Campolindo (Moraga) Welcomes Billy Mills

Chris Walsh

Link to short photo album of his visit

Last Tuesday, Campolindo High School (Moraga, Division III) welcomed a very special guest to our school assembly. Olympic 10,000 meter champion (1964) and world-renowned speaker Billy Mills addressed the Campolindo student body. Billy’s topic was perspective, and he shared with the students his perspectives of being a Lakota Native American, an Olympian, a father and a world ambassador for peace and understanding. Billy’s talk was wonderfully woven with current stories, reflections of that great day in 1964, his childhood memories of his father and the Lakota nation, and how important the youth of America is in spreading ideas of understanding, acceptance, tolerance and proper perspective. He also spent time talking about the movie made about his life “Running Brave” starring Robbie Benson (1983). Billy still runs and remains good friends with Benson.
As a coach and an athlete it was like being a little kid in a candy store. The students applauded and cheered as the assembly in the Campo gym opened with the last 800 meters of the great 10,000 meter run in Tokyo. Much like the presentation on the big screen at Mt Sac Cross Country Invite in October, Billy told some great stories about the race and his thoughts during those grueling last 2 minutes, battling the likes of 6 mile world record holder Ron Clark (bronze medal) from Australia and the spirited young Mohamed Gamoudi from Tunisia (silver medal).
“We had the privilege of meeting Billy Mills at the Mt Sac Invite. It was extra special to our athletes because our boys won an exciting Division III sweepstakes race and our girls were second in their Sweepstakes race. Ironically the year before (2002), Billy was the theme of our cross country. Every year we have a team theme. We’ve had Pre, Lasse Viren, Joanie Benoit, Sitting Bull (also a Native America Oglala), Once A Runner by John Parker and so on. We saw on Dyestatcal.com that Billy Mills was going to speak at Mt Sac so we brought him a small gift. We presented him with a couple of Campo cross country t-shirts from last year with his picture on the back. It’s the great photo of Billy winning the 10,000 as he’s roaring across the finish line. Coach Dino Petrocco, who is in charge of Leadership Class at Campo, and I looked at each other and said, ‘We need to get Billy to come speak at Campo on diversity and winning!’ Coach Dino asked him to come speak and with the support of our principal Carol Kitchens and assistant principal Paul Mack (a former writer for Track & Field News) Billy agreed on December 9th.”
At age 65, it’s amazing how fired up he was recalling the race. His memories of the race are so clear and it was a wonderful message to our students about how hard work, belief and single mindedness of purpose, can lead one to literally changing (or making) history. Years ago I read a great book by Robert Utley called The Lance and the Shield. It is an excellent biography about the great Lakota chief Sitting Bull. This was about 1995-96 and I remember reading with great excitement when the author wrote about the 4 great virtues required for a young Lakota to “qualify” for Warrior status. The 4 great virtues were; fortitude (physical and mental toughness), bravery, generosity and wisdom. These virtues were part of the Lakota Circle of Courage. They reminded me so much of the characteristics of a true distance runner, that they became the foundation for much of our philosophy of true warriors (runners) that run cross country.
Billy was very gracious to all the students he spoke with and carries himself with great dignity. I was impressed at Mt Sac when there was a line about 60 yards long of young runners waiting to meet one of their heroes. What I found particularly gratifying was that he had a kind word and spoke with every athlete that wanted to meet him (without charging $5-10 per autograph- a nice lesson for the professionals in other sports!).
I had the honor of spending an extra 30-40 minutes with Billy and he outlined a few things I thought would be interesting to the running community:
Walsh: What principles did you use in preparing for the games?
Billy: There were 7 components to my preparation:
1. Distance training
2. Speed training
3. Speed endurance
4. Rest & recovery
5. Visualization (“self hypnosis”)
6. Focus: “I can stay with anybody in he world for 23 of 25 laps”
7. Spiritual focus-“Twenty months before the games I decided that there would be no distractions to my build up. Often after a race, some athletes would want to go out and just have a beer. I would ask myself, ‘Is this going to help me be an Olympic champion?’ To this day alcohol has never crossed my lips…by my choice, which is a choice for every individual.
CW: Knowing that you could train yourself to run with anybody in the world for 23 laps of a 10,000 (a 25 lap race), where did you get the strength/courage to run with them the last 2 laps?
BM: Hard work and the wisdom of my father. My father died when I was only 9 years old but he told me, ‘Billy, find your passion, your dream and go after it.’ One day when I was very young, he drew a circle on the ground in the dirt and told me to stand inside it. He then told me that in order to be truly successful I must have 4 characteristics of a warrior:
*Accountability with responsibility
*Humility—when they draped the gold medal around my neck in Tokyo, it was the most humbling experience of my life because I realized that what I had accomplished was a gift from my Creator
*Giving respect
*Spirituality
CW: Did you have any benchmark workouts that let you know you were ready?
BM: Once a month I would run 2 x 300 @ 44 with a 100 jog and then right into an 800. I would repeat this 4 times. Early in the season (1964) I would run the 800’s at about 2:10-2:12. The 300’s were always at 44 (sub 4:00 mile pace). As the season progressed the 800 times would drop to 2:08-2:04-2:06 and so on. By the racing season I would run 4 x 2 x 300 with 100 jog, 100 jog to 800 and the 800’s would be in the 1:54-1:56 range. Then I knew I was ready.
CW: Did you ever break 4:00 for the mile?
BM: Not in a race. But based upon the 300/800 workouts, I’m sure I could have run in the 3:57 range, or faster.
CW: Were you running 100 plus miles a week in preparation for the games as a 10,000 man and marathoner?
BM: No, no. I never ran more than about 80-85 miles a week, but I ran a lot of sprints.
For example, you mentioned benchmark workouts. With only my wife Pat timing me I would run a 2 mile as follows: 150 yard sprint, followed by a 70 yard float (220 yards), then 150 sprint, 70 float, I would do this continuous for 8 laps. Shortly before the Games, I ran 8:42 for the 2 mile doing this workout. I knew I was ready. Four days before the 10,000, I wanted to test my speed. I went to the track and asked a Polish coach who was at the track to time me for a 200. I ran as fast as I could concentrating on my form. I came across the line and went to check my time. I asked him what it was and he said, “Oh, not very fast for a sprinter, 23.4.” He looked at me and said, “What is your event young man?” “10,000 meters,” I said. He looked down at the watch again and said, “Hum, fast time!”
CW: Your kick was awesome! Do you remember your split for the last 400?
BM: Somewhere in the 53-54 second range. I roughly averaged 4:31 per mile on a soggy track. It had rained very hard the night before. The scariest part of the race was passing the 3 mile in 13:28, which at the time was only 1-2 seconds off my best for a 3 mile!
CW: What happened the last lap of that great 10k?
BM: With about 350 meters to go Ron Clark bumped me into lane 3 and I fell behind. With 300 meters to go I was ready to quit. I wanted to walk right off the track onto the infield. I actually looked to the infield and saw the Japanese officials. They wouldn’t care if I quit. I looked around the stadium of 85,000 people and locked in on my wife Pat. She was crying. Her tears basically represented the emotion of our journey together, the sacrifice, hard work, humiliation and doubt. I knew I could not quit. With about 150 meters to go I was bumped again, this time by Gamoudi form Tunisia. I stumbled. With about 100 meters to go there was a wall of some of the lapped runners. A runner from Germany looked to his left and saw me coming. He was kind enough to move out and I found my gap. The funny thing was, as he turned, I could see his singlet. On the front of his singlet was the emblem of an eagle and I had a vision--a vision my father had told me long ago as a boy, “Billy, some day you will have feet with eagles wings.” And I began to sprint has hard as I could. Fifty meters from the line, I said, ‘I can win! I can win!’ The 30 meters from the line I said, ‘I won! I won!’ The only problem was, I was still in third place. I just believed and ran as fast as I could. I felt the tape break across the front of my chest. It was a great feeling which empowered me forever.
Billy lives in Fair Oaks, California with his family and works as a motivational speaker for students and businesses. He has been to over 82 countries and has raised millions of dollars for Native American youth, orphanages, hospitals, schools and community needs.

North Coast Champion and Campo girls team captain senior Vera Ross reflects:
It was such an honor to have Billy Mills come and speak at Campo. He presented a great opportunity for all the students to see how far someone can go in life with hard work and dedication- he was really inspirational. Mr. Mills also dedicated a portion of his presentation to the cross-country team, thanking us for giving him a team t-shirt when we saw him at Mt. Sac. I felt so honored- it was unbelievable. After he spoke with the rest of the school, Coach Walsh and Coach Petrocco were able to get Mr. Mills to sit down with our Leadership class. It was a great privilege to talk one-on-one with such an accomplished person. I remember when we had presented Mr. Mills with one of our team t-shirts at Mt. Sac and how honored I had felt just being able to shake his hand, so getting to sit down and actually talk to him was really amazing. Mr. Mills is an extremely motivating speaker, and my teammates and I were thrilled to have this once in a lifetime opportunity.