Interview with Matt Downin

By Cecil Harris

Since making his debut at 26.2 miles at the ING New York City Marathon 2003, Matt Downin has been among the top performers in the event. He won the Alberto Salazar Award as the first American finisher in the 2003 race. Now, the Massachusetts native hopes to earn a berth on the U.S. Olympic team at the Trials on November 3 in Central Park.

Before becoming a marathoner, Downin was a four-time All-American and two-time Big Ten Conference champion at the University of Wisconsin, excelling at the 5000 and 10,000 meters. He earned degrees in economics and Afro-American history. Downin has represented the U.S. at the World Cross Country Championships, but his dream is to run for his country next year in Beijing.

Downin, 30, has coached himself since leaving Team USA California three years ago, although he often consults with his former coach at Wisconsin, Jerry Schumacher. The USA 10-Mile Championships on October 7 in Minneapolis will to be his final tune-up before the Olympic Trials. He talked recently with MensRacing.com about preparing himself to compete against a star-studded field at the Trials and about the possibility that race day could be a blessed event for him in more ways than one.

MensRacing.com: You graduated from the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Recently, you moved back to Madison from New Jersey. Why?

Matt Downin: I have a close working relationship with my coach from college. For the most part I coach myself now, but I still work with Jerry. I don’t think he would claim to be my coach right now [laughs], but he helps me with a lot of stuff. He’s got a great mind for distance running, so I bounce a lot of ideas off him. I left Team USA California in 2004, after the Olympic Trials, and moved to Norwood, New Jersey, and lived there until last summer.

MR: Is it difficult sometimes to be your own coach?

MD: You get to a point in your career where if you’ve been away from being coached for a while, it’s hard to go back and be that coachable athlete. I would love to be able to go to practice every day and work with Jerry the way he works with the college guys. But coming from where I’m coming from now, it’s just too hard and he realizes that. When you’re a grown man, it just becomes harder.

MR: What was the hardest thing about being coached?

MD: In distance running when you’re young, a coach’s main purpose in my mind is to hold you back [laughs], because what you want to do is throw yourself into everything 100 percent. A coach’s job is to tell a kid, “Today’s an easy day. You need to take a rest.” That’s the hardest thing to tell a young person. When you figure out when those breaks need to happen, when your recovery days should happen, then it becomes a lot easier as a distance runner. The workouts are not mathematical equations that produce the same answer. They’re different every time. Knowing your body is really important, so you can sort of feel your way through the workouts. For me now as an older guy, the hardest thing is to get out the door and get my workout in.

MR: Are you convinced, then, that you’re better off without a coach?

MD: I’m not saying that it’s ideal not to have a coach. I wish I could have someone who could coach me, but I just don’t know if that person exists anymore where I’m at in my career.

MR: This may be unfair to ask, but if you don’t do as well at the Trials as you would like, would you second-guess yourself about not having a coach?

MD: No, not about that part. I would second-guess a lot of other things I did. Every athlete who doesn’t meet his expectations might second-guess his training and preparation whether he has a coach or not. I’m never going to look back and say that not having a coach was a mistake. I’m sure there will be people who say that’s a bad approach to take in sports, and they may be right, but it’s a decision I’ve made.

MR: How are you preparing for the Trials?

MD: I have a blueprint written down. I think I do a good job of coming up with a three- or four-month plan that has some specific workouts and specific steps to take along the way. I think that’s one of my strong points as my own coach. The problem comes when you encounter obstacles along the way. I had strep throat this week. So, the question is: you have strep throat, you’re on antibiotics, and you have a fever of 101—how do you change this blueprint? That’s where the real challenge of not having a coach comes in.

MR: When you lived in New Jersey, you were part of the New York racing scene. Has it helped or hurt your running to no longer be part of it?

MD: I’m someone who enjoys racing. I enjoy going to different places and competing. I had a very good two years in New Jersey. When you combine the New England and Pennsylvania running scene with the New York running scene, you have a pretty large scene with a lot of exciting things going on. On a given weekend, I could find somewhere to compete against some really good runners. Here in Madison, we have a great post-collegiate running scene, but the racing is not there. Sometimes, I wish I was still in [the New York area] for the racing. But for the training, I’m in a good place.

MR: What do you see as the advantages to training in Madison?

MD: It’s easier to focus on the running. And I have to focus now with my 1-year-old son, Jack [born July 2006], running around the house. And there’s another one on the way. The due date is the Olympic Trials date.

MR: Really?

MD: That’s right. November 3 [laughs]. That was kind of poor planning on our part. But we have a plan. My wife, Angela, and I have contingency plans for everything. Hopefully, the baby will be here before I have to get on a plane. I don’t really want to get on a plane with my wife due any day. I’d rather have the baby already in the house.

MR: How much have you and Angela talked about what you would do if the baby is born on the day of the Trials?

MD: We’ve talked about it a lot. If it were any other race, the thought process would be different. It is the Olympic Trials, which we both consider the only reason why I’m still doing what I’m doing. I’ve done a lot in the sport but I have not made an Olympic team. I’ve been a lot of places and had a lot of success. The Olympic Trials is sort of the Holy Grail for me. Since it’s this race, we both sort of think we have to play our cards as they come and I’ve got to get on a plane and I’ve got to go run this race. The baby may come early. She may come by the time I get on the plane. You just have to take it as it comes. I’m not excited about the prospect of missing the birth of my daughter, but I’m sure that if I’m going to miss the birth of my daughter I’m going to put it all on the line that day.

MR: You’re married to a runner, so I guess she understands exactly what you’re going through.

MD: Yeah. She’s the former Angela Stanifer. She ran at the University of Michigan. We met in college, but we didn’t start dating until a few years ago. She was a great middle-distance runner, an All American. When she’s not pregnant, we do some running together. She’s a pretty good athlete. It’s pretty impressive to see her get out there after months of not running and be able to run four or five miles at a 7:30 pace. That’s pretty impressive.

MR: Well, I hope it works out for both of you as well as it did for Tiger Woods. He was able to play the British Open while his wife was expecting. His daughter was born after the tournament and he was there for the birth.

MD: I’d rather have her be born before the race. Then I can get on a plane and know that everyone is healthy and focus 100 percent on the task.

MR: Can the impending birth of your second child and first daughter be a motivating factor for you at the Trials?

MD: Oh, yeah. Definitely. Being a father has changed my outlook. I’m sure it changes everybody’s outlook on life. One of the things about running is it’s not the most comfortable living. I don’t get a lot of fame. Not a lot of glory in it. And one of the only reasons I’m still doing it at 30 is because it’s a dream of mine to make the Olympic team. One of the things I think of as a parent is when my son and daughter are 18 and 20 and they have dreams, I want to be able to look them in the eye and tell them to go after their dreams. I don’t want to have to tell them that I didn’t go after my dreams or give it my best shot. I have to take this running career as far as I can take it because I am doing it, and if I’m going to do it I’m going to do it right.

MR: You mentioned not getting a lot of recognition as a successful runner. Americans tend to follow team sports more closely. Are you happy with the coverage running gets in the U.S.?

MD: We certainly have major races that are a big deal—the ING New York City Marathon, the Boston Marathon, the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon, the Falmouth Road Race. Those races get a lot of coverage. And I think the Internet has allowed a lot more people to follow the sport. Before the Internet, it was hard to find the results of races and hard to get photos to see what the other runners looked like unless you went to some meet, and there really weren’t that many meets. I’ve noticed that kids today are much more aware of the sport because they can follow running online.

MR: Where are you from?

MD: Duxbury, Massachusetts. It’s about 30 miles south of Boston, on the ocean. We moved to Londonderry, New Hampshire, when I was a sophomore in high school, so I’m remembered as a New Hampshire schoolboy, which is fine with me. I love New Hampshire. My wife and I hope to get back there sometime.

MR: Was running in the Boston Marathon the big goal for you?

MD: It was a really big deal. We went into Boston three or four times when I was a kid just to watch the marathon because it was Patriots Day and we had the day off from school. I’d also watch the marathon on TV. That race is one of the reasons I wanted to become a marathoner. Eventually, I want to run the Boston Marathon, but I haven’t had a chance yet.

MR: You were a rabbit in the ING New York City Marathon in 2002 and ran the race competitively in 2003, 2004, and 2005. In what ways are you better as a marathoner now than when you ran in New York the first time?

MD: Night and day [laughs]. I’m a completely different runner today than I was in 2002. Back then, I would have told you I’m a 5000- and 10,000-meter runner with good speed who’s still working on being able to train consistently with good volume and run hard. Now I’m the opposite. I feel more like a marathoner than a 10,000-meter runner. I have decent speed for a marathoner and I have a pretty good handle on the volume I need to do and the long runs I need to do. In ’03 and ’04 every long run I did that was over two hours, 10 minutes was a death march. An absolute death march. If I ran two hours, 20 minutes, I might as well have stopped and walked. It was horrible. In ’05 I turned the corner and felt a little better on those long runs. And then last fall, gearing up for what I thought would be my fourth ING New York City Marathon, my long runs were off the charts. I was head and shoulders above where I’d been the year before. But I tripped coming down the stairs and hurt my hip, and that led to my decision not to run in New York.

MR: How would you describe running a marathon to someone who hasn’t done it?

MD: The marathon is just about strength. I mean, it’s not about anything else. My strength today is so much better than it was four years ago.

MR: Abdi Abdirahman said that 15 or 16 guys are capable of earning spots on the U.S. Olympic team. Do you agree?

MD: I would say that’s an accurate statement. I’m not a big historian of the sport, but I can’t imagine it ever being a more competitive Olympic Trials than what we’ll have this year. There are some really great runners who aren’t going to make the team. Look at the field: the returning Olympic silver medalist [Meb Keflezighi]; Abdi; Ryan Hall; Ritz [Dathan Ritzenhein]; Khalid Khannouchi; Brian Sell; Peter Gilmore; Ryan Shay; Dan Browne. There are so many guys. You’ve probably got between 10 and 15 guys who feel like if they have a good three or four months of preparation and get it all together on race day, then they should be on that team. That’s interesting because it definitely wasn’t that way four years ago or eight years ago.

MR: One of the elite runners you didn’t mention is someone that Peter Gilmore says many people tend to overlook, Alan Culpepper.

MD: Oh, yes. I didn’t mean to leave him out. He’s one of the best competitors American distance running has seen in the last 10 to 15 years. As far as being a competitor, there aren’t many better guys still running and getting the job done on race day than Culpepper. He’s definitely not a guy who’s going to show up on race day and give you half an effort.

MR: Do you expect a strategic race at the Trials?

MD: When I think about the race, I can think of about 10 to 12 different scenarios that could play out. I couldn’t even begin to guarantee that one of those scenarios will happen. There’s a chance that a guy will say, “If you’re going to make this team, you’re going to have to run 2:11.” That guy could decide that he wants to run a five-minute pace. There are probably three guys in the race who could just go out and follow him and run a 5:00 pace and make the team. Then there’s a chance there won’t be a guy who will do that and the pace will be slow. Most of the really good guys will be content to run the first half pretty slow and allow it to come down to a 10- to 12-mile race. It’s very hard to predict with so many guys in there, with so many different potential strategies. The marathon is so different from track in that when you put that many people on the line, you have no idea who’s going to have a great day, and you can’t plan for everybody else’s plan. In a track race, usually you can take certain people out of the game and run against the three or four guys who you think can win. But in the Trials, you can’t do that because there are so many guys who can win. If somebody goes out really fast, everybody will probably go with that crazy person because nobody trying to make the Olympic team will want to be a minute behind the leader at the halfway point.

MR: Will the course itself be a big factor?

MD: Definitely. The course will play a huge role. I would venture to say that nobody has ever run a marathon on a course as hard as this course is going to be. The hills in Central Park are difficult, and they’re never-ending when you have to run a whole marathon on them. We’ll see what sort of respect people have for the course because most people have run London, Boston, Chicago, or New York, and most people haven’t run many other marathons. If they have, they’ve run flat ones. And those courses aren’t anything like Central Park.

MR: Are you big on visualization? How many times do you see yourself on the Olympic team?

MD: Well, you don’t want to be the kid in the backyard imagining that he just hit a three-point shot with no time left in the NBA Finals. Then you’re just a dreamer. Success in our sport comes from putting in the work, enjoying the process and getting yourself as ready as you can be. But there are times when I’m on a run and I’m thinking about getting to race day and having it all go right and being the guy who earns one of those three spots and how awesome that feeling is going to be.

MR: We wish you well at the Trials and with the impending birth of your daughter.

MD: Thank you very much.

Interview conducted August 23, 2007, and posted September 13, 2007.