No fear though. Be strong. One of the beautiful things about this sport is that despite what we perceive as limitations on ability (or in other words, talent), very few athletes ever approach their full capacities, and furthermore, the ability to take a long term approach to the sport may have some big dividends down the road. The mental toughness to test yourself in training and willingness to all-in for an extended period of time is important. If an athlete takes into consideration his or her strengths in advance, one can achieve a high level of success later in life, even if it only a relative level of success.
Brian Sell of Hansons-Brooks was a wildcard in the 2008 Olympic Marathon Trials.
Exhibit A is Brian Sell, a distance fanboy favorite who has the awesome story of being a 10:08 2 miler in high school but finished his career as an Olympian. Sell, who actually had a productive college career and ran 13:59 for 5k, still didn't have the type of speed usually considered necessary to compete in the Olympics. As a reference, the two other runners who qualified for the Olympics that day, Ryan Hall and Dathan Ritzenhein, had both run in the 13:20s in college and were two of the "Big 3" in the class of '01. Still, while most college runners in that time range were finishing their careers, Sell kept plugging away. Our mustachioed hero joined the Hansons Distance Project, a notoriously high mileage training group out of Michigan. Sell cranked out 160 to 170 miles a week during his build up to the Beijing Olympics while working part time at Home Depot. The man didn't let anything get between him and that spot on Team USA. There were many times Brian could have quit along the way, and he could kept his training conservative or "traditional", but he never did pursue those options. Instead, he was one of the few that got to represent the red, white, and blue. I think he qualifies as a tough son of a gun.
The Brian Sell story is still anomalous though, because he still had a special talent. The ability to run 170 miles a week and not crumble like a cookie. He was strong enough to deal with the training and still run on a high level, similar to our Canadian friend, Exhibit B: Olympian Cam Levins. Cam sent the message boards into a frenzy after posting a 190 mile week. I've only run 80 miles in a week before and that sucked (Cam is roughly 2.38 times tougher than me using a very scientific calculation). Guess he doesn't like to lose. Or possibly he is insane. Or maybe he is an insane man who also doesn't like to lose. Cameron ran good times in high school and was a 4 flat 1500 runner in Canada, but honestly that would only place you around 500th on the list of prep runners in North America. Cam is also anomalous because of the same talent Sell has, the ability to take his good (but very average speed compared to elites) and magnify his fitness through volume. But you can find hundred of non-Olympic guys doing high mileage and not seeing that type of success, so why dwell on it? Especially considered the average runner wouldn't be able to handle that volume in the first place.
The purpose is to show that guys who were limited (or at least were perceived to be limited) in one aspect of their fitness found a way to get it done by approaching training in a different manner. If speed was a hindrance, to hell with giving up. These types of athletes don't take no for an answer. If they can't be Tirunesh Dibaba, they will grind out fast paces in the middle of races that drop the squeamish in a heartbeat. It's a whole different approach to the "be a sprinter" mentality that dominates much of the track scene around the world. Most Road and cross country races, as well as some of the longer track events are won by these types of runners. Ones that have motors and fortitude that won't quit. To the high school or college runner with good speed but not elite speed, why not just go for it in training? The odds that you will be an Olympian are minimal anyway so why save it? At the least you will be be able to say you firmly tested your limitations.
There are plenty runners who are reading this right now and don't fall into the category of being Dibaba nor have the strength of a Sell or a Levins and I don't want to to exclude. Rather, I want to focus on you because if the sprinters at the 1% and the tough guys are another small percentage, you guys are the vast majority. If the ability to run blazing last quarter miles is not an asset, nor is having superhuman injury resistance, you still aren't a dandelion in the wind. There is a sweet spot for you and you have to find it if you want to reach your personal peak. I would venture to say that if you know your weakness lies in your foot speed, perhaps you may want to test the limits of the volume you can handle. Conversely, if you injure easily when you hit a certain volume threshold, perhaps that is the point you should morph that volume into as high of quality as possible. It's all a matter of thinking outside the box as well as being okay with testing your limits. Not everyone will want to do that, but I want to give hope to the common guys and girls out there that if their heart is truly in running and they want to get as much out of their fitness as possible, think long term, build up to as high of a training threshold as you can handle, and see what you can do! Be tough.
As an anecdote, a friend of mine who went to high school with me is currently on the "comeback" trail with marathoning. He was a fine high school athlete, running 10 flat for the 3200 before leaving the sport for a decade. He has never beat out his high school track times which he set over a dozen years ago, but now he is maxing out his mileage and aiming for the 100 mile+ range. He broke 3 hours for his first marathon ever this past spring and can definitely push for a sub 2:40 before he finally hangs up his shoes. Guess where most of the guys who were beating him in high school are? Not running, that's for sure. So who was the better runner in the end? The 2:40 marathoner in his 30s or the 9:50 2 miler from high school? Who came closer to reaching their "peak" fitness? Also, who was more "talented?"
There are half a million or more teenage distance runners in the country and such a small portion of them will compete for team USA that, essentially, you can take your time and focus on the long term approach. A small select few will have what it takes to actually break through that barrier of "average" times and run in the world circuit, but for the vast majority it will be just a test of what you can be with a good base and some heart. You'll probably never be a world beater, but maybe you could be the local guy who everyone looks for to win the Thanksgiving race. And well, even that's pretty special.
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