1964 Olympic 10,000m

Marathon Virgin No Longer - Pre Race

(The video above was supposed to go in this post but I got an error message every time I tried to put them together so separate they stayed. You have to watch it with the sound. It really is one of my favorite commentaries of all time. About 2 minutes and 15 seconds.)


The Marine Corps Marathon is officially and successfully over. We both had a decent run and although neither one of us is interested in another marathon anytime soon it was a good experience.

Mr KT was running for Team Running Strong. On Saturday we attended a luncheon event for their team where we got to hear Billy Mills speak.



This is part of the Wikipedia entry for Billy Mills.

Biography

William Mervin Mills ("Billy") was born in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, a Native American (Oglala Lakota (Sioux)), and was raised on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. He was orphaned at the age of 12. Mills took up running while attending the Haskell Institute, which is now known as Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas. Both a boxer and a runner in his youth, Mills gave up boxing to focus on running.

He attended the University of Kansas on an athletic scholarship. He was named a NCAA All-America cross country runner three times and in 1960 he won the individual title in the Big Eight cross country championship. The University of Kansas track team won the 1959 and 1960 outdoor national championships while Mills was on the team. After graduating with a degree in physical education, Mills entered the United States Marine Corps. He was a first lieutenant in the Marine Corps Reserves when he competed in the 1964 Olympics.

Billy Mills qualified for the 1964 Summer Olympics on the U.S. Track and Field Team in the 10,000 m and the marathon.

The favorite in 1964 was Ron Clarke of Australia who held the world record. The runners expected to challenge him were defending champion Pyotr Bolotnikov of the Soviet Union, and Murray Halberg of New Zealand, who had won the 5000 m in 1960.

Mills was a virtual unknown. He had finished second in the U.S. Olympic trials. His time in the preliminaries was a full minute slower than Clarke's.

Indeed, Clarke set the tone of the race. His tactic of surging every other lap appeared to be working. Halfway through the race only four runners were still with Clarke: Mohammed Gammoudi of Tunisia, Mamo Wolde of Ethiopia, Kokichi Tsuburaya of Japan, and Mills. Tsuburaya, the local favorite, lost contact first, then Wolde. With two laps to go only two runners were still with Clarke. On paper, it seemed to be Clarke's race. He had run a world record time of 28:15.6 while neither Gammoudi nor Mills had ever run under 29 minutes.

Mills and Clarke were running together with Gammoudi right behind as they entered the final lap. They were lapping other runners and, down the backstretch, Clarke was boxed in. He pushed Mills once, then again. Then Gammoudi pushed them both and surged into the lead as they rounded the final curve. Clarke recovered and began chasing Gammoudi while Mills appeared to be too far back to be in contention. Clarke failed to catch Gammoudi but Mills sprinted past them both. His winning time of 28:24.4 was almost 50 seconds faster than he had ever run before and set a new Olympic record for the event. No American had ever won the 10,000 m before Billy Mills did it.

An infrequently mentioned fact is both Clarke and Mills ran the marathon at the 1964 Olympics after the 10,000 m. Clarke finished in 9th place, Mills finished in 14th, in a respectable 2:22:55.4, approximately two-and-a-half minutes behind Clarke.

Anywho, (Blink, go ahead and tally one up for that) we listened to him speak, had lunch, took some pictures of the team and checked out the National Museum of the American Indian and then went back to the hotel to put our feet up. They also did a ritual before we all left that was pretty cool. A blessing of sorts on the runners.


The Running Strong Team


Mr KT getting blessed.


The place where the blessing and prayer took place.

Next post will be all race related I promise.

I'm in DC...

... and ready to run a marathon. We left Omaha about 10:15 this morning and flew to Detroit. We literally ran through the Detroit airport from gate C forty-something to gate A-68. I actually mean ran. Like with our bags strapped to us through hallways, on moving walk ways, dodging poor slow moving pedestrians, up and down escalators, etc. It was quite an adventure. Only the second time I have ever had to do something like that. We came skidding to a stop in front of our gate just in time and we weren't the last ones there!

We had a slightly bumpy flight into Washington D.C., picked up our giant bag and headed to the hotel. We figured out the metro system and headed back out into the city to pick up our packet. Public transit is pretty sweet. It takes forever but it is worth it as a visitor. We picked up our packets and our "mock neck" long sleeve t-shirts and grabbed a quick Subway sandwich. Check out the store that was in the gigantic mall where the Subway was...



Yeah, that totally says, "The Art of Shaving". If we hadn't both been tired, Mr KT would probably have wanted to scope it out. Sounds like something he would like, huh?

Now, back at the hotel and resting up for tomorrow. Just looking to get this party started.

Marathon

When I registered for this marathon I thought, "October 26th is forever away, no big deal." And now I am 4 days out from my first marathon ever. I am taking the taper as easy as can be as suggested by Blink. Last weekend I did a 40 mile bike ride on Sat in the 40 deg, windy weather and then a 13 mile run on Sun. It all went pretty well. I had some seriously sore quads but that has started to feel better today.

I am nervous as can be but anxious to get this trip started so that we can run this race!

I even have a pair of dorky compression socks sent from my buddy E (who has a new blog).

I am ready, let's go. Look out D.C. I am headed your way.

Seriously!

I know this isn't 140.6 miles or anything but if I freaking get hurt before this marathon I am going to be so annoyed.

Today was a long day at work. 7:30 am to 5:30 pm. It was a little bit weird with some crazy things at the hospital but all in all fairly good. Until 5:15 pm.

I was finishing with a patient and I turned around to get his crutches. I stepped over towards them with the schedule book in my hands and caught my foot on the Bosu ball on the floor. I tried to pick my foot up higher but my running shoe stuck to it and there was no hope. I dropped everything in my hands as I crashed towards the floor and the wall. I stopped suddenly as my left knee hit the carpeted concrete and my left shoulder crashed into the corner of the wall. The caregiver of my teenage patient stated that perhaps I was the one who needed some therapy. Only one other therapist witnessed the clumsy incident. I was extremely embarrassed but I was pretending that it hadn't happened as I quickly took inventory of myself to assess the damage. Seemed like just bruises to the shoulder and the knee. I'll keep tabs on it. In the meantime, more running and less falling down would be the best option I think.

And maybe a helmet. At all times.

Saturday

Saturday was a busy day for sure.

Ran a really laborious 11 mile run. (Anyone else seeing a trend here?)

Market to Market was going on. (I didn't run because it was too close to the marathon.) My buddy E ran and I sent him updates on the IM World Championship race all day.

Texas played Oklahoma and the last quarter was really good.

Nebraska played Texas Tech and managed to hang in there until the very end when Joey "Interception" Ganz gently placed the football in the other teams hands and told them, "it was very nice to play you but you deserve this, so here is the win." Awesome.

I watched/listened to the Hawaii IM on my computer for most of the whole day. I was making homemade Runzas for dinner (Mr KTs parents were joining us) and listening to the commentators when I heard a yell from the basement. I put them in the oven and ran down to check on the Huskers and when I came back upstairs Brick was looking a little guilty. Apparently he had taken it upon himself to eat 3/4 of a package of mozzarella cheese slices off the kitchen counter. Ugh. I didn't really care that the cheese was gone but I was (and still am) just a tiny bit worried about his GI tract. Guess we'll see. I have a feeling he will be just fine. That dog could eat anything it seems.

Then I finished watching bits and pieces of the race and went to bed.

No laundry, no grocery shopping. All in all, a good day.

Happy Birthday to my Dad

Happy B-day dad!
October 11th!



Mom and dad and baby KT


Dad and KT in Cheyenne


KT and dad "painting"


More recent photo - headed to Chris LeDoux show.