Men's Elite 2-Mile
McDougal and Rupp run well

by John Dye

They didn't break the record -- Gerry Lindgren's 8:40.0 is still untouchable after 40 years -- but high schoolers Josh McDougal and Galen Rupp acquitted themselves well in the men's elite 2 mile, which was ambitiously named the New York Road Runners Club Record Challenge. Home schooled Peru NY sr McDougal was third in 8:50.40, tying Dathan Ritzenhein for 7th on Jack Shepard's all time list, and Central Catholic Portland OR sr Rupp fourth in 8:54.45, good for 14th all time.

Kenyan Patrick Nthiwa 8:39.50 won, and Nike's Julius Achon, a 2-time NCAA mile champion for George Mason, was second in 8:49.08. Achon was tasked with helping the high school runners in the second mile after Stephan Ondieki paced the first mile.

Ondieki paced the first mile in 4:23, three seconds slower than planned, with Rupp running variably from fourth to second and McDougal a few steps back. At this point, Rupp's coach Alberto Salazar (left), the former marathon champ who was part of the Hall of Fame opening ceremonies this weekend, shouted, "Get on him," referring to the leader Nthiwa. But by the mile and a half mark, Rupp was losing ground. On the 13th lap, McDougal passed Rupp and pulled away from him the rest of the way. Walt Murphy had these splits for the preps: 64.7.2:10.8, 3:16.6, 4:23.4, 5:29.4, 6:36.3, and 7:44.9. McDougal went through 3000 meters in 8:15.0 and Rupp 8:16.3.

McDougal-Rupp,
the race within a race

-photo by PhotoRun

Before the race, McDougal was low key, with no stated goals. "I'm just going to try to hang in there." After his first race in the Armory, McDougal said the crowd was amazing. "I've never run with noise like that."

Running inside was a welcome change from training outdoors in upstate New York, where he has been running 10-milers in up to minus 40 wind chill. "I just dress up like an eskimo, with lots of layers."

McDougal said he took 2 weeks off after the Foot Locker cross country national finals Dec 13, where he finished fourth. Then he started rebuilding his base for the USA Cross Country Championships Feb 6-7 in Indianapolis, where he will try to qualify for the USA junior team for the IAAF World Cross Country championships in Brussels, Belgium March 20-21.

Rich's Recap

By Richard Gonzalez, DyeStat/DyeStatCal

For a youngster without a school, Josh McDougal has just moved to the head of the class.

With New Mexico's Shadrack Kiptoo and Michigan's Matt Withrow either on the shelf or off the radar, a motivated McDougal focused his energies on battling pre-race headliner Galen Rupp of Oregon, pouncing on the Central Catholic star with 300 meters to go en route to an all-time state-best 8:50.40 clocking for third place in the Elite Two-Mile Challenge, highlighting a great weekend of distance action at the 9th edition of the New Balance Games at The Armory in New York.

McDougal's effort, a classic sit-and-kick affair that resulted in a tie as the seventh-fastest indoor two-mile performer in national history (see table below), also carried the soft-spoken talent into the highest-rent district on the national talent landscape for 2004. Rupp, likely putting the finishing touches on a successful winter campaign, was fourth in 8:54.45, the 14th fastest in indoor prep history.

"Overall it was a good race, and was my first time at The Armory," said McDougal, the Peru, NY 18-year-old. "My plan was just to go out and sit on Galen's shoulder and see what he did. I figured I'd sit there until I made my one-and-only strong move when I had to."

Rupp, who made repeated surges in the first mile only to have McDougal reel him in each time, made an assertive bid with about six laps remaining along the popular 200-meter oval, opening an advantage between the two preps in a field that also included five elite racers.

"He made his last big surge at about the same place as FootLocker (Cross-Country Nationals)," said McDougal. "This time, I knew I had to cover that move. I'd been patient, stayed with the pack, and now was the time I waited for -- to make my only serious move."

McDougal, whose training has been more geared to the 8-kilometer (5-mile) race distance in preparation for the upcoming USATF Cross-Country Junior Nationals, shifted into a stronger tempo to eventually catch and pass Rupp on the penultimate lap, then tapped his energy stores dry in protecting a short lead the rest of the way. McDougal estimated his final quarter mile to only be about a 64-second effort, but it "was just enough at that point in the race, as everyone seemed to move in slow motion with the legs getting tired and heavy."
"I was paranoid that last lap, expecting (Galen) to come back and pass me," laughed McDougal, a strength-oriented runner. "(Being caught from behind) has happened a lot to me."
Maybe not anymore. McDougal admits his fitness pointed to an 8:50-or-so performance this weekend, and the extra focus on Rupp on the message boards ("I read the message board occasionally. Alright, maybe more than occasionally. OK, let's just say I'm addicted to them...") provided the final motivational fodder.

"McDougal's Magical Run"
All-Time HS Indoor Two-Mile Listing

McDougal, home-schooled from a young age, has sheared over 13 seconds off his outdoor lifetime best in recent weeks, not to mention a recent lifetime-best 4:13 clocking for the mile. Previously known to incessantly pound the trails in search of excellence, McDougal has since canned such regimens as the 107-mile work weeks (his high end) and the four consecutive weeks of 100-plus miles. His top weekly logs now peak out in the 70-mile range.

"I used to hammer the mileage hard, too much, all year-round," explained McDougal, recalling the Trial of Miles. "I really had no progression schedule."

McDougal's training epiphany came midway through the 2003 cross-country season, when a pre-stress fracture shelved him from the trails onto a bike seat. "It was driving me crazy," he recalled. "I finished 9th at FootLocker Regionals (the year before), and I knew I wasn't going to come back off this and run 100 mile weeks."
Instead, McDougal sheared away nearly one-quarter of the mileage, and allowed his body to recover more in between hard sessions, teaming with his dad/coach to make wiser daily adjustments.

"I became a student of the student and started changing my training," he added. "If anything, the last few weeks (of training) have been easier for me, even though I'm running a lot better. I go by how I feel, and that's made a big difference."

McDougal now sets his sights on the Junior Nationals in Indiana in two weeks, in search of a bid to the World Juniors meet in Belgium in March. "I don't even want to think about not making Worlds," said the upbeat, likeable teen. "It's real important to me."

With his against-preps competition schedule somewhat limited by his home-schooled status, McDougal has already penciled the outdoor track Junior Nationals on his calendar as well, where he'll tackle the 5,000-meter run, if not the longer distance: "The 5k looks really good, but I might want to see what I can do in the 10k."

The Times

-photo by PhotoRun

Patrick Nthiwa