Inspiring runs

One of my favorite TV shows, Aaron Sorkin's Sports Night is now available on Netflix. The show is about a sports news show (Sports Night), its two anchors and behind camera people. In the pilot episode, one of the two anchors, Casey McCall (Peter Krause) is considering quitting. His personal problems (a divorce) are a factor in his decision, but his main problem is with the sports business. How corrupt it had become with the athletes getting away with murder. He wants to quit, because he lost his passion for sports.

In parallel to the Casey storyline, the producers are following a South African runner, whose legs were broken in a riot. He has come back from that injury against all odds and is running a race at the age of 41. At the end of the episode we see the race. The old man is running an unbelievable pace. Casey runs to the phone, calls and wakes his son, so that he can watch this inspiring run: "He is not doing much, he is just running faster than any man has ever run before." Needless to say, the South African runner helps him find his passion too.

When I was younger, the third channel of the Turkish Broadcasting System (TRT3) would broadcast everything from European Championships to the Olympics, without ads. I was never interested in the mainstream sports of the country (i.e. soccer), yet I tried to watch every Track&Field meet. I didn't start running back then (I was too busy with other things), but I am sure those hours spent in front of the TV eventually helped me pickup distance running.

When I look back I remember two very inspiring runs. 

First one is Hicham El Guerrouj breaking the 1500m World Record in Rome. (This was a Golden League (now known as Diamond League) race and it was broadcast by another Turkish news network, NTV). This video shows the last meters of the race and represents the excitement of the crowd perfectly. This has the full thing, but very much lacks the excitement.

At the time, Hicham was the greatest middle distance runner around. He had some indoor world records and was coming into this to attempt a record. He went out fast with the help of the pacers and dropped the whole field. Towards the end it was no longer a race in the traditional sense. It was a lone man's race against the clock. And everyone there, maybe even the other runners, were supporting him. Cheering, shouting, doing everything they could. I remember a race official (unfortunately you cannot see this on the videos). He was flailing his arms and cheering him on to the finish. Hicham wasn't running for himself or his country that night, he was running for all of us. He broke the record.

Second race is from the 2002 European Championships in Munich. The stars are Paula Radcliffe, a few other ladies and the rain. Distance: 10000 meters. I couldn't find a video for this, but this report from the BBC website summarizes Radcliffe's accomplishment pretty well. There is a video there too.

Radcliffe went out fast under the rain. There were no pacers, so she was all by herself pretty soon. After a while she wasn't just alone, she was lapping people. Things got so crazy, with some of the field, especially Sonia O'Sullivan of Ireland, trying to follow her and the rest just confused with what is happening. The officials came out onto the track and started telling everyone how many laps they had already run. 

Radcliffe was not confused though. Under the intense rain, with her constant look of pain in her face she kept pushing. World records in women's middle distance running are notoriously hard to break. They were set by a group of Chinese runners, who suddenly appeared and vanished around the early 90s. At the time of this race, no one had gotten close to the 30:00 mark, let alone the 29:31 world record. As Paula kept pushing, the excitement grew. Can she do it? Can she break the unbreakable record?

She couldn't, yet I don't think anyone was disappointed. She broke a 16-year old European record with 30:01. (The record is still standing by the way. Four runners went below 30:00 recently, one of them Turkey's Elvan Abeylegesse, so there is hope). The next stage of Radcliffe's career doesn't need a summary. She is still the World Marathon Record holder by quite a margin and is undoubtedly one of the finest distance runners ever.    

I don't know why I find distance running so inspiring. Most people find it boring and maybe a bit insane. Even the mid-distance runs never garner the level of attention sprinters get. Maybe it is because distance runners can't run multiple events (at least not easily) and thus can't get multiple medals like the sprinters do. Or maybe because their races are rarely shown from start to finish. I think there is value in watching a race that goes on for half an hour, because the final sprint to the finish is only part of the story. I bet even more people would run 5Ks, 10Ks and marathons if that were the case. (Can you see broadcasters doing this? I don't)