Tri Bike Fit

Since a proper tri bike fitting system didn't seem to exist, fit guru and Quintana Roo founder Dan Empfield invented one. Go to Slowtwitch.com and meet F.I.S.T.

North Pole Marathon

When a mere 26.2 miles just isn't challenging enough, go north, young woman.

She’s a St. Louis Triathlete: Dreaming Big With Nicole Burdge

Nicole Burdge won her first St. Louis-area race — the St. Peters REC-PLEX Fall Triathlon — after moving back to the area. Talk about giving notice.

Burdge, 32, who graduated from Saint Louis University’s School of Nursing in 1996, headed west to Northern California in the fall of 1998 to work as a traveling nurse.

“I just wanted to get out of St. Louis for a while,” she says.

After spending four years in San Francisco and four more in Menlo Park, Burdge and her husband, Eric, packed up their baby and moved back to St. Louis last August.

“Our daughter was almost one, both of our families and many of our friends are here, and Eric had a good job offer,” she says. “So we decided it was the right time to come back.”

Burdge has a long background in triathlon. From the time she was 10, she was on the swim team and participated in IronKids® races. During high school, she competed in the Lake St. Louis and the Chicago Triathlons. But it wasn’t until she moved to California that she started to train seriously.

This year, after qualifying with a 3:35:34 in the Dallas White Rock Marathon in December, Burdge is preparing for the Boston Marathon on April 17. Then she’ll focus on her “A” race for the season: Ironman Wisconsin in September.

When we caught up with Burdge at the Webster Groves Bread Co., she had just completed a three-hour Saturday morning run.

JOHN: I heard you once ran a 4:30 mile on Grant’s Trail in South County?
NB: (Laughing) Yeah, that’s how I found out that the mile markers are way off!

What are your triathlon highlights from California?
Doing races like the Vineman Half, Escape from Alcatraz, and Wildflower three times are events that stand out.

How was Alcatraz?
It’s amazing to be swimming in the San Francisco Bay. I stopped for a few seconds and laid on my back and took it all in. The current was very strong and there were some big waves, but overall it was incredible.

Let’s go back to the beginning: Did you play sports in high school?
I sat on the bench for Cor Jesu Academy’s basketball team. I used to run and ride with my dad and brothers, but back then not many people were doing triathlons.

Have you seen a change after eight years away?
Yes, since moving back from California I have noticed a lot more people out on the roads running and cycling here. The triathlon scene definitely is coming around. We just don’t have the best weather. The St. Louis running community is especially strong. There are some fast runners at these races.

What’s your favorite run?
My friend Nancy and I have some great loops with water stations through the Kirkwood-Webster area. I really love trail running and did that a lot in California, but I haven’t gone and looked for any trails here yet.

Do you have a favorite ride?
I like riding Wild Horse Creek Road in Chesterfield. My brother lives out there. We ride Old Clarkson, Baxter, Wild Horse Creek Road and go out to St. Alban’s and back. I enjoy the hills because they remind me of California.

What’s your favorite swim workout?
I like Masters at the Mid-County YMCA. I do that two nights a week.

How does that compare to swimming at Stanford’s outdoor pool?
Wow, that is a 50-meter pool and the Masters Swimming workouts were full of pros and Olympians. It was tough.

What’s your favorite piece of gear?
It has to be my bike, which is a Trek 5200 Project One with flames painted on the frame. I call her, “The Princess.” Cycling is my favorite discipline of the three.

Are you from an athletic family?
My two older brothers are athletes: One is a cyclist and the other is a triathlete. My husband also races but he is not as obsessed as me. My brother-in-law rides for Big Shark. My uncle is a great triathlete. And my Dad likes to ride, so we sometimes go out together.

Do you admire any athletes?
I admire my uncle, Steve Smith, who lives in South Bend, Indiana. He turns 59 this year and is in tremendous shape. He has done Kona many times. He just was an USA Triathlon Age Group Athlete of the Year in the Masters division. He introduced me to triathlon when I was a kid. I’ll do the Muncie Endurathon with him this year.

What’s a typical week of training?
I run for about an hour three times during the week, mixing in a speed workout, and then do my long runs on the weekend. I ride four times a week, indoors and outdoors, and then I swim two nights a week. This summer I’ll add a third swim session and go on more Ghisallo group rides.

When do you train?
Mostly in the evening, when my husband is home. My daughter goes to sleep at 7:00 P.M. so that gives me some time. I work part-time as a nurse 24 hours a week. But Eric is very supportive and my parents help with the baby. Once a week, Nancy and I push our kids in running strollers.

What are your goals for Ironman Wisconsin?
Of course I just want to finish and stay out of the medical tent and to have fun. If I can beat my 11:30 time from Ironman Canada in 2003, that would be great. But it’s a different race with different conditions, so I don’t know if that’s realistic. For the first time I’ll be going head to head against my 38-year-old brother, Jeff, who is coming from Waterloo, Iowa. Three of my friends from California will be racing, as will my current boss. So that weekend should be a lot of fun.

Do you have any other hobbies?
I like to scrapbook. But basically I like anything outdoors: hiking, backpacking, camping, bird watching.

What’s your motto, Nicole?
Dream big. I always have a list of things I want to do, whether it’s to qualify for Kona or climb to the base camp at Mount Everest. You have to go for it. There’s nothing wrong with having big dreams.

Deactivating a One Trick Penguin

Runner's World's John Bingham, AKA, "The Penguin," writes his 345th consecutive column celebrating "the appreciation for the experience of finishing, no matter what the final time." It must be nice to be a writer who can celebrate the act of writing a column rather than the quality of the piece. And it must be especially nice to get paid for writing the same column over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over.

Ben Johnson Apparently Will Do Anything for Money

Ben Johnson, Canada's most famous sports cheater, is trading on his infamy to sell a new energy drink called Cheetah Power Surge.

The Heat Is On

A Scotsman training for the world's most gruelling marathon is sitting in a sauna every day in full running gear. Donald Sandeman, 50, is taking part in the 154-mile Marathon des Sables through the Sahara to raise money for cancer care charity.

Race Report: Clayton 1/2 Marathon

March 19, 2006, Clayton, Missouri

It had been several years since I was able to do this popular half. The Clayton Center was bustling with a good number of runners for the 1/2 Marathon and 3K. The walkers were already on their way when I found a parking spot. I changed into shorts, although it was still in the low 30s.

After warming up with Matt, chatting with Diesel, and stretching with Jason, it was go-time. The run started off with a quick loop through the parking lot before putting us into the rolling hills of the Clayton business district. Mile 1 came awfully quickly -- "six eleven" said the volunteer. "No way", I said to myself. Things spread out as we headed mostly downhill to Forest Park. A good pack formed as the pace felt hard, but reasonable. We were running into a headwind. One guy got so caught up in drafting that his toe hit the bottom of my sole several times. Kind of annoying.

By the time we ran around the circle in the park, I had dropped behind the pack a little bit. It was motivating to run against the flow of the other runners and see how my friends were doing.

My splits told me I was having a pretty good run. I ate my banana Hammergel and gave Matt C a nod as he snapped a photo for the SBR video and reminded me that the female leader was ahead of me. Thanks.

The last few miles were on a slight incline, but the tailwind made it bearable. As the finish neared, I was within striking distance of a new personal best, but it would be very close.

On the second-to-last turn, bigriverrunning captured my final push to the finish. After avoiding disaster on the speed bump and seeing the clock, I knew I had done it -- 8 seconds faster than my PR. Yes!


After grabbing a drink, I headed back up the course to see Jason cruise to his own PR. Congratulations!


I thought I would jog in with Diesel, but he practically dropped me (what are we cycling?) with a fierce pace to the finish for what he described as his "first negative split ever." Nice!

Results: 39th out of 690 overall, 9th out of 68 age group.

Once Upon a Mattress

In 2005 39-year-old Belgian Gerardus Schellens quit his job at a mattress factory to become a pro triathlete. Last weekend he reeled off a 2:48 marathon and beat Raynard Tissink and Faris Al Sultan on his way to winning Ironman South Africa. “Last year I got back from a race to find my boss giving me two options." Schellens says. "He said I could carry on competing in triathlons, or carry on working for him."

All in One Water and Gel Container

Activated: The idea of the Gel-Bot, a sports bottle that provides access to both water and energy gel in one container.

Deactivated: The idea of trying to clean it.

Gym Bag

Guy who brought your six-year-old son to the gym to do your workout "circuit" alongside you — treadmill, medicine ball, abs, and free weight room — and then got indignant when a concerned employee who noticed the dumbbell hanging precariously over the child's head reminded you that kids aren't supposed to do that: You have been Deactivated. You just made the Gym Idiot Hall of Fame, which is no small accomplishment.

At Least We're There

Trainers tell us what we're doing wrong at the gym. How about a story on the bad advice some trainers give their clients? I've heard plenty.

More Than 25,000 Run L.A. Marathon

Kenyan Benson Cherono won with a 2:08:40 course record. The L.A. Daily News has photo galleries. Two runners suffered heart attacks and died.

Barefoot Marathoner to Run St. Louis

"Shoes lull us into a false sense of security, and they encourage bad running technique," says Rick Roeber, 50. Story.

NY Times Style: Capri Pants Out, Triathlon In

A story on the rising popularity of triathlon appears in The New York Times' Fashion & Style section — so you know it must be true. Many triathletes find a new circle of friends, says Dr. Phil Skiba: "You suddenly realize you're seeing less of professional colleagues and less of friends who aren't athletic. It's a blessing and a curse."

Racer X: 100 Best First Lines From Novels (13-15)

Wherein Anonymous Racer X takes the 100 Best First Lines From Novels and turns each one into the opening of a really lame tri-blog post by an infuriatingly self-obsessed triathlete.

Today's installment: Opening Lines 13-15.
Previous installment (10-12).

13. Someone must have slandered Josef K., for one morning, without having done anything truly wrong, he was arrested.
Some say Josef K. blew too many stop signs on his bike, leaving the authorities no choice. Others simply believe his position as the handsy personal trainer of the local constable’s wife had even more to do with his mysterious legal troubles.
—Franz Kafka, The Trial (1925)

14. You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino's new novel, If on a winter's night a traveler.
Italo Calvino can go first person on you because Italo Calvino once broke 10 hours at Ironman France. Italo Calvino composes entire novels in his head while biking through the Italian countryside. Italo Calvino doesn’t like winter nights because he gets bored with his Computrainer.
—Italo Calvino, If on a winter's night a traveler (1979)

15. The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new.
But with the sun shining so brightly there actually could be something new—skin cancer—if he forgot to apply his sunscreen liberally before his long ride, realized Murphy.
—Samuel Beckett, Murphy (1938)

Running for Her Life

The cast and crew of "The George Lopez Show" will run Sunday's L.A. Marathon to honor a co-worker who died while training for the race.

Slow Dread

Bad weather the other day forced the X-Man into the gym on a day my schedule called for a tempo run. Unfortunately, I discovered — after trying out all 10 dreadmills, which was slightly awkward on the ones people were using — that none of them go faster than 10 MPH. I realize I could set the incline to compensate and thrust me into my target heart-rate zone, but that seems too complicated. The X-Man likes to keep it real, and keep it simple. Solution: Find a new gym with heartier treadmills suited for elite athletes like myself.

In other news, the X-Man was feeling like his priorities had slipped out of alignment. Solution: Let my membership to singleathletes.com expire and sign up for an online triathlon coach. I need to get more bang for my buck.

Later,
Racer X

Deactivating the Gateway Grizzlies

A bacon cheeseburger with Krispy Kreme donuts as a bun? From the minor-league baseball team's web site:

"The Grizzlies and Krispy Kreme Doughnuts have teamed up to create “Baseball’s Best Burger.” The burger consists of a thick and juicy burger topped with sharp cheddar cheese and two slices of bacon. The burger is then placed in between each side of a Krispy Kreme Original Glazed doughnut."

For an extra dollar, they'll inject saturated animal fats right into your veins.

Chris Lieto's Ironman Malaysia Report

Chris Lieto figured preparation in Hawaii would set him up for the climate at Ironman Malaysia, but it took the Langkawi run course to teach him the real meaning of heat. And on his way to finishing second he had to contend with jelly fish and sea lice in his singlet and a gel flask gone bump on the road. "I learned what the words 'fight' and 'never give up' really mean. If I can make it through a day like that I know that I can make it through anything life throws my way."

Coverage Denied

This Insurance.com ad has a promising premise — agents fully clothed in business suits as they work while competing in a triathlon — but it bonks hard after a few seconds.

PEZ's Babe Shots 101

PEZ Cycling News has advice on taking good pictures for its Daily Distractions page.

"A digital camera in the hands of a sweaty-palmed sock-hungry Herb Ritts wannabe can be a dangerous thing. So before you pull the trigger, set up the shot to make it count, and do yourself and all PEZ-Readers proud. Here’s how to take the best pics."

The boys at PEZ know how to get the clicks. In actual cycling news, Bobby Julich got PEZZED.

The Rat Race

Running solo may be bad for runners? I'm not sure I understand this report, which is based on new research studying running rats. Should I be running with rats? I'll need a tiny collar and matching leash. Either that or a giant tandem wheel in my basement. Running definitely is easier with a partner—I know the interaction keeps my mind off the effort and pushes me to keep pace. Seems simple enough.

From Addict to Athlete

Exercise is the new high for Todd Crandell, who has been sober for 13 years.

"And although I've found sobriety, I still have not found peace. Who has? Instead of worrying about where to get my next gram of coke, I'm worrying about balancing the books for my foundation and training for my next event (in April I'll be competing in my 11th Ironman in Arizona and the Boston Marathon). Now five people-my wife and four kids-depend on me. Life is as stressful for me as it is for every other adult in America. But knowing that I don't have to reach for a drink to deal with it makes me proud."

I like his honesty in admitting that peace still eludes him. That's an excerpt from Crandell's new book, Racing for Recovery. Like James Frey, memoir writer and reformed addict, Crandell hails from Ohio. Unlike Frey, he hasn't yet made the career-destroying mistake of lying to Queen Oprah.

Training Ride

RailBike
Originally uploaded by jjactive2.

What is wrong with this picture? Where is your helmet, Mr. Rail Biker? You hate to see rail bikers take unnecessary risks like this—it just gives the whole group a bad name. As cycling commentator/Activeness hero Phil Liggett might ask, "Is he on the road to stardom, or is he a lamb to the slaughter? This plucky little rider is afraid of nobody!"

Making Fatboy Slim

Wanna get in shape but lack the discipline to do it on your own? RunFatBoy.net (beta) looks like they'll do everything but wipe your...brow...for you. And you just know they'll "have to praise you."

Activating the 13-Mile Walking Commuter

Mark Jefferies, 46, a St. Louis environmental review officer, walks 13 miles round-trip between home and work every day. That's about 60 miles a week—more distance than many recreational marathoners log.

Mark, who holds a sub 15-minute per mile pace, does it for exercise and to save money. He collects $500 from aluminum cans and saves $775.50 per year by not using public transit.

He carries an old pre-paid cell phone, a small AM/FM player, a decoy wallet (in case of muggers), and no wristwatch while walking 3 hours and 10 minutes each day.

"I would never want to go back to how I felt when I did not walk," he said. "So I think, whether there's a destination or not, I still like to walk, especially at the 4 mph pace. Anything else is just a stroll."

Note: Special thanks to Activeness reader Marshall for the heads up on our hometown commuting walking warrior.

Going the Distance: Catching Up With Craig Virgin

by john@activeness.net



Craig Virgin is one of the top distance runners in U.S. history. But unlike the late Steve Prefontaine — the runner who preceded him and whose James Dean persona has given him a cult-like following — Virgin is a down to earth, likable guy who developed his hearty Midwestern work ethic growing up on his family’s farm in southwestern Illinois. Could that be why he never has gotten the attention he deserves?

The pain mortal runners feel never seemed to affect Craig Virgin. When he was training and racing at his peak in the 1970s and 1980s, it was like the sensory neurons transmitting the signals for pain didn’t quite reach his brain.

Virgin’s aggressive racing style was to charge upfront, dare other runners to chase him, and then, if they did happen to follow, surge so hard again that they would wish they hadn’t. He knew one speed: all out, to the brink of collapse.

“I was young and felt bullet-proof,” he says. “At the time I thought I could accomplish anything I put my mind to.”

The list of what he did accomplish is long enough to stretch the 23 miles from downtown St. Louis to Virgin’s hometown of Lebanon in southwestern Illinois.

Virgin, now 50 years old — it’s amazing how quickly time spins by — won five Illinois State High School Championships in both cross country and track and still holds state meet records of 13:50.6 for three miles in cross country and 8:42.6 for the two-mile track event. In June 1973, his 8:40.9 time broke the legendary Steve Prefontaine’s former national high school record.

His storied college career at the University of Illinois included winning nine Big Ten Championships, an NCAA Championship, and, in 1976, qualifying for his first U.S. Olympic Team.

Virgin’s post-collegiate racing career included being a three-time U.S. Track & Field Champion, setting multiple American records, qualifying as a three-time U.S. Olympian in the 10,000-meter run, and becoming a two-time World Cross Country Champion. His cross country wins in Paris in 1980 and Madrid in 1981 remain the only victories for an American man in that renowned event.

Over a four-day span in the spring of 1979, a 23-year-old Virgin won the 10,000-meter race at the Penn Relays with a time under 28 minutes, drove to New York City and beat Bill Rodgers with a new American 10-mile record time of 46:32.7 in a Central Park road race, and then flew back to St. Louis, where the next morning he won the downtown Famous-Barr 10K with a 30:28.

His career personal bests include a 13:19 5K, a 27:29 10K, and a 2:10:26 marathon (second at Boston in 1981).

In 2001, Virgin was elected into the U.S. Distance Running Hall of Fame in Utica, New York. But his induction nearly was posthumous.


Virgin running the 10,000-meter race at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.

THE ACCIDENT

About nine years ago, on the evening of January 29, 1997, Virgin was driving over an interstate overpass that he had traversed hundreds of times before. He was heading from his home in Lebanon to KSDK-TV Channel 5 in downtown St. Louis to pick up a dub tape of his work broadcasting at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. It should have been a quick, easy one-hour roundtrip.

He remembers the thunderous explosion of steel and glass and crawling out of his decimated car. He later learned that a woman — uninsured and mentally ill — driving the wrong way on I-64 in East St. Louis had slammed head-on into his 1989 silver-green Nissan 240 SX sport coupe at 70 miles per hour.

Virgin’s seat belt, high fitness level, and a little luck saved his life that night. “A few inches one way or the other and I would have been crushed,” he says. “I was in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong lady. It was just a nightmare.”

His injuries included two broken ankles, a severely bruised heart that brought on arrhythmia, torn rotator cuffs in both shoulders, cartilage damage in both knees, a broken nose, and other injuries to his face and hand.

The blunt force trauma alone could easily have killed him. “When my body suddenly stopped all my internal organs slammed up against my sternum and rib cage,” Virgin says. “I was fortunate they didn’t tear or hemorrhage.”

It took a full four years for all his injuries to make themselves known. Virgin and his doctors approached his treatment like triage, dealing with the most severe ailments first and then treating the others as he got more active and they began to surface.


SwimBikeRun St. Louis web site emperor and publishing magnate Matt Cazalas poses with Virgin as the two ponder race strategies for their 50-54-year-old age group.

THE CONSTANT REHABBER

Since 1997, Virgin has undergone a dozen surgeries and persevered through nine years of grueling physical therapy. He’s eternally indebted to his orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Richard Lehman of the U.S. Center for Sports Medicine in Kirkwood, and to his physical therapist, Scott Van Nest of the Sports Medicine and Training Center in Webster Groves.

Today, Virgin aims for 40-60 minutes of aerobic activity a day — three to five miles of running along with one session on either the elliptical trainer or a bike — in addition to three weekly weightlifting sessions.

Two years ago, Virgin slipped on black ice outside the Lebanon office of Front Runner, his sports marketing and promotions company. The fall exploited lingering damage from the car accident, completely rupturing and detaching the quadriceps muscle in his right leg — a devastating injury for an athlete.

“My quadriceps muscle had to be surgically repaired and reattached,” he says. “I was in a cast for two months, from my ankle to my thigh, which literally was a pain in the butt!”

Things were so bad just a year ago that Virgin only was able to shuffle through one or two miles of running at a time — and even then he had to stop several times. “I feared I’d never be able to really run again or even walk without a limp,” he says. “I’ve worked as hard to come back from this detached quad as I ever did to make three Olympic teams or win two World Championships.”

Virgin attributes re-thinking his rehab plan and incorporating cross-training on the elliptical trainer and bike — indoors on a Schwinn Aerodyne or outside on a mountain bike — to his dramatic improvement over the past year.

His commitment is obvious. The first night I called Virgin for an interview, he cut our discussion short because he was headed to the O’Fallon YMCA to use the elliptical trainer. The next afternoon, as we continued to talk, he was dressed in sweats and on his way out the door for a run.

“I will never again be 100 percent,” he concedes. “I’m just trying to see if I can one day reach the 80 to 90th percentile range. If I can level off at 30 to 40 miles a week, I can achieve everything I now want out of running. Considering what the doctors have told me several times since my accident, I consider myself quite fortunate to be running at all. I’m very grateful.”

After the surgery to repair his right quadriceps in 2004, Virgin propped his cast up on a chair and pedaled the exercise bike with his left leg. “I had to do something,” he says. “I was going nuts!”


Act like you've been there before: John and Jan often pose with three-time Olympians/World Champions. Yes, the Activeness blog opens all sorts of doors. Right before this picture was snapped, Blue Devil Jan engaged in a silent staredown with a guy wearing a North Carolina Tar Heels sweatshirt.

THE NATURAL AND A DIRT PATH

As a high school freshman, Virgin knew after his first week of running that he had been born with a gift.

Lebanon High School couldn’t afford a track, but behind the school was a grass field bordered by a dirt path that was one-third of a mile around. On August 3, 1969 — the day after his 14th birthday and the first day of cross country practice — Virgin lapped the entire varsity team during his first five-mile run on that ad hoc track.

Virgin, who is 5’-10”, had played baseball and basketball growing up but never considered competitive running. “I wasn’t much of a basketball player but I tried to compensate by out-hustling everyone,” he remembers. “My eighth-grade basketball coach, Rich Neal, spotted my ability and called my father to tell him I should give cross country a try.”

His coach at Lebanon High School, Hank Feldt, had just two years of previous experience coaching cross country. “We learned together,” says Virgin. “He used to say, ‘I could barely get into clinics when you were a freshman and by your senior year I was being called on as an expert.’ But he never used or abused my talents for his own gain and he definitely helped launch me in the right direction. Hank and I still have a good relationship today.”

In the winter, between cross country and track seasons, Feldt coached basketball. This meant Virgin had to learn to coach himself through these months. “I knew that if I wanted to dedicate myself to running and reach my ultimate potential, I had to study the sport, create a well-rounded training program, and then put myself through the workouts alone,” he says. “As a result, I matured very quickly in the sport.”

The first winter he was training himself, Virgin clocked a 4:24 mile and a 9:05 two-mile run at indoor track meets at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. “It helped that I made progress and got reinforcement in the first few months,” he says. “I felt like I was headed in the right direction.”

Though he was relatively naïve about the nuances of training for distance running and his body was still raw, Virgin feels like he somehow managed to tap into his full potential during high school.

“My approach wasn’t sophisticated,” he admits. “I would just go out and run as hard as I could.”

Virgin challenged himself to the point that he would nearly keel over after each race. “But I kept getting stronger and stronger,” he says. “Eventually I was able to hold that pace for the entire race and not run out of gas.”

CHASING PRE

Growing up as a young distance runner in Lebanon in the early 1970s, Virgin idolized runners Steve Prefontaine and Frank Shorter.

The recent movies about Prefontaine’s life have introduced many Americans to the legend of the brash young runner who appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated at age 19 and who, along with Shorter, is credited with catalyzing this country’s running boom in the 1970s.

But the runner who broke more of the popular Prefontaine’s records than anyone while coming up through the ranks is Virgin. Prefontaine, in fact, only ran one event — the 5,000 meters — faster than Virgin over his high school career.

“I tried to emulate his aggressive racing style but not his personal life,” Virgin says. “I believed in having fun but Pre took it to an extreme.”

Prefontaine had a well-earned reputation as a tough competitor with a wild temper and an aggressive personality. “I heard firsthand from runners who raced against him that he would insult them on the starting line,” Virgin says. “He played a lot of mind games with his opponents and tried to use his mystique to intimidate people.”

That never was Virgin’s style. “I tried to psyche guys out by being nice to them!” he says with a laugh.

On May 30, 1975, the 24-year-old Prefontaine died in a one-car accident in Eugene, Oregon. His MGB British sports car convertible flipped over and landed on him, crushing his chest and, ironically, suffocating the athlete with one of the world’s best-performing oxygen delivery systems.

Seeking to experience the Prefontaine mystique, Virgin lived and trained in Eugene for 10 months in 1977-1978 as a charter member of Athletics West, the first Nike-sponsored track team.

While living there he visited the scene of the accident several times and tried to imagine exactly what happened and how Prefontaine must have felt during his final few seconds alive. “I do believe that someone or something was in the road to cause that accident,” Virgin says. “Pre was too familiar with that road to lose control.”

Virgin remembers exactly what he was doing when he heard the news of Prefontaine’s tragic death. “I was 19 years old and in Wichita, Kansas, for a track meet at Wichita State University called the USTFF National Championships,” he says. “I got up that morning at the dorm and went down to get a paper and eat breakfast and everybody in the cafeteria was talking about Pre’s accident. It cast a huge pall over the weekend. With Pre gone, several of us felt a lot more responsibility because we knew we would have to take up the slack and become leaders in American distance running.“

THAT GOLF COURSE WOULD BE A GREAT PLACE FOR A RUN

Over his career Virgin had success racing distances from the mile to the marathon.

Though he was the American record holder and came close to world records in the 10,000 meters on the track and the 10K on the road, he says the road 10Ks, while obviously the same distance as the 10,000-meter track race, were much easier.

“People don’t realize the high level of concentration it takes to run 25 fast, competitive laps on a track,” Virgin explains. “The 10,000-meter is the longest race on the track in regular competition. You are running very hard, battling the wind, and trying to stay mentally sharp.”

A 10K road race, on the other hand, with its long straight-aways, turns, hills, and terrain changes, is much more like cross country — the sport that always was and remains his favorite form of running. “It was my first experience in organized, competitive running during high school,” Virgin says. “And then I conquered racing cross country at the college, national, and international levels and was fortunate enough to win the World Championships twice.”

These days Virgin’s achy ankles and knees hurt him when he runs on rough ground, so he doesn’t seek out many trails. But he says he still can’t drive past a golf course and see all that pretty grass without thinking, “What a waste — and what a great place for a four-to-six-mile run.”

BATTLING THROUGH ADVERSITY

In 1992, Virgin retired at age 36 to run for political office. Soon after that, he started having frequent abdominal pain. Doctors eventually discovered that his right kidney was losing function. It was removed on April 1, 1993.

Remarkably, Virgin was born with congenital urological disease and almost died as a child. When he was five years old, reconstructive surgery on his bladder failed. Doctors weren’t optimistic that he would live to be a teenager. But Dr. William Mellick, a urologist at Cardinal Glennon Hospital in St. Louis, took over his case and basically kept Virgin alive for eight years until he was able to have life-saving reconstructive urological surgery.

Virgin also battled nagging physical injuries over the last portion of his career. Trying to maintain a consistent level of training and a high mileage base for more than 20 years as a distance runner is extremely difficult, he notes. “I had some imbalances and chronic inflammation in my left knee. I had a couple of surgeries in the mid-80s but was never the same runner.”

Virgin wasn’t an ultra-high mileage runner: He averaged 90–105 miles a week except when ramping up for a marathon. But if he had it all to do over again, he says he would have raced less, backed off a bit in some races, and built cross-training into his training regimen.

MIDWESTERN PRIDE

Virgin retired from competitive racing in 1992, which means a whole generation of runners from across St. Louis and the Metro East don’t know that one of the best distance runners in U.S. history grew up listening to Jack Buck and Harry Caray call Cardinals games on his AM pocket radio and dreaming of playing second base for the Redbirds.

He lives in a renovated old building in historic downtown Lebanon, just a block from his office, and dreams of building a home out in the country so he can take in the gorgeous sunrises and sunsets from the hilltops north of Lebanon, where he began his running career 36 years ago.

Virgin is proud of his southwestern Illinois heritage. Throughout most of his career he stayed in the Midwest and did a substantial amount of his training in and around Lebanon.

What about the bitter winter cold and the stifling summer heat and humidity?

“It’s sad that there still is no indoor track in the area for runners to do a quality workout when the weather is bad,” Virgin says. “That said, I always told people if you could succeed here then you were always going to be headed to a better place. Suffering through the cold and heat here becomes part of the training effect. It improves your endurance and mental toughness.”

But Virgin doesn’t claim to miss training and racing in the poor conditions. “The other day it was five degrees and I went out later in the day and ran three to four miles,” he says. “I have to admit I was glad I didn’t have to go 10 or 15 that day!”

Virgin wants young runners to know they can succeed at national or international levels while based in the Midwest. “If young men or women in this area have a gift and dedicate themselves to achieving their ultimate potential and they have perseverance, it can happen,” he says. “They can achieve excellence. I know it’s possible because I did it. And over the last 20 years, many of our country’s best distance runners have come from the Midwest.”

Overall, Virgin is encouraged by the state of American distance running. “After about 10 or 12 years in the doldrums during the late-1980s and 90s, I’ve noticed a real resurgence at all levels of U.S. distance running in the last several years,” he says. “And I’m happy that four of the guys who have contributed to this comeback — twins Jorge and Ed Torres, Donald Sage, and Stephen Pifer from Edwardsville — are from Illinois.”

GOALS: WRITE THEM DOWN AND PIN THEM UP

When Virgin gives motivational speeches to young athletes, he emphasizes the importance of setting goals, writing them down, and keeping that list of goals in sight.

“In high school I would sit down in August just as school was about to start and write down my goals for each event of the year,” he says. “Those goals would go up on a cardboard poster hanging on my bedroom wall. When winter hit and my alarm went off at 6:20 in the morning and I was wondering why in the world I would leave my nice warm bed for an icy cold workout, I would look up at those goals on the wall and that would confirm why I was making the sacrifice.”

Everyone from high school runners seeking to improve in cross country to 40-year-old age-groupers trying to break 40 minutes for a 10K should follow the same approach, Virgin says. “Commit yourself to a goal, decide what it will take to get there, write it down, and then keep it in front of you as constant reminder of your mission.”

It’s also important to be confident, Virgin stresses. “You have to have the confidence that if you set a goal and follow a good training plan, you will be able to go out and capitalize on that training and succeed. Everyone who reaches the top of a sport has to have an inner confidence that he or she can do great things.”

Just don’t confuse confidence with arrogance. “Look what happened to Bode Miller at the Olympics,” Virgin says. “He passed that line from being confident to cocky and then, for whatever reason, had his lunch handed to him in Turin as one of the major disappointments on the American team. You can be confident and maintain a healthy outlook on life without turning into an arrogant jerk. But it’s a real balancing act that almost every successful athlete has to face.”

Virgin reminds athletes who seek him out for coaching advice that the key is a balanced lifestyle. They need to define their priorities in terms of how training fits in with a career, school, family, and other activities. “Certainly it’s harder for people balancing all these demands to achieve their true potential but it can be done,” he says.

If you do manage to realize your potential, enjoy it, urges Virgin. “All of us face the reality that no matter how good we are, younger guys will eventually come along that we’ll struggle to drop,” he says. “And then one day, if we hang around long enough, they’ll drop us. Everybody has a life cycle in sport. Those who do reach the top better realize they won’t be there forever and take advantage of it while they can.”

FRONT RUNNER

Virgin’s sports marketing and promotions company, Front Runner, is in its 26th year of business. In 1992, he took a year off to campaign in an ultimately unsuccessful bid for the Illinois State Senate. He also does freelance TV and radio commentary, personal coaching, and sports-themed motivational speaking for companies and schools.

Back in 1980 when he started Front Runner, athletes would forfeit their Olympic eligibility if they accepted direct income. But Virgin and fellow runners Frank Shorter, Bill Rodgers, and Marty Liquori were pioneers in figuring out how track and field athletes could making a living from their sport while still retaining their international eligibility.

Virgin worked around the rules by starting his own sports marketing and promotions consulting firm. Races or sponsors would hire the company for certain business services and then pay his corporation, which, in turn, reimbursed his training expenses and paid him a salary. At the time, this was a revolutionary concept.

These days, though he prefers to help other race directors design and promote their races, Virgin does serve as the race director for two area events.

The St. Clair County Law Day 5K and 1K Youth Fun Run is on April 29 in downtown Belleville. “We’re celebrating our fifth anniversary so we’re going to have lots of good refreshments, entertainment, a climbing wall, and a bouncing mattress for kids,” he says. “We’re trying to make it a fitness festival that’s fun for everybody.”

Virgin also helps organize the annual Ivory Crockett Run “4” Webster, which takes place in early October in downtown Webster Groves.

HEY, THAT GUY WHO JUST ZOOMED PAST ME LOOKED LIKE CRAIG VIRGIN

After enjoying his initial foray into mountain biking last summer, Virgin hopes to explore that more this year. He likes cycling’s sensation of speed and noticed that it helped him improve as a runner while putting less trauma on his joints. Friends have promised to break him in on a serious road bike.

Virgin was gifted with an abnormally high aerobic ability. A test called the VO2 Max, which measures the maximum amount of oxygen the lungs can process during high-intensity exercise, routinely tested him in Lance Armstrong’s rarified air: 84-88 milliliters per kilogram of body weight. If you are athletic and healthy, yours is probably about 40 ml. Elite athletes might have a VO2 Max in the 70s.

“I do think my VO2 Max would hold me in good stead if I was racing on a bike and my joints weren’t being punished like they are with running,” he says.

Depending on how much free time he has, Virgin may start to train seriously on the bike and possibly even take in a few competitions. “Don’t be shocked if you see me out there,” he says. “It fulfills my need for speed and makes me feel fit. And it sure beats the hell out of doing 18 holes on the golf course!”

Another of his near-term goals is to complete a 10K race in a respectable time and without being in a tremendous amount of pain. “I have no aspirations beyond that,” he says. “But that would make me very happy.”

Running clearly is part of who Virgin is — not just what he did. It’s a significant portion of his self-identity. “I like the way I feel when I am fit,” he says. “I enjoy the whole process and the daily commitment.”

During his professional racing days, Virgin’s life revolved around his two or three daily workouts. He was able to train so hard for all those years because he approached making the commitment to succeed as a world-class athlete and warrior as a lifestyle, not a sacrifice.

“I loved it,” he says. “And what I’ve lived through over the past nine years has helped me realize that I still love it. Running helps me find out who I am and what I’m made of. It’s not just a sport — it’s a passion.”

Activations: Worth Your Best Effort

This originally appeared in the March issue of SwimBikeRun St. Louis Magazine, the only triathlon magazine to officially agree with Three 6 Mafia that it really is hard out there for a pimp.

Activation – noun: making active and effective

Without the defined goals and window of time that the Olympics have provided elite area athletes like Steve Warner (rowing), Jackie Joyner-Kersee (track and field), Craig Virgin (10,000 meters), and 2008 hopeful Sarah Haskins (triathlon), how can amateur or recreational athletes establish their timelines or specific windows of opportunity to achieve their goals?

In the bigger picture and in context of the world’s history, an individual’s lifespan appears to be an insignificant blip. Historian E. H. Gombrich most eloquently described time as a river:

“But now let us quickly drop down in our plane towards the river. From close up, we can see it is a real river, with rippling waves like the sea. A strong wind is blowing and there are little crests of foam on the waves. Look carefully at the millions of shimmering white bubbles rising and then vanishing with each wave. Over and over again, new bubbles come to the surface and then vanish in time with the waves. For a brief instant they are lifted on the wave’s crest and then they sink down and are seen no more. We are like that. Each one of us no more than a tiny glimmering thing, a sparkling droplet on the waves of time which flow past beneath us into an unknown misty future. We leap up, look around us and, before we know it, we vanish again. We can hardly be seen in the great river of time. New drops keep rising to the surface. And what we call our fate is no more than a struggle in that great multitude of droplets in the rise and fall of one wave. But we must make use of that moment. It is worth the effort.”

It is worth the effort to do your best, to make your life — insignificant as it may seem in the river of time — worthwhile and purposeful in the goals you strive for, the work you do, and the relationships you develop.

Legendary distance runner Steve Prefontaine summed it up nicely: "To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift." I believe he was talking about the gift of time and abilities that go into giving everything you have to whatever you feel is worthwhile.

In my early twenties, I was chosen to play in an All-Star soccer game against a team of former pros from the United Kingdom. Their roster included George Best, then in his forties, but still a magician on the ball and known as one of the greatest players of all time, right up there with Pele. The irony of his last name being Best and his stature as one of the greatest “footballers” is regretfully footnoted by his struggles in life with alcoholism and recent death.

Both Pre and Best had achieved so much in their sports, inspiring the world in their greatness. Yet both, sadly, were unable to make full “use of that moment” as “sparkling droplets on the waves of time.”

You and I probably won’t be mentioned as one of the greatest of all time in anything. Yet I’m convinced that if you set a high bar for yourself and do your best to achieve that standard, then you will have made good use of the moment, that sparkling droplet — your life — and the aspects that you deem important, whether that means your athletics, career, family, or friendships.

Be warned, though, that as you “leap up” in the great river of time, your best may not always be accepted or recognized as such by others or by your toughest critic — yourself. Have faith that it matters that you are doing what you can. And don’t get discouraged.

Vietnam prisoner of war Captain Gerald Coffee said, “The decisions we make out of loneliness and pain, uncertainty and fear, can take us to the extremes of shame and pride. The turning point that changes adversity into opportunity, or defeat into victory comes when we are willing to forgive ourselves. Too often, our unreasonable expectations lead to self-judgment and guilt. Our best is the best we can do.”

So even when life is a struggle and the effort to be your best at the things that matter in your life feels overwhelming — and you question if your best even is good enough — take the advice of American Ironman champion Chris Lieto:

“Never stop fighting; it always pays off in the end if you give it your all.”

Respect,
JPD

Why Don't We Work Harder?

Gladwell
Originally uploaded by jjactive2.

In this email exchange with ESPN.com's Bill Simmons, The New Yorker writer and Hair Club for Men spokesperson Malcolm Gladwell explores why people, including athletes, don't work harder when it's in their best interest to do so:

"The (short) answer is that it's really risky to work hard, because then if you fail you can no longer say that you failed because you didn't work hard. It's a form of self-protection."

Deactivating Lance Face

To the agency that came up with the "Put Your Lance Face On" campaign for an investment company, I say, "Nice try."

Racer X: 100 Best First Lines From Novels (10-12)

Wherein Anonymous Racer X takes the 100 Best First Lines From Novels and turns each one into the opening of a really lame tri-blog post by an infuriatingly self-obsessed triathlete.

Today's installment: Opening Lines 10-12.
Previous installment (7-9).

10. I am an invisible man.
That can be the only excuse for Windii repeatedly swimming over me at masters last night. Can I not have dignity and equality in this day and age? Or must I be forced most ignobly to move down to a slower lane?
—Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (1952)

11. The Miss Lonelyhearts of the New York Post-Dispatch (Are you in trouble?—Do-you-need-advice?—Write-to-Miss-Lonelyhearts-and-she-will-help-you) sat at his desk and stared at a piece of white cardboard.
Should I train with a heart-rate monitor? Is GU better than Power Gel? What is the most aero bike drink system? Can I really get rock-hard abs in five short weeks? These readers' inane questions—will they never halt? Today Miss Lonelyhearts just wants to be left in peace to read his new copy of Inside Triathlon with Natascha Badmann on the cover.
—Nathanael West, Miss Lonelyhearts (1933)

12. You don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain't no matter.
That book was made by Mister Mark Twain, and he didn't no diddly about triathlon. It also ain't no matter that me and my friend, Jim, we ain't ever had no proper running shoes. Runner's World's annual guide of shoes is out, and we's a fixin' to get us some decent Brooks Adrenalines.
—Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885)

Random News

Is chocolate milk the new sports drink? A fair and balanced report.

Sweaty cotton socks are bad. But you knew that.

Industrious Canadiens have discovered that it's not how many calories, it's which calories. Bad news, Canada: Tim Horton donuts still = the wrong calories.

ESPN.com's Bill Simmons hates on Houston and reports that Michael Jordan is afraid of his wife.

Tin Man's Triathlon Tips

Old friend Scott Tinley has a nice list of 26 triathlon tips gleaned from his 25-year career.

18. "When riding in an area without bike lanes and cautious drivers, consider attatching a 3-ft. antennae to the side of your bike with a #10 sheet metal screw taped to the tip. If a driver is to come dangerously close, placing your health and welfare in question, he or she may be reminded of their lapse of consideration by the presence of a new racing stripe along the side molding."

Run on the Wild Side

Here's a Los Angeles Times article on the surging popularity of trail running. The dirt is easier on leg joints, the varied terrain puts more muscles to work, and it's a chance to commune with nature.