Friday, July 22, 2011

“Double, double toil and trouble”

DominoNext Saturday morning , July 23, runners will be on the streets of Quincy for the second annual Run With The Moose 5K. Hosted by the Quincy chapter of the Moose Lodge, the 8:00 am race is a benefit for Special Olympics. Later, if you drive a little further west, you can also compete in Dothan's 26th annual Critter Run 5K. You can make it a double.


Opportunities to double, to race in two events, are not that uncommon in road racing. Just two weeks later, on August 6, you could run the Coach Mike Run For The Kids 5K in the morning and Tifton Run For Love 5K in the evening. There are many other instances of local races a few hours apart. What is uncommon are people who take the opportunity to double.


Doubling is more of a track thing. At a high school track meet a distance runner might finish the 1600, then be asked by his coach to go out and try to pick up a few more points for the team in the 3200. The top sprinter on the team was probably already entered in the 100, the 200, the long jump, and a relay. It's all about scoring points, which is why the Most Valuable Athlete trophy at a big meet usually goes to the winner of multiple events.


Scoring points is no less valued in college track and field. Florida State's Ngoni Makusha tallied 20 points by winning the 100 and the long jump at the NCAA championships in June, and ran the second leg of a winning 4 x 100 relay that picked up another ten points for the Seminoles. Makusha's "triple" isn't the only reason that he's being considered for the Bowerman Award, track and field's Heisman, but it's one of the reasons. In the history of college track, Jesse Owens is still remembered for a famous "quadruple." At the 1935 Big Ten Conference meet, Owens won four events in a period of less than 45 minutes, setting three world records and matching the world record in the 100-yard dash.


Beyond college, Owens won gold medals in four events at the 1936 Olympics. Points are not an issue at the Olympics, but we still heap fame on winners of multiple events. Owens is an example, and Carl Lewis with nine career gold medals is another. Distance runners have a harder time of it; the distance events require a longer recovery period which makes doubling more difficult. But Czechoslovakia's Emil Zatopek accomplished the ultimate long-distance triple at the 1952 Olympics, winning the 5000, the 10000, and the marathon--over 35 miles of gold-medal racing.


Winning multiple events is impressive, but losing multiple events isn't. You have to wonder why an athlete wouldn't concentrate on winning a single event rather than placing in two or more. Or, where points are at stake, why an athlete wouldn't try to score in one event rather than get shut out in several.


In local road racing, fame, points, or money just aren't there to motivate runners to double. Yet every now and then, a few athletes do. Most aren't following the spirit of Owens or even Zatopek, but of the slogan baseball's Ernie Banks: "It's a beautiful day for a ballgame... Let's play two!" Even when there's no other reason to race more than once, runners do it for fun.


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Posted by Herb Wills at 12:26 AM
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