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DyeStat Book Review
Talent, Durability, Determination and Courage
A Review of Chris Lear's
Running With The Buffaloes
By Stephen (steveu) Underwood
If you've always wondered what the world of big-time college running is like, look no more. There's nothing that compares to the book you're about to read about (and hopefully read, as well).
Chris Lear's new Running with the Buffaloes is a one-of-a-kind masterpiece. "Insider" sports diaries have been around a long time, but unless I'm forgetting something, I can't -- in almost 25 years of being a runner and running fan -- recall a book like this, that takes you inside the proverbial locker room of a nationally contending college cross country team.
In a daily report format, Lear takes you to the heart -- the exuberant, anguished, thundering heart -- of the Colorado Buffaloes and their bid to win the NCAA title during the 1998 fall season.
It's a book every serious, competitive team runner should read -- from the young, aspiring prep to the seasoned collegian. And it's a book that any runner, athlete or lover of a great story should enjoy.
That said, maybe this 257-page volume should also come with a warning tag on it. For mature audiences only. Handle contents with care. Use only under strict supervision.
Don't try this at home, kiddies.
It's that intense.
This is truly a book about the price paid for success and those willing to pay it. As senior Adam Goucher (now an Olympian, of course) tells Lear after his battle for a long-awaited NCAA individual title, "For something to hurt that bad, and feel so good, it's just inexplicable."
Followers of that season will know the outcome -- for those who don't, I won't lay down too many spoilers -- but what will move you and keep you turning the pages is the day-to-day dramas. The daily struggle of the Colorado harriers to bend, but not break, and finally, ultimately succeed with a training program few would attempt.
You embark on this journey with Lear as he introduces you to the team roster to start the year and a prologue that jacks up your anticipation level with the pre-race scene from November's NCAA Championships at Lawrence, Kansas. But before the gun goes off, you are whisked back to August 18, where at Balch Fieldhouse in Boulder, the 94-day odyssey begins.
It's not just a story of seven men getting ready for nationals, but a battle for team spots between a vast array of veterans and newcomers, none of whom (save Goucher) are completely secure in their spots. Throw in a copious amount of injuries that have even Wetmore questioning his training plan, and you truly have a survivor show much more engaging than the TV version.
Thankfully, Lear picks his spots along the way to give you backgrounds on these young men and how they got to fall '98 in Boulder in the first place. You may not know that Goucher was an aspiring football player as a middle schooler and eventually showed up for his first prep CC practice in a pair of Reebok Pump cross-trainers. You also learn how another varsity standout, Oscar Ponce, overcame abject poverty in Juarez, Mexico to make it to Colorado and get a hard-earned degree.
Understandably, much of the focus is on Goucher. Even though we know about him, most of us will be stunned reading about workouts during 100-mile weeks that amaze even Lear. The writer not only gives you the stats, but he gives you the style, too.
On the warm-up, Goucher immediately separates himself from the pack. And though his comrades try to gain on him, it is in vain ... On the AT segments, he runs between 11 and 12 miles per hour (this may have been when Lear was biking alongside him!). He settles into a six-minute mile pace on the recovery -- a taxing pace at this elevation. He runs like a prizefighter, punching the air with his fists. His shoulders roll slightly as he moves ... Remarkably, his stride appears no different on the fast segments than on the recovery.
Of course Goucher's legendary workouts -- a 30:09 10K in one workout, 1:56:20 for 20 miles in another, an AT run at 30:59 with an average heart rate of 173 -- it's all here.
But a passage from a different workout/different runner illustrates the agony we've all felt when we've over-extended or had a bad day.
When he finishes, he can do nothing more than wordlessly walk in slow circles before sitting in the shade next to the van. He just wants to go home.
Later, Lear adds another part of the mosaic that makes up such a program, one which both allows individual adjustments and demands both discernment and accountability -- in a conversation with aspiring All-American (later '99 Big 12 champ) Ron Roybal.
Roybal wisely picks and chooses his moments. He says, "Sunday and Wednesday runs kill me. It looks like I'm not trying, but I am. ... It's better for me to run 70 a week ... being patient, than pushing the envelope, risking being hurt. ... I gotta do what I gotta do, and that's the point."
While the training can be overwhelming to contemplate for some, all runners will identify with the lamentations associated with blistering summer heat, runs with too many stoplights, the struggle to do well in school and still get enough sleep and so on.
And the races ... Lear does a great job of breaking down the seminal moments when all the Buffs put it on the line, from Goucher to the middle of the pack.
As someone who has advised runners, many of whom sabotage themselves with too fast a start, I'm glad to see Lear convey part of what makes the Buffaloes consistent winners.
The last mile. This alone is CU's province. Historically, they have always gone out controlled, taking over a race in the last mile. Rarely will one see CU's men running backwards (getting passed or dying) in the last mile.
The pinnacle of the pain of sacrifice that it takes at this level is well-illustrated when Lear captures some pre-workout commentary from the almost legendary Wetmore, coming on an intense day in pouring rain.
"Right now, our opponents would say, 'It's a crummy day. I feel crummy.' This is our day to get an advantage! The worse, the better!"
Wetmore goes on to explain how the runners will do the seven brutal race-pace 800s they've been scheduled for, with the last two including a race-like 200 meter kick.
"You are gonna be ooh, ahh ... I hope you didn't eat lunch today. But if you did, no puking in lane one."
When Lear goes on to tell how Wetmore relieved some of his intimidated younger runners by adding a funny tale about a rather acidic such deposit by a past runner that left a hole in said lane of the track, the scene -- sort of a gallows humor in boot camp kind of thing -- is complete. It's truly the stuff of champions.
Wetmore isn't a rah-rah guy, but he says some memorable things. In one speech, he elevates his charges by reminding them of their lofty status in the running-crazy community.
"Everyone in Boulder wants to be you. The dilettantes, the posers, the dreamers, the schemers; they all want to be you ... You're the top-ranked team in the school."
Granted, not everyone gets that kind of recognition, but the potential to build pride -- and surely the Rockfords, Yorks, Mountain Views and other potential HS championship teams feel some of that -- is unmistakably there.
(spoiler here) Finally, there's the unforgettable tragedy of Chris Severy's passing, the fine runner and powerful spirit that had his earthly life taken in a mid-season accident. At many points in the days and weeks that follows, Lear conveys the tremendous loss of Severy's passing, as well as those gifts he gave all of his teammates. One such occasion, the awards ceremony of the Mountain Regional, is especially succinct:
(The announcer) then asks for a moment of silence for Chris Severy. The CU men stand arm in arm with Wetmore in the middle of them. And in that moment, with heads bowed, the members of the squad take the time to reflect on their lost comrade, and the painful, costly, convoluted path each has taken to get to this point, a week away from their destiny. Without each other, one wonders if they would have the strength to stand at all.
A book like this could have been written a lot of ways. Without getting into inappropriate or unnecessary details of college life, Lear pretty much chooses a no-holds-barred approach. And it works. The often rough language you read, for example, is no different than that uttered by young athletes virtually anywhere. It effectively connects you with the emotions of the roller-coaster ride that is high-intensity athletics.
If you're like me, what you'll appreciate most is the privilege afforded you by Lear to see inside perhaps the nation's best CC program; certainly Wetmore does as much with the athletes he gets as anyone. And what you'll remember, unless you are the most hardcore of runners, is just the magnitude of the work these guys do.
On one day, head coach Mark Wetmore explains to Lear what it takes at this level.
"The 'right stuff' on this level is some combination of these four qualities: talent, durability, determination and courage. Not everyone needs to have a monster four, but everyone has to have some combination of the four of these. You need some level of all four and not having one will kill you."
The Buffs undoubtedly have the right stuff. And so does Chris Lear and his fine book.
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