ATHLETICS:If the mind is still willing then there's no reason why the body shouldn't be too, writes IAN O'RIORDAN
TO CUT a long story short, I ended up in The Academy on Thursday night for a late, late show by the Dublin rock group Republic of Loose. It was some kind of student gig, packed out, and I reckon the average age was 18 – which at some point in the night I realised wasn’t just half my age, but less than half. I hadn’t felt so old in years!
But there was Mick Pyro (real name Tierney) commanding the stage, dancing just like Bo Diddley and shooting from the hip just like Jesse James, every one of those kids in the palm of his hand. Mick has been at this act since well before he was 18 and I thought to myself he’s getting better with age, even though he is now at least my age. I didn’t feel so old then.
Maybe it’s because I’ve just passed another birthday that age is on my mind but other things have got me thinking about it too. Like getting up early yesterday to watch an internet broadcast of the Dubai marathon, where, at the age of 35, Haile Gebrselassie was going for an amazing 27th world record, the first of which he broke over 5,000 metres way, way back in 1994. The target here was his own 2:03.59 which Gebrselassie set in Berlin just four months ago.
Well he didn’t break it this time – and “only” ran 2:05.29, finishing over two minutes ahead of second place. Actually, that’s still the eighth fastest marathon run of all time, four of which Gebrselassie ran, which means only four men in history have ever run quicker than 2:05.29. The truth is he may well have bettered his record again had conditions been any more favourable.
Instead, Dubai turned more like Dublin as the wind whipped up and constantly changed direction, and then halfway through the race it started lashing rain. “I knew after halfway when we turned back, and felt the wind, and saw the rain clouds, the record was gone,” said Gebrselassie, who still earned $250,000 for his win.
Not that he was too disappointed. Straightaway the most famous Ethiopian in the world announced plans to go for the record again in Berlin later in the year. He’s already talked about his intention to keep racing right through to London in 2012, where he hopes to cap off his extraordinary career by winning a third Olympic gold medal.
He’ll be 39 by the time London comes around – at least, because some people believe Gebrselassie is actually several years older than he thinks.
This is no slight or some sort of discrediting. Quite the opposite. There are few more believable athletes on the planet right now than Gebrselassie. Official records have him born on April 18th, 1973, the last of 10 children, in the remote and mountainous Arsi Province, except that birth records in Ethiopia weren’t very official at the time, and I for one wouldn’t be surprised if Gebrselassie was several years older than 35, because he certainly looks it.
The point is he’s still producing remarkable athletic performances despite being at an age where athlete performances are thought to go into rapid decline. But Gebrselassie thinks differently, and he’s not alone. It seems more and more athletes are defying the so-called age barrier, and not just in running.
Next week, Lance Armstrong rides in the Tour Down Under, the first step towards possibly winning back an incredible eighth Tour de France title next July, after coming out of a two-year retirement, at the age of 37. (Actually older than me!) It was quite incredible too to watch Ryan Giggs still producing the goods for Manchester United last week, at age 35.
James Lawton of the Independentsummed it up in saying that Giggs was "waspish, defying the years and in the most crucial moments supplying the vital edge of confidence".
Maintaining that sort of confidence against far younger opponents is not easy, and no athlete can continue to master their event into their late 30s without absolute discipline. Gebrselassie talked about this in an interview just before Dubai, referring to a recent stopover in London with some Ethiopia team-mates.
“We had to stay in the Sheraton next to Heathrow but when we arrived it was about 11 o’clock in the evening, and it was impossible to train outside. I started to think about how I could train and then I noticed that my hotel corridor was very long. I put on my shoes and started to run up and down it, and then some of my friends joined me.
“By that time it was close to midnight and people started to come out of their rooms to look at us. They all thought it was an emergency and started following us. One old woman was shouting and running down the corridor in her pyjamas. But I didn’t want to miss a day’s training.
“I always tell young athletes the same thing, ‘Wherever you go, whatever you do, what must your top priority be? Running’. The top priority must always be training, training. This is a discipline. You have to do it.”
And it’s not like Gebrselassie has nothing else to worry about. His business interests in Ethiopia continue to expand and now include schools, cinemas and hotels and an exclusive deal to import Hyundai vehicles.
So he trains at 5.30 in the morning, anything up to 23 miles in the high-altitude trails above Addis Ababa, follows that by a day’s work at the office, then another training session, before returning home at 8.0 just in time to kiss his four young children goodnight.
What honestly drew Armstrong back to competitive cycling at age 37 is anyone's guess, although he did give some interesting reasons in an interview with this month's Outsidemagazine.
“I like suffering,” he says, “and I like putting myself through hard work-outs and the structure around that. From 1999 to 2001 my mind was in a really tough space. It was a fighting space. And that dipped a little at the end of my career. But my mind is fresher and tougher and more motivated now.”
In other words if the mind is still willing then there’s no reason why the body shouldn’t be too. Talent, after all, doesn’t decline with age. Paula Radcliffe certainly believes that as she steadfastly pursues her Olympic dream through to London. She’ll be 38 then, the same age that Constantina Tomescu was when winning the women’s marathon gold medal in Beijing.
It’s ultimately about keeping the mind in check with the body. “The legs aren’t so quick and the reflexes are maybe not so sharp,” Lawton added about Giggs, “but in the matter of understanding the dynamics of a match that simply has to be won, Giggs remains in an exclusive class indeed.”
When I read that I hadn’t felt so young in years.
