My name is Kevin McMahon ’11, I ran for Pinkerton, and two years each at Portland and North Central in college. I had a short post-collegiate “career,” competing at the 2016 USATF 10 Mile Championships before more or less hanging up the spikes in 2017. Since then, I’ve had periods where I’ve run some or not at all–currently, it’s the former, though calling one run a month “some” is stretching it to the point of dishonesty.
“Oh my God, he might break four”
**The below piece represents my own memories of events more than 15 years ago, and may not be entirely accurate, especially when guessing the mindset of others.
I’ve been in and around the sport of running for over 20 years, and have long come to understand that great performances are hard to come by and even harder to replicate–yet we’ll spend years just trying to recapture that one perfect race.
I think it was David Moorcroft who said, when speaking of his then-WR 5,000m of 13:00.41, which took a huge chunk off the existing record and the first time 13-minutes was ever remotely challenged, something to the effect of “You get a handful of perfect runs in a lifetime, runs where everything is completely effortless, and most end up being a nothing-special 10 miler in the rain. I just had one at the exact right time.” Basically, the truly remarkable, how-did-that-just-happen performances just happen when they do. The stars aligned, you primed your mitochondria just right, whatever.
During the 2009-2010 Indoor Track season, I was fortunate to witness (and play a small part in) two occasions where everything fell into place.
In two parts, I’ll share stories behind some names on a list you may or may not have seen and wondered what begot the result that earned them a place in the Pinkerton Academy track record books.
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December, 2009.
We were blessed with a ton of talent, to start. BG had gotten the better of us at XC Class L’s and New Englands (again) that fall, but it took a historic season of their own to do it, and we’d made them work for it at the very least.
So when indoor came around we were ready to hit the roads and get in shape. According to my log from the time, our first interval workout wasn’t until December 30th–Coach D had us running tempos and fartleks for the first few weeks, in true Lydiard fashion–run on campus, around the Voc. Voc 8s! Good God, those get you in shape.
For the day I recorded:
20 minute warmup. Campus workout around the Voc. 4×800, 4×400, 15:00 cooldown. Felt good. 2:38, 2:28, 2:20, 2:18, 75, 70, 71, 71. Good first workout. 2nd 400 was a little fast, paid for it on the next two.
A few days later on January 4, we got our first dose of “speed” (for me, under 70 for a 400 was speed work):
Workout. 2 mile warmup. 3×600, 5 minute jog, 2×800, 2×400, 10 minute cooldown. 1:58, 1:49, 1:43, 2:24, 2:20, 70, 68. Felt good despite going long yesterday. Good speed workout.
And on January 11, a longer run with some fartlek (Scobie Pond Rd fire hydrants–please tell me this classic workout is still around):
10 minute warmup. Scobie fire hydrants tempo, went hard (5:21 for 1.8 miles). Then added on town loop. Finished, then added on Beaver with Jake to make it about 12.5 on the day.
I won’t get into the training specifics for the entire season but with the crew we had pushing each other in practice every day (for better or worse), it’s not a huge shock we ran fast that winter. Chris Pietrocarlo and Jake Hawkins liked to throw down in workouts, trading moves to see what the other had. Some coaches discourage “racing in practice” but D had a good sense for us and what we needed beyond the runs and workouts, so Chris and Jake would get after it; the rest of us getting dragged along.
My weekly mileage totals through this point in the season were:
48.5
55
59
51.5
53
61
And such was the leadup to the NH Indoor Track & Field League Meet #5 UNH Afternoon Session on Saturday, January 16, 2010, where no one expected anything particularly remarkable to happen. Your humble narrator got the team off to a perfectly fine but hardly auspicious start, running 9:26 for 3rd in the 3k behind Concord’s top dogs and just missing the Class L auto-qualifier of 9:25.0 (though a much-needed turnaround after an abysmal 4:42 mile at the Dartmouth Relays one week prior).
Things got interesting when we gathered to cheer on Chris during the 1000m. I’m going honest–I really don’t remember this race a ton. I just remember all of us wondering if he had gone out too fast but then he just kept going. I’m not sure if we fully appreciated how huge the school record 2:34 was at the time, especially running it completely solo. He had zero competition, winning by 14 seconds.
You could say it was a harbinger of what was to come.
When Jake and Sean Leighton lined up for the 1500, we figured they were both easily due state qualifiers (sub 4:20), and should give the Concord duo doubling back from the 3k a good run. Antoine Gisore and Steven Ndisabiye pretty much only raced one way–hard from the start–working together to break fields early and then battling each other for the win. But Jake was fresh and so when they came through 800 in 2:08 or something, he wasn’t just holding on, he was floating.
Shortly after this, Hawkins went to the front and we knew we were about to see something unreal. We packed the first curve, the whole team into it by the time he had a few laps to go, even the jumpers and throwers recognizing he was on another level. Gisore was 80 yards back but not running poorly by any means. A few seconds back from him and running superbly, Sean moved past Ndisabiye into 3rd.
Naturally, the numbers guys started calculating the 160m splits and we knew it was on, barring an apocalyptic crash. As Jake barrelled out of the final curve and into the stretch, someone with a watch said “Oh my God he might break 4”–and he might as well have been running a full mile for how we reacted.
Maybe my memory (influenced by watching Prefontaine and Without Limits too many times) has grown more cinematic with age, but I can still see Jake, eyes shut, absolutely drained, practically collapsing the moment he hits the finish in a still-ridiculous 4:00.6. Only two seconds off John Schroeder’s then state record, no one could believe that he’d done what he’d just done. Sean came in at 4:16, well under the standard for the class meet (though he’d eventually opt for the 3k). Doug Ainscow, looking to qualify for his second trip to Class L Indoors, came up just short, running 4:24.
The next day, when we all checked Dyestat as the kids did in those days, we learned Jake had landed himself with a US #1 on the seasonal lists. Granted, only NH, NY, and maybe one other state runs 1500/3000m indoors (what is this, Helsinki?), but a US Leader is a US Leader.
Since 2010, Pinkerton has had some incredible athletes come through the program but no one in nearly 16 years has come within five seconds of that 4:00.6. That performance run outdoors over 1600m, and it’s worth 4:16-4:17, which matches up with Stanley and Downin’s best times over 1600m (Quick side note: Chris was in a three-way battle for the win and 50 yards away from no worse than 4:17 at the 2009 Class L Meet when the guy next to him tripped and took both of them down. Chris fell as hard as Viren in Munich but got up and still ran 4:20. That race would make a good story too now that I think about it. Hey Matt…)
In Part Two, we’ll look at another race from that season where things fell into place at just the right time. Thanks for reading!