Women's Olympic Marathon:

Deena's Coach Terrence Mahon Sums Up

The marathon shows no favoritism as to who will be the winners, who will be the survivors, and who will be left by the wayside.  In fact, one might say that the Olympic marathon does its best to turn the tables on the world record-holders, world champions, and returning Olympic champions.  I think it is the nature of the beast when you attempt to run an event whose founding father died after accomplishing his goal. This 2008 Olympic Women's marathon proved to be no exception.

The drama of this race begins well before the gun goes off. Mizumi Noguchi, the returning Olympic champion from Japan, never even got to the starting line. The physical stress of overtraining and the mental stress of defending her title proved to be too much as she wound up in a hospital just a short time before the race. Japan, the perennial team favorite in these events, would only be able to put two athletes on the starting line instead of the typical three. The Ethiopian women, always present to go for the gold, were left with only one finisher as their two best women dropped out of the race and were never really a factor from the outset. The Russians were not to fare much better.  

With great tragedy, sadness, and pain on our end, Deena Kastor would be left with a day similar to that of Noguchi. After completing only three miles of the 26.2-mile race, Deena heard a "pop" in her right foot. As runners, we are calloused to withstand a lot of pain and such little pops often come with the territory. It could be a creaky ankle, a sticky tendon, or bone sliding in its socket, but it is most often not a break. However, for Deena, today it was a break. A clean snap of her third metatarsal that left her shooting off the right foot and over to the left to protect herself from the agony of taking another step on a bone that could no longer support her. This was not a stress reaction that you can will yourself through because it's the Olympics. This was not the stress fracture that will sting with every step, but you can summon a way to push the pain out of your mind. A break is a break both literal and metaphorical. The only remedy is to stop what you are doing whether you like it or not.

However, to stop only three miles into the Olympic marathon is the last thing any runner ever wants to do. And for Deena Kastor, the American record-holder and defending Olympic bronze medalist, to stop is ever so much harder. Unless you have been in the shoes of someone who has been there and done that, then you will never understand what it means to not be able to do it again when that is all that you have wanted for the past four years.

As I step back from the race and Deena's tragedy, I saw some truly great and inspirational runs. Constantina Dita, who has in so many marathons gone out too fast and too hard to only crash and burn, finally got away and stayed away for the win. She is a true example of what determination and desire can do when all the others thought that she had run at least one marathon too many in her career.  Winning the gold proved as much to herself as to all the others that she is still a major force in the marathon. If I were her, I think that I would retire on the spot, but knowing Constantina I am sure that she has even more to prove down the road. 

Catherine Ndereba , or as the marathon world knows her, "Catherine the Great,” is phenomenally consistent in her ability to get on the podium again and again and again. She has done it so many times at so many major championships that one has to wonder if we, in fact, "will" her to the podium. She is probably the one marathoner that I have met who carries the greatest respect for the event above all others. However, this respect is not fear, but a true understanding of what it means to run 26.2 miles as hard as you can to finish as high as you can. She has really learned how to run this race in so many different ways - with each way being the perfect race for her on that specific day. She listens to her body like no other and brings nothing to the table in terms of apprehensions or aspirations, and because of that she always seems to find herself in the hunt with 5k to go. This race was no different. She knew that a run for the title was not in the cards, but made the best of what her legs and lungs had to offer. She bided her time and worked through the bad patches until she knew that she could make the final move to the finish line. On Sunday that move was with 100 meters to go and soon after they hung a silver medal around her neck. Another medal well earned and well deserved.

Although I know very little about Zhou Chunxiu from China, I congratulate her all the more for being able to get a bronze medal while competing on her home ground. To be able to get it done and fight against Catherine all the way to the finish was awesome to see. She ran as hard as she could for herself and her country and that is all one can ever ask in these Games. It has been incredible to see the national pressure that the Chinese athletes are under, especially the medal favorites. Their faces cover billboards, magazine covers, buses, and TV ads. The stresses for the top athletes like basketball star Yao Ming and hurdler Liu Xiang have manifested themselves in injuries for both great athletes this year. It is as if carrying the weight of the Chinese people on their backs for so long finally made them crack, finally showed us outsiders that they are human, that they are just like the rest of us. I guess this is another subtext to what the Olympics are about. They not only show us the triumph, but also the tragedy of the human spirit and how we share them both with everyone in the world. None of us is immune to the joys and the sadness of what it means to be human - no matter what our politics, our economics, or our citizenship is - we are all the same. We are all flesh and bone together.  

Even though our U.S. women marathoners did not have the day out there that they had been dreaming about, they all had great experiences. These were experiences that will take some time to understand, respect, and cherish.  Deena, Blake, and Magda will come to realize that although they did not medal or even set personal best times, what they did do was represent their country and themselves for a shining moment in time. They will be marked in history as U.S. Olympians. Yesterday they set a spark in many a young girls’ eyes that will manifest itself as a dream, then as a desire, possibly a goal and for some many years down the road, a reality. And for all those touched by these three women for that brief moment in time, it will become a great journey. It has been for me already. 

About

Top Posts

Interviews of Olympians