Running with the Buffaloes Read online

5:06

  Friedberg

  5 x 5:07

  6 x 5:05

  5:00

  Severy

  5 x 5:07

  6 x 5:05

  5:00

  Goucher

  5 x 4:53

  6 x 4:45

  4:45

  Afterwards, Goucher has more aches and pains. “I’m past tired. I got no sleep last night, and I ate lunch today.” The result is a cramp down his right side during the last interval. Wetmore’s counsel to his star on the last part is simply, “Hey, don’t eat lunch.”

  RUNNING WITH THE BUFFALOES

  115

  Lear 102-149:Lear 102-149 1/5/11 1:24 PM Page 116

  Sean Smith is particularly tired today. The quiet walk-on has not said two words since he has been on the team. Nonetheless, he made Wetmore livid yesterday afternoon. After practice, Wetmore walked into the gym from his office to see Smith doing plyometrics in the corner of the gym. (Plyometrics are ballistic jumping exercises that are used to develop leg strength and explosiveness.) Wetmore pursed his lips, and his eyes shrank. It was as if he was thinking, “Are my workouts not tough enough for you?”

  As it turns out, Smith was not doing any “secret training,” but just trying out some drills one of his buddies on the ski team had to do to pass a fitness test. Wetmore understood, but Smith is reminded of it after today’s practice. Looking at Smith, Wetmore says, “He’s not worn out from me, he’s worn out from doing ski team plyometrics.”

  116

  CHRIS LEAR

  Lear 102-149:Lear 102-149 1/5/11 1:24 PM Page 117

  Wednesday, September 30, 1998

  CU UMC

  6:50 p.m.

  Without Limits

  The team ran a nice and easy loop down the Boulder Creek Path that they call Old Tale. For once, no one got injured. Everyone is jacked, not for Saturday’s Shootout, but for the preview showing this evening of the new Steve Prefontaine biopic Without Limits. A running movie alone is enough to get them excited, but a free one about Pre, with a cameo appearances by Reese’s roommate, Brad Hudson, has them giddy.

  The glitterati of American distance running are here for the show: Keith Dowling, Mark Davis, Shawn Found, Brad Hudson, Dan Browne, Sam Wilbur, and the list goes on. The entire men’s team and most of the women are here as well. Guys on the team were at the University Memorial Center (UMC) this morning getting as many passes as they could for the event so that anyone who was in class would get to see the movie, and they got enough for everybody.

  The movie is impressive. Some of the guys hoot when Hudson

  flashes on the screen, but otherwise, everyone is silent throughout, intently watching the film. Afterwards, the CU guys and some of the runners mill around in the lobby of the UMC. Davis argues that the last scene where they say that Pre still has the American Junior 5k record is incorrect. He claims that he now has the record.

  Goucher is impressed with the film. And he feels some of the loss that so many American distance runners felt for the charismatic star felled in his prime. “It’s so intense,” he says. “It [Prefontaine’s death] still brings tears to my eyes. It puts a knot in my throat, you know?” Senti-mentality aside, does Goucher think he could compete with Pre, head-to-head? Goucher thinks for a second, then says, “I could take him.”

  RUNNING WITH THE BUFFALOES

  117

  Lear 102-149:Lear 102-149 1/5/11 1:24 PM Page 118

  Thursday, October 1, 1998

  The Buffalo Ranch

  4 p.m.

  Percolation

  Today it is 55 and sunny — real cross country weather. Everybody is wearing sweats and winter caps. For the first time this season, they are really resting. In addition to yesterday’s relaxed run, this afternoon and tomorrow they will jog easily in preparation for their first test of the season at the Shootout. Wetmore is resting them so that he can use the race as an accurate barometer of their current fitness.

  Before the course is race ready, there is still some tending that needs to be done. The Buffalo Ranch is covered with rocks. Once the men and women arrive at the course, Wetmore assigns them a chore. “There’s a lot of rocks on the course and especially up on the hill. JD says they per-colate out of the soil, and he’s a knowledgeable cross country course builder guy so listen to him. You all throw 50 rocks, that’s 2500 rocks.

  That’s pretty good.”

  The runners head out from the starting line like obedient soldiers.

  Robbie hurriedly grabs a rock from the edge of the road and obliviously throws it onto the course. Wetmore lets him have it, “ROBBIE, YOU

  NIMWIT! DON’T THROW IT ON THE COURSE!” JD, for one, is sur-

  prised at the vigor with which they are performing this exercise. “Jeez,”

  he says to Wetmore, “they’re really going to town.” A satisfied Wetmore responds, “Good. They’re recognizing it’s their course and there are a lot of rocks on it.”

  There are two conscientious objectors to this exercise: Goucher and Sev. Sev believes the course is already too easy, so he refuses to participate. “This is my least favorite course,” he says. “It’s a pussy course, and they’re making it easier.” He much prefers the Kansas course, with all its ups and downs. The more irregular a course is, the better it is for Sev.

  When the men clear the course, assistant Lorie Roch arrives with some spray paint to make a sign that will advertise tomorrow’s race.

  Lorie, JD, and Wetmore set about making the sign to place off of the road tomorrow for the visiting teams and for spectators to the Buffalo Ranch.

  Everyone on the team has posted some fliers around campus and town advertising the race; the race could attract some attention since it will be Goucher’s last race as a CU Buffalo at home.

  Most programs in the country have already been racing since mid-September, but this will be the Buffs’ debut. Wetmore prefers this late start to the season: “We’ve been able to do one month of uninterrupted 118

  CHRIS LEAR

  Lear 102-149:Lear 102-149 1/5/11 1:24 PM Page 119

  training while other teams have been racing. But, if you notice, Arkansas and Stanford haven’t run their heavy hitters yet, at least not all at once.

  That sucks. They’re getting smarter. It makes my job more difficult.”

  He explains: “How many 10k’s can a world-class runner run in one season? Three? They may run four 5’s and three 10’s in May, June, July, and August. That’s four months. Geb [Haile Gebressalasie] is quoted in Track and Field News this month saying the Golden League is good, but not for distance runners. There are too many races in too short a time.”

  If only everyone’s training was uninterrupted. Bat now has a nasty cold to complement his stress fracture. “I’m a disgusting mess. I’ve been hacking and wheezing around my apartment with the bone stimulator on. It was pretty cool,” he jokes, “so I figure I’m healed now.”

  JD and Wetmore walk the course in the cold, periodically throwing rocks, long after the runners have departed. One gets the sense that the state of the course is not all that concerns them.

  RUNNING WITH THE BUFFALOES

  119

  Lear 102-149:Lear 102-149 1/5/11 1:24 PM Page 120

  Friday, October 2, 1998

  Balch Gym

  3:15 p.m.

  Shakeout

  The runners trickle into Balch in groups of twos and threes. Everyone is doing a shakeout today (four to six miles easy), and everyone is wearing T-shirts and shorts. It seems that yesterday’s chill was an aberration.

  Today the weather has climbed back into the seventies.

  Wetmore has posted a document with some details for tomorrow’s race, and the guys glance at it on their way to the stretching circle. It reads:

  Can men average 40 seconds faster than at the Time Trial?

  Men’s Top 5 average 25:37?

  Go out smart!

  Watch your breathing!

  Reese, Robbie, Schafer, Batliner, and Goucher are re
laxing in JD’s office, putting in some new razor-sharp spikes for tomorrow’s race. The guys argue about how much Goucher should run today. He ran a total of 98 minutes yesterday. He is debating running eight miles this afternoon so that he remains on pace to hit a hundred for the week. A year ago, Goucher was averaging 84 miles a week. He does not want to slack now because he wants to maintain his higher volume for as long as he can.

  The guys tell him to relax and just run an easy half hour. Reese laughs, thinking of the role reversal that is taking place. In years past, it was always Goucher who was telling Reese to chill out. Reese says, “Man, I don’t know if I like the new Gouch,” and they all bust up laughing.

  A few minutes later, Wetmore gathers the team for a few words. They form a semicircle around him on the indoor track, and he receives their undivided attention:

  Those of you in the open race, remember not to wear any CU gear, or it counts. Those in the open race will want to be there at 8:30 to 8:45. For the rest of you I’ll have a van here at the Buffalo at 8:30.

  Tomorrow will require a certain amount of autonomy and peer leadership because I’m gonna be the course builder, and I’m gonna be talking to parents for three minutes apiece for 162 minutes. So, I won’t be there to tell you how to warm up, etc. You young guys turn to the elders for that.

  There are nineteen teams entered. It’s our best turnout ever. There are gonna be 160 runners in this year’s race. Adams State’s men have two 120

  CHRIS LEAR

  Lear 102-149:Lear 102-149 1/5/11 1:24 PM Page 121

  good guys. One of them is the NCAA DII 5000-meter champ. We’ll have the DII and the DI champ. There’s a showdown already! [Everyone laughs.]

  Men, we want to average 25:35. We can have four guys at 25:50 and Gouch at 22:30, or we can have some other guys at 25:30. We have to average 25:35 if we’re gonna do what we want to do later in the year.

  Those of you who ran the time trial should run 40 seconds faster. That’s a good projected goal.

  On the course itself, the mile markers are wrong, but overall it’s OK.

  Adam averaged 4:45’s for the milers. None of them were in 4:45, but that’s what he averaged. He’s hoping to go 4:50’s without any rest on Saturday . . .

  When in doubt, pay attention to your respiration, and pay attention that first mile.

  Today we’re doing a race shakeout. Do whatever you’re comfortable with, a couple snappy strides, and some stretching. I’m going out to the course. It’s in the best shape it’s ever been in. I’d wear spikes. With spikes, I could run maniacally down those hills, but with flats, I’m like “Oh, oh, oh!”

  But, if you wake up and it’s raining, you better break out the monsters. OK, that’s it. Take care of the shakeout. I’ll see you tomorrow.

  Everyone scatters to do their own shakeout loops. Goucher heads to the course in his Mazda pickup; it is one of the few Mazda pickups on the road today, even in truck-crazed Colorado. The guys have talked some sense into him, and he is heading out to the course to do a twenty-minute run and some strides with Reese. He expects to see significant improvement from a year ago. “24:10 would be pretty good,” he says matter-of-factly. “I can definitely run twenty seconds faster than last year.

  The only reason not to is if I am too beat up from my training. I’m sore and I’m tired, but I’m not too beat up.” Yesterday he felt some lingering soreness from Wednesday’s fourteen-mile run in his left IT band. He is monitoring it, but he is not too concerned.

  Goucher expects some soreness since he has made a jump in vol-

  ume and a slight increase in the intensity of his training from a year ago.

  He has taken, as Wetmore says, the next logical step in his training. “I’m not doing anything so much faster. I’m just training,” he says. The time is now to take the next logical step in his racing. He is ready. “This is what it’s all about. This starting tomorrow. It’s my eighth week over 90 miles.

  But this starting tomorrow, for the next seven weeks, is what’s it’s all about.”

  Time for dinner. Goucher goes to Reese’s place for a steak dinner.

  They cook a couple of fat steaks on Reese’s barbeque, and Reese teases RUNNING WITH THE BUFFALOES

  121

  Lear 102-149:Lear 102-149 1/5/11 1:24 PM Page 122

  Goucher for not finishing his. Goucher tries to convince Reese that he has eaten most of it, but he has really shifted a lot of it around on his plate. They eat steak, Reese says, “because we want to be a couple of car-nivores out there tomorrow.”

  Roybal hits the town with his parents and a slew of relatives who have road-tripped up from Pojoague for the race. It is a joyous occasion.

  During dinner, his cousin addresses Roybal in front of all assembled: “I have everyone back there praying for you. We love you back there. You’re just a little Mexican from Pojoague, you have everyone back there rooting for you.” Roybal is ready to race.

  122

  CHRIS LEAR

  Lear 102-149:Lear 102-149 1/5/11 1:24 PM Page 123

  Saturday, October 3, 1998

  Rocky Mountain Shootout

  The Buffalo Ranch

  9 a.m.

  Unleash the Lions

  The fickle cross country weather is back. It is cold, damp, and overcast.

  Men’s and women’s open races start off the day’s events. South African Simon Morolong throws down the gauntlet, winning the men’s open race in 25:16. But, ironically, it is the professionals that serve as a warmup for the collegians. Everyone here today knows Goucher is the star of the show, and most of the competitors from the open race hang around to get a view of this kid everyone in running circles has been talking about.

  A couple hundred fans join the open competitors, and all told, there appear to be over a thousand fans lining the course — quite a turnout for an early season cross country race — or a cross country race anywhere, anytime, period.

  The men are all bundled up in their CU sweats. Severy is anxious to get things under way. “I’m nervous now,” he says. “I haven’t raced in a while. I just don’t want to finish worse than second.” He glances around and tugs on his jacket by his left shoulder. He laughs and adds, “I better find the guys, I don’t remember how long to warm up. I seriously don’t remember.”

  Goucher stands by the start in his sweats, chatting with his teammates. He oozes confidence. He fears no one in the field, and he appears completely at ease. In fact, he has appeared more tense before training Severy crouches amid his teammates moments before the start.

  RUNNING WITH THE BUFFALOES

  123

  Lear 102-149:Lear 102-149 1/5/11 1:24 PM Page 124

  sessions than he does now. But today he has his race-day necklace on, a necklace he has made from beads that Wetmore has given him. Though he says, “I can win with ’em or without ’em,” they hold some significance for him. The shrunken head bones are something Wetmore used to give out to signify “the shrunken heads of our pulverized, beaten, destroyed, and weakened opponents.” Wetmore stopped doling them out several years ago, but Goucher had already acquired enough to make a necklace.

  Goucher adds, “I like to wear ’em because these were one of the first things that were really cool that Mark gave us. I want to use ’em when I race and that’s it. I just like it.” He is particular, however, about having it just right before he toes the line. He adjusts it just so before every competition. It is part of his pre-race ritual:

  I always like to start the race with it in the right place. It’s just the way I am, a little anal or something. Quickly thinking about friends and family, please be with me type thing. All right everybody this is it, send me energy everybody. And I will get on one knee, and gather my final thoughts. It may look like it, but I am not praying or anything.

  Goucher believes in his fitness. At 10 a.m., the gun goes off, and Goucher immediately grabs the lead. A couple of Adams State runners, including Jason Hubbard, try to stay with him, but Goucher drops
them on the steep 50-meter hill past the half-mile mark. He hits the first mile Two and a half

  miles in, no one

  is in sight.

  124

  CHRIS LEAR

  Lear 102-149:Lear 102-149 1/5/11 1:24 PM Page 125

  in 4:46 — an astonishingly fast clip considering the first mile is by far the toughest on the course. Even Goucher cannot hope to sustain such a murderous pace. After the race, Goucher would say, “that first mile killed me.” A full twenty-some seconds after Goucher passes the mile mark, the two Adams runners come charging down the hill with Chris Severy right on their tails.

  A crowd of spectators gather at the intersection that is roughly at the two-and-a-half-mile mark. Goucher passes the crowd first. He crests the small grade, and, remarkably, appears not to have slowed at all. He does not appear to be laboring excessively. The length of his lead serves as the only indication that he is moving exceedingly fast. Half a minute later, Chris Severy comes powering over the little climb. Face flushed, he stares intently ahead. Only later would he reveal the thoughts his face concealed.

  On April 17, 1998, five and half months ago, Severy’s father died after a long bout with cancer. It was, says Sev, “a worse hell than I’ve ever seen anyone go through.” Today, Sev’s uncle was standing at the two-mile mark.

  As Sev ran past, he shouted, “Go, Christopher!” For an instant, Sev imagined it was his father calling out to him. The thought brought about a torrent of emotions. He struggled mightily to keep from hyperventilating. It is only at the three-mile mark that he is able to regain his composure and focus on the task at hand.

  Despite the ordeal, Sev does not relinquish his position, and he makes it home in second place overall in 25:11. His time is five seconds faster than that of Morolong, the victor of the open race. Wetmore is fired up. “[Two and a half

  years ago] in outdoors of

  ’96 he ran his last race at

  the conference meet in

  May. I’m thrilled with him. I

  was hoping he would run

  25:30 and he ran 25:11.” In