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Abdirahman stands in his way
of an NCAA championship.
Like at Pre-Nationals,
Goucher immediately puts a
few paces between himself
and his pursuer. Goucher’s
Going for broke.
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mind conspired against him then. His doubts overwhelmed him. But now he is rested. Will he have enough? Wetmore awaits him at 8k. Goucher flies by, going for broke. Wetmore yells, “There’s a lot of running left, a lot of running. Stay cool babe!” Abdirahman fights to hang on as Goucher’s stride lengthens. Goucher does not look back. I know he’s behind me; he’s not breaking. It’s all or nothing now; time to make it a guts race. This mile is for everything, for me, for all the hard work, all the years, for Sev.
Wetmore waits at 8k for the others. Friedberg is the first to appear, and Roybal is right on his heels. “Come on, Mike, come on, Ronald, you’re running GREAT!” Wetmore’s excitement would be remarkable to the outsider, considering these are his two and three guys, and right now, they are in no better than 60th place. Ten seconds later, Reese appears with Batliner on his tail. Batliner comes through 8k in 25:25, and now the reason for Wetmore’s excitement becomes evident. Sev was CU’s second man when they finished third at Pre-Nationals. On that day — only six weeks ago — Severy ran 25:24 for the 8k race. They now have five running as fast or faster through 8k, and there are still two kilometers to go. Johnson is farther back in the mid–one hundreds as their sixth man, and Ponce, grimacing as the pain in his shin gets the best of him, rounds out the squad. It is now clear that CU’s fate rests on the shoulders of Goucher, Friedberg, Roybal, Reese, and Batliner. This is where it happens.
Wetmore races across the field toward the finish line to see how many men they can pass, hoping his nightmare remains a fantasy.
On Billy Mills ascent, five guys tore past Friedberg and Roybal. “I couldn’t believe it,” says Friedberg. “They tore up it as hard as they could.” But he and Ronald had already passed them when they passed Wetmore. Those men paid a steep price for their foolish exertion. Friedberg had been worried up to now, thinking, People aren’t dying as fast as I thought. But catching them so effortlessly buoys Friedberg’s spirit and gives him an incalculable lift. Wetmore’s counsel now replays itself in his mind: Trust your fitness. For both Roybal and Friedberg, now is the time.
Finally, they’re starting to die. There’s less than a mile to go. If I get a hard last mile, I can get ten or fifteen places. Gotta keep going as hard as I can.
Three quarters of a mile is all that separates Goucher from his first NCAA cross country title. He has not relented since starting his surge to the finish at 8k. As he crests the course’s last hill, he feels the lactic acid burn erupt across his shoulders, through his veins, down to his fingertips.
God, are they heavy. Stride out, stride out, take the pain. He glances back as he rounds the corner at the base of the hill to see he is gapping Abdirahman. He knows that with every stride, his lead increases. He hears a spectator yell, “Do it for Chris!” which removes him from the cocoon of pain enveloping his senses. Goucher remembers Pre-Nationals, Mwangi 246
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impossibly flying by him here, his legs unable to respond. The lactic acid coursing its way through his system plants seeds of doubt in every muscle fiber being poisoned by its presence. He tries to relax. All right Chris, if you’re with me, let’s do it.
At 8k, two Stanford runners, senior Jon Weldon and freshman James Gifford, run with Reese and Batliner. Bat passed one of Oregon’s top runners, Micah Davis, at mile four, and running with the duo from Stanford tells him they are in it for the team title. Gotta push now. Reese and Batliner pass people, but not nearly as many as they normally do late in a race.
Worse, the Stanford runners show no sign of wilting. For every runner they pass, the Stanford duo stay right with them. Says Batliner, “I wanted so bad to lead a surge and have Tommy roll with me, or for him to pick it up so I could latch on, but neither ever happened. We were running all out, there was nothing more to be done.”
After passing people in droves, Friedberg is done. But an agonizing half mile remains. He passed two NAU guys, Billy Herman and Steve Osaduik, with a mile to go, and they latched onto him and Roybal. Now, as the fog settles in, he gets complacent, content to maintain his position.
He goes without passing anyone for the next 200 meters. Then Roybal gets on Friedberg’s shoulder and slaps him on the back, literally jarring him out of his complacency. Only six hundred meters remain and they start kicking together with everything
that they have.
Goucher continues his all-out
drive to the finish. Since starting his
surge, he has not relented for a second.
He has never broken stride. The quick
glance back lets him know his lead is
increasing, but the hysterical crowd
around him muddies his thoughts. He
does not know how much ground he
has. Less than 90 seconds remain, and
he shakes his arms out trying to dis-
lodge some of the lactic acid that feels
like drying cement from his shoulders
down to his fingertips. He sees his
best friend Tim Catalano off to his
right, screaming and jumping up and
down, and he knows, It’s time to roll!
Here comes the champion.
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He shakes his arms again, trying fruitlessly to shake the pain away, but it does not relent. Way back, Abdirahman takes two strides for every one of Goucher’s. The announcer starts blasting over the PA just as the massive crowd reaches full volume, “Here he is, let’s bring him home, the University of Colorado senior.” The banner is less than one hundred meters away; he knows the race is his. He shakes a fist at the crowd. And it all starts to pour out — the exultation, the relief, the redemption, the pride, and the grief. Above all, he feels the immense emotional and physical pain.
He knows he has done it. “For something to hurt that bad, and feel so good, it’s just inexplicable.” Adam Goucher crosses the finish in 29:26.
Abdirahman finishes in 29:49.
Goucher waits for his teammates at the end of the chute just as Roybal and Friedberg launch into their final kick. They quickly pass a clump of three runners and keep going. They pass another, then another — they are in the finishing stretch — they are all out. The finishing banner is right there as they catch Central Michigan teammates Richard Brinker and Ryan Watson with 50 meters to go. The Central Michigan duo respond to the challenge and hold off Friedberg and Roybal. They will pass no more. Friedberg finishes one half second in front of Roybal as both are timed in 31:10. They finish 34th and 35th.
As he crosses the line, Friedberg worries he has outkicked Roybal for the last All-American certificate. He dreads thinking he beat him out of a certificate when he never would have passed as many men in the last 600 without his help. “Without Ronald, it definitely wouldn’t have happened. I would’ve kicked the last 300, not the last 600, so basically, I owe it to him.” It
turns out that what he
owes Roybal is grati-
tude for help
ing them
both earn their first
ever All-American hon-
ors. Not bad for a self-
described“little Mexican
from Pojoaque” and a
walk-on nobody who will
surprise people no more.
All told, they passed 25
guys in the last 2000
meters.
Roybal and the Iceberg,
inches from the line.
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Fifteen seconds later, Reese and Batliner barrel down the finishing stretch. A smattering of cheers replace the roar that awaited the leaders, but the battles are no less fierce. Reese duels Stanford freshman Gifford.
His arms flail wildly, and he turns and stares at Gifford with every other stride. “Don’t you dare,” his eyes say. Gifford strains, heeding nothing but the tape. Reese would rather eat nails than get outkicked by someone from Stanford. He surges improbably just feet from the line, leans, and beats him out by one tenth of a second. He finishes 60th, in 31:36. That is only 26 seconds, but a whopping 25 places, behind Friedberg. Batliner finishes two and half seconds and two places behind Reese. He is 63rd, in 31:39. The indignity Batliner feels from the losing to a freshman from Stanford, of all places, is partially offset by the fact that he outran Stanford senior Jon Weldon to the line. But make no mistake, the loss stings on many levels. He later writes:
I finished and stumbled along, and I knew that I ran as hard as I could have. Knowing that I did all I could was actually kind of depressing; if this was all I have, and all I have is 63rd, how the hell am I going to ever make a professional runner out of myself? This season was the first break in my fantasy that I am this great runner who can overcome whatever adversity comes my way and still produce great performances. I placed third in the steeple (at NCAA’s last spring) with a broken fibula; why can’t I go top One last glance.
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twenty in cross with a broken tibia? I know this sounds stupid, but so does running in general if your aren’t obsessed . . . like most of my friends are.
Anyway, I know one thing for sure: I never, ever want to go into a race injured, out of shape, or anything close.
This race was unsatisfying for me. I was really strong neuromuscularly with all the short, fast running we did, but I had no aerobic capacity. As fast as I ran was entirely dependent upon my heart and lungs — I finished and my legs never hurt, I was just tired. If I could have just had a few 20
milers . . .
Jay Johnson finishes 139th, in 32:36, in his last collegiate cross country race. He is the sixth man, so he does not directly affect the scoring.
But in a way, he has. Without his help on the starting line, Friedberg would have lost his composure without having run so much as a step. Credit Jay Johnson with stepping up when it counted, in the process contributing as much as Roybal to Friedberg’s All-American status.
Ponce finishes 162nd, in 32:51, the pain in his shin too much to ignore. Now he finally gets a well-deserved rest. A first team All-Big 12
runner by virtue of his fine seventh-place performance just three weeks ago on October 31st, he too is left grasping the fumes of a season that has quietly gone up in smoke. He will have one more chance to get that All-American certificate, but right now that is 365 days away.
The Buffaloes stand as one.
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The team gathers in the paddock and crowds around Goucher. An
exuberant Jay Johnson exclaims, “He won! Goucher won! Yes! Yes!” Huddled as one, they celebrate Goucher’s victory and their own. Battered and beaten, they survived, and against the odds, surpassed their ranking, finishing third as a team at the NCAA championships. They will stand on the podium with runner-up Stanford and the champion Razorbacks from Arkansas. A team third is a great performance in any year, yet for them it will forever taste bittersweet. “Hey man, Sev Dog,” Roybal says to his teammates. Goucher does not hesitate, “He was there man, he was with me.” Clutching Goucher, Roybal finishes the thought each of them already knows. “He was there every step of the way.”
1998 NCAA CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS
PLACE
NAME
UNIVERSITY
CLASS
TIME
1.
Adam Goucher
Colorado
Sr.
29:26.90 CR
2. Abdi
Abdirahman
Arizona
Sr. 29:49.90
3. Julius
Mwangi
Butler
Sr. 30:00.00
4. Matthew
Downin
Wisconsin
Jr.
30:00.10
5. Sean
Kaley
Arkansas
Sr. 30:12.10
6. Brad
Hauser
Stanford
Sr. 30:18.20
7.
Bernard Lagat
Washington State
Jr.
30:20.40
8. Jeff
Simonich
Utah
Sr. 30:22.40
9. Jonathon
Riley Stanford
So. 30:31.90
10. Todd
Snyder
Michigan
Sr. 30:34.50
34. Mike
Friedberg Colorado
So. 31:10.10
35. Ron
Roybal
Colorado
Jr.
31:10.60
60. Tom
Reese
Colorado
Sr. 31:36.90
63. Adam
Batliner Colorado
Sr. 31:39.30
139. Jay
Johnson
Colorado
Sr. 32:36.20
162. Oscar
Ponce
Colorado
Jr.
32:51.10
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Tuesday, November 24, 1998
Balch Gym, Track Office
9:30 a.m.
The Show Is Over
It is a cold and gloomy Boulder morning. As usual, Wetmore is in his office. He has with him a copy of today’s Denver Post. There is a large picture of Goucher with the pack on his heels in the race’s early stages on the front page. It is not often that a picture of a cross country runner appears on the front page of the sports section, let alone the front page of a major newspaper.
Only a day removed from their third-place showing behind Arkansas and Stanford, Wetmore already starts to evaluate the season. On one account, they were successful. They always aim to beat their ranking and they did. They were ranked fourth and they finished third. Another measure he uses to grade his team’s success is by comparing each runner’s results from Pre-Nationals to Nationals. CU always runs Pre-Nationals, to
“get a feel for the course, evaluate that data, and write a plan for NCAA’s.” If Wetmore’s plan was successful, he expects to see marked improvement from one race to the other. Batliner was injured for Pre-Nationals, so he is exempt from the comparison. Johnson also did not run then, but Wetmore does not need that data to judge his season a success. He says, “Jay’s improvement curve was better than anybody on the team. From mono in August to the starting line at NCAA’s is a very successful story.” Ponce is also exempt. He ran poorly at NCAA’s, “but we know why. He was running on a stress fracture. He’s the only one for whom the formula didn’t work, but we know why.” The following chart demonstrates how well the plan worked for the others.
NATIONALS
AVERAGE
8k
PRE-NATS
NAME
10K
KILOMETER
SPLIT
8k
Adam Goucher
29:26.9
2:56.6
23:33
23:54
Mike Friedberg
31:10.1
3:07
24:56
25:37
Ronald Roybal
31:10.6
3:07
24
:56
25:59
Tom Reese
31:36.9
3:09.6
25:17
25:48
Each athlete’s 8k split at Nationals was significantly faster than what he ran for an 8k race on the same course at Pre-Nationals six weeks earlier. Each athlete came through faster, with another 2k yet to run! Again, despite the numerous setbacks each athlete had, they managed to run their best when it counted most.
For these four, “it was a successful story.” But Wetmore is not 252
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thrilled. “The other story is why did Bat get a stress fracture? Why did Oscar get a stress fracture?” He blames Batliner’s second stress fracture in six months and Ponce’s injury on the density of the training. For Bat in particular, “the density of the work will have to be adjusted if he is to get healthy.”
The injuries gnaw at him. He knows as much as anyone, this was CU’s best shot at winning it all. He blames himself. “If we weren’t hurt, we should have won. So I have to look critically at my own work and see what misjudgments I made.” But Wetmore cannot bear all of the respon -
sibility. Batliner, for instance, could have prepared himself better. “The day we found out he got hurt, I said, ‘I’ll save a spot for you, but don’t get fat,’
and he gained ten to fifteen pounds. When you’re a fifth-year senior in the last-chance saloon, how could you not check? Every day!” He attributes the weight gain simply to carelessness. “He wasn’t careful, that’s all.
On a macro level, his inattentiveness hurt him. He was 25 to 30 seconds behind where he could have been just because he had an extra ten to twelve pounds of weight.”
And what about Reese? By an objective measure, he ran well, but Reese was tremendously disappointed with his result. Wetmore feels for him, but stresses how difficult it is to really run well without a large base, which Reese simply did not have.
On a larger scale, the lack of consistency, the number of interruptions that Reese, Batliner, and Johnson had is what Wetmore feels hurt them the most. He says, “Reese had convinced himself that he was ready to be top 25 or 30. He was pretty sure he was gonna be top 30, so that was a big disappointment for him. At some point in the season you get them to run the best race they have in them. The less time you spend building up to your peak, the less long you can hold it. Who had the longest, most consistent buildup? Goucher, Friedberg, and Roybal. Who had a quick buildup? Batliner, Reese, and Jay Johnson. They all were almost a bridge too far. One more race and it would be obvious.”