movement they want to get the race going so they can simply warm up.

  A pack of four Dodge City runners heads right to the front from the gun; they will not wait for others to dictate the race. They pass two miles in 10:05, and Jay Johnson follows close behind their fifth man in about 10:10. The Mooch lurks behind Johnson, and he seems to be running effortlessly. Behind him, a pack of CU runners comes through two miles in 10:33 with Batliner, the out-of-shape monster, in their midst.

  The lead pack passes four miles in 19:56 — well clear of the rest of the field. Boniface Ndungu is alone in fifth, with Johnson 25 meters back.

  Johnson passes four miles in 20:26. More significant, Johnson has now extended his lead over Elmuccio to 50 meters.

  In the fifth mile, the action heats up. The lead pack starts rolling, racing each other for the first time. Each puts in surges to drop the other guys in the pack, and eventually Eliad Njuhi prevails in 24:21, having run 4:25

  for the last mile. His teammates follow closely behind in second, third, and fourth, but the competition for the fifth spot is hotly contested.

  Johnson races all out to catch Boniface Ndungu, Dodge City’s fifth man, and as they round the turn down the long finishing stretch with less than Coming soon to a Big 12

  school near you.

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  a half mile to go, Johnson improbably passes him. Ndungu has another gear yet in him, however, and with 300 meters to go, he blows by Johnson towards the line. As spectators cheer them in down the finishing stretch, a frustrated Johnson yells at those rooting for his foreign competitor,

  “YOU AMERICANS SHOULD BE ASHAMED!”

  Wetmore is not pleased when he hears of Johnson’s comment, and a distraught Johnson seeks out the meet dire
ctor to apologize for his outrageous outburst. His inexplicable comments put a damper on an otherwise breakthrough performance. He covered the last mile in 4:40, and Wetmore is clearly pleased with his performance. He says afterwards, “It’s been a long time since I saw Jay Johnson running fast and passing people, being competitive and moving through the race. He was rolling that last mile.”

  In light of what Ndungu says after the race, it is not surprising he kicked so hard at the end. He and his teammates saw photos of Sev on the Internet this week, and when he saw Johnson coming after him with his long blond hair and blue eyes, he says, “I thought I was running against a ghost.”

  Elmuccio is the next Buff across the line, in eighth place in 25:29. Despite missing his opportunity to make the Varsity squad, Wetmore is pleased that the miler’s great finishing kick brought him home past several competitors. Says Wetmore, “Matt had a real nice kick — his last The ghost charges.

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  quarter must have been 55. It was good to see him and hear him repeat that he’s gaining confidence at 8000 meters, and that he’s starting to think like a Varsity guy for us next year.”

  Next year. It appears that Elmuccio will not run Varsity for the Buffaloes this season, because Batliner finishes fourteenth in 25:53. It is a remarkable run considering he has run three days since developing the stress fracture in his lower leg. After the race, Bat has mixed feelings about his performance. He says, “I felt pretty good. My body just doesn’t want to do what my brain and legs are telling it to do. I felt almost there, I just have to get everything together on the same page. I definitely have to get my running legs back. It felt pretty good until the last mile, where my calf started to get tight. That was the symptom I had before. For the longest time I thought it was muscular, because my body’s response to a stress fracture is to tighten up the muscles around it to protect it and take the shock off the bone. So that kind of worries me. I won’t do a lot tomorrow. It’s a precarious position I’m in now. I have to be careful.”