Sporting Heroes : Sebastian Coe

Sebastian Coe - British middle distance runner.

The 1980s were a golden period for British middle distance running. Our athletes ruled the world and two of the biggest names in the sport were Steve Ovett and Sebastian Coe. The intense rivalry between these two phenomenal athletes is documented in this superb book, suffice to say that in Britain you were either an Ovett or Coe fan - there was no inbetween. It was the best athletics rivalry since Bannister vs Landy in the 1950s. Every time they ran was exciting - they broke and rebroke each others records (most notably in 1981 when between them they broke the mile world record three times in 10 days), and both won gold in the other's event at the olympics. This was the kind of drama that made the middle distance races headline events at athletics meets around the world. Ovett was so good that one of his trademarks was a cheeky wave to the crowd. Not as he crossed the finish line, but as he overtook the last of his rivals 100m from the finish line!!!

Coe was the only person to hold world records in the 800m, 1500m and the mile all at the same time. He broke his own 800m world record again in 1981 in a time which would not be bettered for 16 years (look at how quickly he opens the gap over the last 300m in the video above).

But what really appealed to me about Coe was his intensity. He maybe wasn't as talented a runner as many of his competitors, but he was so mentally strong, had an incredibly intense training regime and an amazingly fast finishing kick that could destroy the opposition. He once said that the most important distance to conquer is the distance between your ears. It's a quote I often go back to during my ultras, and for my money he was one of the most mentally tough athletes of all time.

A favorite Coe story concerns a snowy and icy Christmas day in 1979. He had gone for a hard 12 mile run that morning and felt good with the workout. But after Christmas lunch he started to feel uneasy and wasn't sure why. Then he realized - "I bet that bastard Ovett's out there doing his 2nd session of the day". So he went back out into the snow for another run. And added in a hill workout.

Long after they'd both retired, he told Ovett about it. Ovett's reply - "you only went out twice that day"?

Sporting Heroes : Matthew Le Tissier

Matthew Le Tissier - Southampton and England footballer.

Every Saturday night for as long as I can remember during football (soccer) season, the BBC ran a show called "Match of the Day". It was a one hour highlights show featuring the best of the day's action in the English Premiership (and before it the old first division), and I watched it religiously. If I was out on a Saturday night, I would tape it and watch it when I got home (or while nursing a hangover in the morning).

In the early-to-mid 1990s, there were always certain flair players you looked out for - people like Steve McManaman, Ryan Giggs, David Ginola, Eric Cantona (later David Beckham) and Paul Merson who could mesmerize you with their artistry on the ball (these were the days when there was still a majority of British players in most Premiership teams). But more than any of the others there was Matthew Le Tissier.

Everything about him was different, from his languid "lazy" style to the effortless accuracy of his shooting - like all the best players, he made it look so easy. He played for an unfashionable team which was forever struggling (he was pursued by some of the biggest spending clubs in the sport but remained loyal to Southampton). For this loyalty, and for his sheer talent and audacity (year after year he almost single handedly saved the club from relegation) he became a legend at "the Dell". Every week I would look forward to the Southampton match more than any other just to see what trickery or wonder goal he would pull out of the hat. A genius of a footballer, you could build a team around him (which Southampton did), but his talents were shamefully ignored by a progression of England managers who could not understand his unique gifts or fit him into their system. He won only 8 caps as a bit-part player, and we will never know whether he could have transferred his club skill onto the International stage. Maybe that's part of his mystique and why I found him so interesting.

So, for lighting up "the beautiful game", making me care passionately about the fortunes of a small town football club on the South Coast, and just for having the guts to "be different", the first entry in my sporting heroes list is Matthew Le Tissier.

Sporting Heroes Series

Since I am "out of season" and nothing too exciting is going on in my running, I'm going to do a series on those men and women who were (and are) my sporting heroes. A lot of the names will be unfamiliar to my American readers because they come mostly from sports that the rest of the world play, and which I enjoyed growing up. Nevertheless I hope you find it interesting as these players and athletes cross many National boundaries and cover several different sports.

You will find no mention of Troy Aikman, Michael Jordan, Sammy Sosa and the like because they meant nothing to me until I moved to the US. That's not to say they weren't great sportsmen - they obviously were - but their sports are not part of my culture. Even now, having lived in the US for nearly 10 years I'll take rugby, cricket and soccer (probably in that order) over mainstream US sport any day. Maybe its because I grew up with the myriad of stories and characters that fueled the history and romanticism of those sports.

So back to my own field of dreams - should be fun to say hello again to some of my childhood (and adulthood) heroes.

Austin is Beautiful....and Weird

Today was picture perfect in Austin, Texas. The sun was shining, the temperature was in the 70s and it was a beautiful day all round. I had the afternoon off to take Gavin to his ENT appointment, but his primary doctor's office never sent over the referral so we had to reschedule. I wasn't too annoyed because that meant we got to enjoy the afternoon together instead of sitting in a waiting room. We headed home to pick up his wagon and then set off down to Town Lake.

We walked together for a while and when he needed a break he jumped in the wagon. We meandered, talked, told stories, played with his toys and enjoyed ourselves. Here are some of the highlights.

1. We stopped by the edge of the lake and Gavin spotted a turtle coming up to the surface to eat a cookie. We spent a good 10 minutes watching it, the ducks, the fish, and chatting to a girl who stopped for her dog to swim. Gavin has gotten very talkative of late, and now he's started flirting as well - he's definitely kissed the blarney stone.

2. We were sitting on one of the benches playing with Batman and watching runners pass by when Gavin pointed at a very attractive young lady and said in an extremely loud voice "daddy, she's hot". She gave us a smile and I could swear she was blushing.

3. One of the local mottos is "keep Austin weird". Well, this afternoon we saw an oldish guy cycling along the hike and bike trail wearing nothing but a piece of string and a smile. And when I mean a piece of string, I literally mean "a piece of string" - his wrinkly old butt was hanging out each side of it. Gavin pointed at him and asked me why he wasn't wearing any clothes. I couldn't think of a reply.

4. There were two girls in a canoe being "menaced" by a swan. One of them was trying to shoo it away with her oar while repeating "ohmygodohmygodohmygod" over and over again.

I'm feeling a lot better than yesterday, and am looking forward to getting some running in this weekend.

Planting Tom

Last night we planted "Tom" - a chinquapin oak tree - in our front yard. To see where the sprinkler lines went we set them going, and before you could say "drowned rat" Gavin was in them. He loved getting soaked and ran around giggling like mad while I dug a hole for the tree. I don't even think he noticed.

Unfortunately I'm still under the weather. Took the day off work today as I had a rough night and was in no shape to do anything this morning. I hate taking any kind of medication, but Nancy force-fed me something or other this evening that seems to have taken the edge off it. Hopefully I'll be better by tomorrow.

I should know when I have a sucky run that means I'm coming down with something.

Anyway, I haven't run or done any kind of workout since Monday night. Nancy's in San Antonio again this weekend, but I've worked out a deal where I can run downtown on Saturday and Sunday and meet her in our work parking lot at 7 to get Gavin. That means I can start at 6 and still get in a nice 10k run. Hooray for "not too early" mornings. Think I'll have a go at the old Texas Roundup course - that's always a challenging workout.

Now I just need to get to feeling better.

Something in the Air

I don't know if it's the high mold or oak count that's off the charts at the moment, but I'm feeling awful. Did 10 miles Monday night which left me drained, and that almost never happens. Could not stop sneezing all day yesterday and my throat feels like sandpaper today. Dragged my sorry butt into work and I'm just looking forward to lunchtime so I can close my door and take a nap.

Nothing else to say - just wanted to spread the misery :-)