If you have ever been in a crowded race, you know the feeling of having nowhere to go, and the danger of falling, or getting tripped. You wind up on your butt, and have to scramble back to your feet and try to shake it off. In a distance race, you generally have enough time to get back into it. But a shorter race, like the one below, is a different story.
Heather Dorniden is a sophomore who runs for the University of Minnesota. She fell about 200 meters into a 600 meter race at the Indoor NCAA Championships. She managed to get up, recover, and actually win her heat. It was an amazing performance, and helped her team win the championship. I have a few thoughts about it which I can share after you have had a chance to see it. I have links to the video itself on the Big Ten network, and to an interview with her.
http://downthebackstretch.blogspot.com/2008/03/heather-dornidens-big-ten-adventure-you.html
It's quite a story, and an amazing amount of determination she showed to get up and get back in the race. If you are a track fan though you know that 600 meters is a really short race, that the women run in fairly close to a minute and a half. That's just about a sprint. So she had no time to think after she fell. She scrambled to get back up and go. She had to make up quite a bit of distance. So for her to win, tells me she was overwhelmingly the best runner in the race. But she was also the most determined.
She finished second in the finals though, which tells me the heat must have taken a little out of her. She is a 5-time All-American and former NCAA champion in the 800 meters.
A lot of the message boards I read regarding this talked about how inspirational this performance was. I wholeheartedly agree. There was also debate about whether this was the greatest performance/comeback ever. I don't know about that. It makes for 
a good debate. As far as I'm concerned it was simply a great performance.
Back to the idea of inspiration though for a second. I think all of us find inspiration from different sources. Distance runners tend to have a lot of time to think during our long runs. And inspirational thoughts help get through some of those runs. In my opinion, there are lots of ways to look at the inspiration a performance like Heather Dorniden's offers. Just the simple idea of coming back from adversity it embodies can apply to all kinds of challenges we all face, athletic or otherwise.
Ms. Dorniden also showed a great deal of humility in the interview, and I really respect that. She wrote about the importance of her points to the team's effort to win the championship. They did. And she mentioned there was a greater power at work helping her through the rest of the race. Adrenaline certainly played a role as well, I'm sure.
It brings to mind another runner who dealt with a similar type of adversity in a different way, with a much different result. Remember Mary Decker Slaney getting tripped by Zola Budd in the 3000 meter race in 1984 Olympics? I was a big Mary Decker fan growing up, but after 
that happened, I lost a little respect for her. You may recall she crumpled to the track in tears and was carried off. She never accepted Budd's apology, and accused her of intentionally tripping her in the post-race news conference. It was a shame all around.
Heather Dorniden dealt with her situation much differently and earned not only a victory in the heat, but a great deal of respect. So, kudos to her. Congratulations.
So stay on your feet if you can, and I'll see you on the roads....
Comments