I Eamonn Coghlan talks Deadspin into covering track. This is what I do in my other life....
How I Broke The Indoor Mile Record: An Interview With A "Freak"
Eamonn
Coghlan is not too sensitive
about the fact that today's twentysomethings were infants when he ran a
mile in 3
minutes 49 seconds and 78 hundredths on a 10-lap track—which is to say, a
world record—and he doesn't mind that they don't know who he is or what
he's done. That's
OK. He's pretty diplomatic, now—a work-related hazard of his gig as an
Irish
senator.
Coghlan, 61 and trim, was one of a
string of Irish middle-distance rockets who came out of Villanova (1976).
Post-collegiately, he hit the then-vigorous circuit of U.S. track races,
tearing around skate park-like banked affairs that, in the 1970s and '80s, were
built of plywood.
Here's something you should know
about tracks: The smaller the track, the slower the times, because turns slow a
runner's pace. A 10-lap-to-a-mile
track will cost an elite runner six or seven seconds over an eight-lap oval, the
standard indoor size now.
Four-lap-to-a-mile outdoor tracks are faster still, so outdoor records
are nearly always faster than those set on an indoor track.
Here's something you should know
about Coghlan: He's a freak. His
indoor times, some run on a dizzying 11-lap bathtub, are faster than his
outdoor times. He owned the indoor
wood in the glory days of that element, ergo his lifetime appointment as "Chairman of the Boards."
Cut to the present, in which
runnerkind Galen Rupp
is toppling track records left and right. Trained by the Nike Oregon
Project's Alberto Salazar, Rupp set the American indoor record at 5K
(13:01.26) and two miles (8:07.41)
within a span of nine days earlier this year. Which is pretty good. But
what has track fans'
underpants in a wad is that, not only did he reportedly train through
these
races, but minutes after the record-setting efforts, Rupp skipped over
to a
practice track and laid down a workout of five times a mile in 4:21,
4:20,
4:20, 4:16, and the last, a you're-not-in-Kansas-anymore 4:01. This, at a
time
when the other competitors were sitting on the toilet with quivering
legs. And now the Rupp-Salazar duo is making noise about
breaking the indoor mile world record of 3:48.45, currently owned by
Hicham El Guerrouj.
So I emailed Coghlan to see what
his training was like prior to his record-setting mile in 1983,
and whether it included a post-race workout a la Rupp. His email
response
was: "I'd never consider doing something stupid like 5 x mile, last one
in 4:01, after a race unless I had some extra octane up my.... you know
what!"
Later, I spoke with the Chairman of the Boards via phone.
It's unusual that your indoor
times are faster than your outdoor times. Why is that?
I had consistent success
indoors, so I pursued times, and records. Outdoors, my focus was on winning
rather than time.
And why do you think you had
such success on indoor tracks? Wait, how tall are you?
I used to be 5-foot-10.
I'd heard that smaller runners had an easier time getting
around the turns indoors.
I don't know about that
but from the very first day as a freshman at Villanova when we assembled the
11-lap track, there was something about it I loved—the smell of it, the
echo, the bounce. I loved that feeling
I got back from the wood. I would lean very low around the turn and let my
momentum catapult me into the straight.
Who was your coach?
Gerry Farnan. He was my
coach from the time I was 12 years old in Ireland, then after Villanova he
commenced coaching me again.
Tell me about the build-up to
your world-record performance, February 27, 1983.
I
was out the whole of
1982 with injury, to the point that Gerry thought perhaps my career was
over. If I ran over 100 miles a
week, I was inviting injury. After
eight months, I got radiation therapy and it got rid of the Achilles
problem,
so I started back up at no more than 80 miles per week. When I'd had 20
weeks of
consistent training with no injury, I had the confidence to go for the
indoor
mile world record. Ran a few road races—5Ks, 10Ks—in November and
December to build stamina. I did a long run on Sunday of 15 to 20
miles. In December and January, I trained five to six miles every
morning. Tuesday
afternoon was six times 1,200 meters in 3:03 with five-minute rest.
Thursday was 20 times 400
meters in 59 seconds each with one-minute rest. Eventually that was
reduced 10
times 400 in 55 seconds with 2 minutes rest.
Was this training common? Were
other runners doing this?
Oh yeah, everybody was
doing it. Each runner tailored it
to his personal preference but at the end of the day, it wasn't much different.
Hmmm, I wonder why your result
was different?
I was a bit of a freak I
guess.
I'm starting the rumor you were
juiced.
Yeah, juiced on
Budweiser [laughing].
OK, continue.
So I started the indoor
season [January 1983] and was very fit, running very well. I set the world
record, 3:52.6, in San Diego, then lowered it to 3:50.6 and was disappointed
because I hadn't broken 3:50—that was a big barrier. Anyway, I call up my
dad and invite him to come to the U.S. to watch me run in New York in February,
which he did. Two days later, my dad passed away [from a heart attack], and I flew back to Ireland
with his body. Within the past
year, the three people who inspired me the most—Gerry Farnan, my coach at
Villanova, Jumbo Elliott, and my father—had all passed away. I became driven
to break 3:50 in the mile, I was going to do it to honor them.
I went back to New York, ran a mile
in Madison Square Garden on Friday night, 3:57, and won it. The U.S. Olympic Invitational was
scheduled for Sunday afternoon at Meadowlands. That was a 10-lap track—I
helped design it.
So you raced Friday night and
again Sunday afternoon?
Oh yeah, it was common to
run Friday night in San Diego and Saturday night in another city. Not 15 minutes or an hour apart, but 24
hours apart—yeah, it was common enough.
So Friday night after the race at Madison Square Garden, I locked myself
away in a hotel, away from my family. I wanted to focus. I wrote the splits I
wanted to hit and put them in my shoe.
You put a piece of paper in
your shoe?
No, no, I wrote them on the
insole of the shoe. I know, sounds stupid but that's the kind of superstition I
had. Another thing I did: I look at myself in the mirror and say, "You sucker,
you better not come back here not having broken that record. Go do it." And I'd
leave the room.
Ross Donohue, a teammate of mine at
NYAC, was the rabbit. I got right in behind him and just kept repeating my
mantra: relax, relax, relax. I went through the half in 1:56 and
thought, If these suckers are going to
beat me, they're going to have to work for it. I didn't hear the ¾
split, I just kicked my ass off. I knew
there was someone on my tail because the crowd was going crazy. I was
not taking anything for granted, ran as fast as I bloody well could. I
knew in
my heart and soul I got the record, even though the announcer was
yelling,
"It's unofficial." It was the first sub-3:50 mile in history, in the
last race
of the season. I was so excited and delighted, as they say in Ireland,
that the
cool down didn't happen.
It was 14 years before Hicham
El Guerrouj broke your record—why do you think it took so long?
El Guerrouj ran 3:48 on an eight-lap track, Mondo surface. Eight laps to a mile is an awful lot faster than
10. I was probably just a freak—I loved the tight turns of the 10-lap track,
like a Ferrari racing car. If I had run on an 8-lap track, who knows what I
could have done.
What do you mean by, you wouldn't try Galen Rupp's post-race
workout regimen "without some extra octane up your …"?
Jesus, I don't even know
Galen Rupp—I'm removed from the inner sanctum of track now—but I don't
think for one minute he's doing something illegal. But why in god's name would
you do five times a mile after a race? How would anyone have the strength to
do that? I just question the sanity of it. The race is the race, the warm down
is the warm down. After a race, I was getting ready for next hard workout.
Sometimes that would be the next day, but certainly not minutes or an hour
afterward. The thinking back then was to save your best for the race: When you
complete your mission, you save yourself for the next hard workout.
Would you have gotten injured
doing such an intense workout right after a race?
I would. Jeez, you've just
put your body through, what, 13:01 for 5,000 meters—why put it through any
more? I'd be afraid of breaking down.
But athletes are more pampered now,
and by that I mean they have incredible facilities with underwater treadmills
and AlterG's,
the food they eat, ice baths, massages. Everything for training
and recovery is available to them, and they're thinking about it 24
hours a
day, maximizing their support mechanism in everything they do. Our
post-race meal was beer. Back then, we had a blasé approach to
what you did in between workouts and races. Of course, I never ran 13:01
for
5K. The thinking is different now. Athletes and coaches see the race as
part A
and the post-race workout as part B, and that their support facilities
will
help them recover.
Galen Rupp is talking about
breaking the indoor mile world record—what are your thoughts on that?
I think the indoor
mile record should fall. It's soft. It was set in 1997. In the context of times
people are running now, it's a golden opportunity for the likes of Galen Rupp
or someone else. I mean, El Guerrouj holds both the indoor and outdoor mile [3:43] records. If El G could do
it ... of course, they're testing more now. You can read between the lines on that.
