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Elmira NY senior Molly Huddle is reported to be concentrating
on basketball instead of track this winter, but she showed up for
an all comers meet at Cornell University's Barton Hall Sunday (1/6).
Basketball must be a good conditioner - Molly won the opening 2-mile
in 10:19.8, beating the best man by 17 seconds. Then she came back
and ran 10th in the mile, being the fastest woman at 4:57.0. Both
are the fastest times in the country this season by a high school
female. The meet was run by the Finger Lakes Running Club.
life behind or beyond Molly
by Adam Engst,
[Editor's Note: Adam Engst is a technology writer
and analyst who finished behind Molly Huddle in the mile and was
inspired to write this essay. He told DyeStat: "I recently
moved back to my hometown of Ithaca, NY to pursue a life of local
running. Well, okay, that wasn't the primary reason, but it has
certainly turned into one of the highlights of the move back from
10 years in Seattle."]
The summer after my freshman year at Cornell, I was training to
run
cross country for Cornell (an unimpressive experience I won't
relate). In addition to biking 15 miles to and from Ithaca and
serious running, I also tried swimming at lunch with one of my
mother's friends from Olin Library, Anne Kenney. Anne had been a
champion swimmer in high school, and she could swim a mile in the
Teagle pool in the same 30 minutes it took me to swim half that
distance. One day, after our noon swim, Anne and I walked back to
the
library and I commented to my mother that Anne was twice as fast
as I
was. Ever the sharp wit, Anne quickly added, "And twice as
old too!."
It was true - I was 18, she was 36. My teenage ego rankled briefly,
but there was no arguing with the facts.
That memory came back to haunt me last Sunday at the second Finger
Lakes Runners Club track meet. I'd gone to test my High Noon-inspired
racing fitness at the mile, a distance I raced moderately well in
high school, but which I hadn't tried my hand at for many years.
Although I kept telling myself to avoid expectations, especially
since the holiday break wasn't conducive to speed work and I'd run
only one workout in Barton since returning to Ithaca in July, deep
down I really wanted to break the 5 minute mile. I thought it was
possible - I'd run a 4:42 in high school, Brian Culley had recently
paced me to a lung-numbing 5:19 (jogging speed for him) on the bike
path at the end of a hard Dodge loop, and I was in the best racing
shape since college. But still, I just had no idea how hard I'd
really find 8 laps on the Barton track.
The mile turned out to be the hot event, with 6 heats containing
about 10 people each. I never anticipated such enthusiasm, and I'd
put down a conservative 5:10 as my estimated time. I did want to
run
with Casey Carlstrom though, since I wanted to key off someone who
I
knew would run a solid pace well under 5 minutes. As Charlie Fay
and
his daughter sorted the cards, though, I realized that such a
conservative time was going to land me in a heat where going under
5
minutes would mean leading the race, which wasn't a recipe for
success.
But there was another wildcard - Molly Huddle. As most of you
probably know, Molly is the phenomenal high school runner from Elmira
who not only won all 11 of her cross country races in New York this
year, but set
course records in each of them. Then, at the Foot Locker Cross
Country National Championships, Molly took 4th. She's good, really
good. And as I found out as Charlie obligingly shuffled my card
into
the next faster heat, she was in that heat, predicting a 4:55. Diane
Sherrer added to the stress by commenting that Molly's PR for the
mile was 5 seconds faster yet. And then I watched her run a masterful
two mile in 10:19, 3 seconds faster than my high school PR for that
distance, going through the first mile of that race in 5:03. Anyone
who can run that kind of time can probably run another race at pretty
much full speed after an hour or two of rest.
Great, just great. I'm fast enough that I can generally finish
ahead
of the first woman, and although, it doesn't really bother me when
a
woman does beat me, it's hard suppressing all vestiges of male ego.
Worse, I had to agree with Derek Dean when he commented that he
had a
personal policy against getting toasted in races by people who
weren't alive when Star Wars came out. But there we were at the
starting line, me, Molly, and six or seven other guys I didn't know
(Casey ended up in the fastest heat, with Derek one heat behind
me).
I'd managed to line up in lane three, since on the Barton track
it's
important to get to the inside lane as quickly as possible to avoid
running farther than necessary. The gun went off, and I sprinted
briefly to establish a spot in lane 1. I found myself in second
place
at that point, but felt strong and smooth enough to take the lead
fairly quickly, going through the first 400 meters in 72 seconds.
I
was a bit surprised about being in the lead, to be honest, but I
retained the lead for the second 400 meters, going through in 73
seconds for a 2:25 half. Then I started to break down in the fifth
and sixth laps, managing only a 77 quarter and losing both first
and
second place to two of the guys. The seventh lap started and Molly
passed me, looking smooth and, in retrospect, speeding up. I held
with her for the seventh lap, and decided to try and pass her in
the
final lap, since I felt like I had a kick left. Rounding the corner
into the far straightaway, I picked up the pace... a lot... and
barely managed to close the few strides of distance between us.
So I
tucked into the inside lane behind her for the final turn, planning
to unleash what was left of my kick in the home stretch. It all
sounds so calculating in retrospect, but these were split-second
decisions made somewhere close the spinal cord - there was neither
time nor energy for working up a rational course of action.
I'm going to give Molly the benefit of the doubt I've just removed
from myself and assume that she knew what she was doing in that
final
50 meters. We had to finish in lane 3, and as I came out of the
turn,
I made an attempt to pass her on the right, but she moved over just
slightly to block me, forcing me to take a stride either further
out
or back in to have a chance at passing. I opted for in, gave it
everything I had... and crossed the line a few feet behind Molly's
bouncing ponytail. Her time: 4:56. Mine: 4:57. I might have wanted
one more place, but I was still extremely happy about breaking the
5
minute mile, and realistically, I probably wouldn't have done it
without Molly to pull me along during that last 73 second 400.
Oh, and when I was looking at the posted final results, I noticed
that she was only 17. That's right, exactly half my age. I didn't
ask
her when she'd first seen Star Wars - she probably would have assumed
Phantom Menace. Sigh.
DyeStat New York
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