Abdi Abdirahman knows how to run for a long time. He’s the only American distance runner to have qualified for five Olympics (FIVE!). He’s competed in three Olympics at 10000m and two at the marathon distance. He’ll be running the marathon at Tokyo 2020, so we and Book Club Claire talked with him about how both of these races work and what’s up with the controversial Nike Vaporfly road shoes.
Abdi has also written a book called Abdi’s World: The Black Cactus on Life, Running, and Fun which details his life and his approach to running.
What is Team Keep the Flame Alive up to this week? We’ve got news from:
- Hammer thrower DeAnna Price
- Decathlete Jordan Gray
- Water polo Olympian Tony Azevedo
- Runner/Chaplain Madeline Mims
- Olympian/Film Producer John MacLeod
In Tokyo 2020 news:
- We’ve got new information about the International Olympic Committee’s protest ban.
- The Tokyo Organizing Committee has also backpedaled from its initial decision to ban athletes’ children who are breastfeeding.
- Columbia’s bit hit by a doping penalty (guess which sport).
- The Japanese postal service has found an ingenious way to commemorate Team Japan’s gold medal performances at these Olympics.
- The torch is making its way to Tokyo prefecture — but not to the crowds.
- The International Paralympic Committee has named its refugee team.
Thanks so much for listening, and until next time, keep the flame alive!
Photo: Team USA
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TRANSCRIPT
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196-Olympian Abdi Abdirahman on Marathon Running
Abdi Abdirahman: [00:00:00] For me, I say only crazy people run that long and we must be crazy as a runner. So we’re not normal. Mid
Theme Music
Jill Jaracz: Hello, fans of sh Costan and welcome to another episode of keep the flame alive. The podcast four fans of the Olympics in Paralympics. I am your host. Jill. Jarris joined as always by my lovely co-host Allison brown, Allison. Hello, how are you today?
Book Club Claire: Feeling so sporty?
Alison Brown: I tried some archery. I did some kayaking. I did some very fast walking. Very
Jill Jaracz: good. You had a pretty good Olympic day.
Alison Brown: I did. I mean, it wasn’t on Olympic [00:01:00] day. It was sort of in Olympic week or maybe it was Olympic day, like Japan time so,
but yeah, I feel like, okay. I’m I did some water, some land, not gonna do any air ready. That’s cool. Yeah. So that’s I read you cause and an injury, so I gotta keep. Somewhat safe.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. You have a pretty big bruise.
Alison Brown: I know, but I still wanna try pole vaulting.
Jill Jaracz: Okay. We’ll work on it. We’ll see. Very
Alison Brown: small pole.
Jill Jaracz: very, very, I’m gonna put it with the ski jump because ski jump is also on your list and they do have very tiny ski jumps to start with.
Alison Brown: Yes, I’m a very tiny person, so we gotta keep this size appropriate.
Jill Jaracz: All right. We’ll work on it.
Alison Brown: You know what? I did not do
Jill Jaracz: what
Alison Brown: I did not run. I can walk extremely fast, but I cannot.
Jill Jaracz: Have you thought about race walking?
Alison Brown: I have thought about race walking because I have the hips for it. I have the flexibility, the ability. I think I’d actually be a really [00:02:00] good race Walker, but I get bored in the middle and be like, squirrel something shiny is over there. I would
Jill Jaracz: focus. Maybe it’s good.
Like you can just get enough penalties to take a little bit of penalty time and that would shake it up enough in a face.
Alison Brown: I would never win. I would just be hanging out in the penalty, loop, cheering other people on eating a donut or something.
Abdi Abdirahman interview
Jill Jaracz: All right. Let’s move on to today’s guest. We are talking with, uh, marathon or Abdi aberaman, who is the only American distance runner to have qualified for five Olympics.
Uh, he started his Olympic career in 2000 and in, in Sydney and in Athens, 2004 in Beijing, 2008, he competed in the 10,000 meters at London, 2012. He switched over to the marathon and he will compete in the marathon. In 2020, he is author of the new book Abdis world, which will be released in August. Take a listen to our conversation, which also includes [00:03:00] book club, Claire.
And we’ll tell you why after the interview take a listen. So we wanna talk about both the 10,000 meters and the marathon and how they work
Alison Brown: because that’s a long time to run.
Jill Jaracz: We think it’s a long time to run. Alison, I don’t know, Abdi. Do you think that it’s a long time to run?
Abdi Abdirahman: Oh, definitely. Yeah. They’re long time.
Definitely. You running two hours. So it just, at the end of the day, that’s why, that’s why I, that’s why I inspire. They, they inspire me like recreational runners, the people who are not professional runners, they are the one who inspire me because they’re the one who run three plus hours for marathon four hours, five hours, like two or three hours for me.
I respect him more hours that you run for us. We only run for two hours. So it just. I think like anytime you run it, it only takes for me. I say only crazy people run that long and we must be crazy as a runner. So we’re not normal.
Alison Brown: And not only do you run a [00:04:00] long time each time you’ve been doing this a long time.
So now I’m a little concerned about your mental health optic.
Abdi Abdirahman: I know just, it is crazy though. Sometimes I even question myself like on the first 10 minute I question and say, well, am I doing this and say, you know, you, you can find something else to do much easier than this, but after 10 minutes, I get that runners high.
And I say, whoa, what is the best place to be? I don’t wanna be. No other place than here I’m running. That’s just live.
Jill Jaracz: Tell us a little bit about the strategy of the 10,000 meters. Cause especially now that the track and field trials are on, we’ve been watching and there’s, you know, it’s not just guys running 20, some laps are on the track.
There’s like jostling and, and. A strategy for everybody going on. So tell us a little bit, how about how have you’ve approached the 10,000?
Abdi Abdirahman: Oh man, that 10,000. I think the trial is 10,000. It was one of the best races by [00:05:00] the, and the trial so far because, and I’m biased actually. So I just say that because I’m a distance runner, so please all shot 800 middle was good too, by the way.
Those two races was the, my favorite races. So yeah, but you know, 10,000 is like at this and when you get to the trials, everybody, no one is running for. Time, most of the people are just trying to finish top three. And if you watch the race, the, all the guys who have the, a standards, they did not move to the front of the front of the race until about three or four lap to go.
And there’s a four or five of them. So it just, it becomes a kicker, race and strategy. And that’s something is not like something that they figure out that day is something that they be talk. They talk about with their coach, with their, you know, strength, coach everybody. So, and I think it’s becoming a more, a kicker race than.
Like a pure race is not like, I feel like they just run the, the first mile, the first like of five miles [00:06:00] just to prepare themselves to the finish line and king really, really K and, and the kid who gets second, I forgot his name. they, they both run like 53 second last lab, which is, which is impressive. And I think the us will do something special for the 10 K if they can stay until the last lab, which is gonna be totally different than the us trials
Jill Jaracz: when you’re running.
Uh, It’s how can you pass somebody? Especially on the inside. There have been some people who’ve left holes on the inside, so they’ve let other runners come up. But like when you’re kind of boxed in, how do you get out of that box?
Abdi Abdirahman: Uh, you just hope for the best, to be honest, like, uh, It’s just, I haven’t run the track in long time, but for me before it was like, I, I can get Bo you, you, you want my, if you get boxed in the first couple labs, like, you know, the first 10 labs.
So I usually stay there. Actually, it is good to be boxed in sometimes in the longer distance, because like, you can avoid. You can just run with people [00:07:00] and draft on people instead of being in the front, but you don’t wanna be on the, you don’t wanna be boxed in about three, four laps to go during the race because you wanna, you wanna have like a open path to the, you know, if you wanna make a move or just, you just wanna have a open route open path.
So for, for me, usually I just like, I, I try to stay in the. The front of the race or just the pack of the leading group. So I just saw in case something happened, I can’t just go outside line or lane two and then just start making my move instead of waiting someone to move. So, and sometimes it’s very difficult.
There’s a lot of juggling going on the race, especially when the races start sometimes because that’s when the people who doesn’t belong to the front, that they wanna go to the front, that they wanna be on the camera of the first couple lap. You know, just a lot of things goes.
Jill Jaracz: do you wear spikes for the 10,000?
Abdi Abdirahman: I used to, yes, I did wear spikes. Yep. And I’ve been spike many times.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. What’s, what’s the difference between wearing spikes and it mean, is there a feel [00:08:00] between spikes and like a regular road shoe?
Abdi Abdirahman: Oh yeah, definitely. You know, that track is a rubber, so you have more grip on the ground. So that like, uh, than, than wearing a.
You know, the road racing shoes, which is like a flat that doesn’t have any like, uh, spikes and you cannot grip on the track. So you cannot like run faster. It’s much easier to run faster than spikes than the road race shoes.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, okay. Marathon shoes. What? What’s up with these Nike vapor flies?
Abdi Abdirahman: No. Oh, they’re the best shoes out there.
So they. They save you, legs, recovery, everything that you’re running fast. You know, I remember because for me, I’ve been around since 2000, so I have seen it, uh, zoom, normal marathon shoes to the favor flies now to the next percent. And I have run like, um, zoom, marathoners. I have run with those shoes and I remember just finishing New York city marathon, like 2000.
- I remember when I finished the [00:09:00] race, I say, I will never run another marathon again, because my CALS, everything was hurting. But when I wear the Fe fly a couple years ago and I say, oh man, I didn’t even run a marathon. So they basically saved you legs.
Jill Jaracz: Cause I mean like shoe technology is so interesting because there was a lot of controversy about the vapor flies and, and world athletics finally allow, you know, you never realize like they have limits on shoes.
Abdi Abdirahman: Yeah, but at the end of the day, you know, and I do, I, I know what they’re saying that there’s a limit, but we cannot just be stuck with the one shoes. Like our next 20, 30 years there have to be innovation, just like, just like anything else on life. You know, if we. If we wanna run the shoot that we run, like a 1924, they would just pure leather, nothing else that was in there.
So if they want us to run with their shoes, then I don’t know, then we should have not, we should not have electricity card. We should have nothing. We should not have any. So, you know, I, I applaud Nike, to be honest, they came up with a good idea and people, other people are complaining, Hey, is, it is a, is a, is a business.
So is a [00:10:00] competition. Whoever come out with the better product will benefit. So it’s just the same way goes to the cars. That’s what they have in like fuel efficiency, everything you just Don. But like a, you don’t get like a five miles a gallon. So now you can get 30, 40 miles a gallon just, and just look at the shoes the same way
Alison Brown: when you’re approaching a marathon.
How do you figure out what your strategy is going to be for that particular race? In terms of the course in terms of who’s running in that race, how do you look at.
Abdi Abdirahman: Ah, that’s a great question to be a marathon first off, marathon’s totally different than like a shorter distance, like a 10,000 meter 5,000 meters.
So basically in the marathon, you just always wanna know who’s in the race, what they’re capable of, but when the race goes off, when the guns goes off, everything goes out the window. To be honest, because like the marathon first, you don’t, you don’t go out that fast. The first six, seven miles, you know, just as a marathon.
Everybody can be [00:11:00] there unless you run with Kipchoge and then you run at four 30. That’s different. But, uh, but for me, like I just, I just run my own race and basically I don’t wear a watch. That’s what my strategy. I just, if I wear, if I wear a watch, usually I feel like I’m putting myself a limit, what I’m capable of because like you, instead of running.
How you feel you running with the time? So you just keep looking your watch, which I don’t think is a good idea for me. I just, I just compete. I just get to the front. If I’m, if I feel like I’m pushing too hard on like a outreach and I just back off and just run comfortable pace for me and run the people that I’m capable of running with, which is most of the time I’ve, I’m up in the front with the lead group.
Book Club Claire: How do you fuel. Uh, I’m talking about, uh, nutrients, uh, food. You say that you kind of just run, but I’m sure you have a plan when you are doing a marathon that you need to figure out where you need to eat, where you need to drink. What, what is your plan? [00:12:00]
Abdi Abdirahman: Uh, you know, for me, for me, like, uh, I always tell people, I say, you know, practice makes everything perfect for me.
My, my diet is something like, it’s not like a day before the race or like couple it’s something that I do daily basis. And it’s a normal does I eat the same thing that I eat night before my long run. Every Sunday I do a long run, like a 20 plus mile. So a night before that I would just eat like. Normal dinner.
I just I’ll make like a spaghetti, just like a lot of carbohydrate. And just, and that’s the same thing that I do during the, during the marathon, because I don’t wanna try anything new just because like, if the marathon is only one race, like every few months we might do like. Every every year woman, I do one or two races, but I don’t wanna, I wanna like my, but to get used to all year round what I eat and just, just my normal diet.
So I don’t try anything new night before the race and just, and I, and I told people, cause some people think, oh, what I should I eat? They look at to play and they say, oh, he’s eating that maybe. [00:13:00] I’m gonna run as fast as him. So I’m, they starting the same thing, that guy eating. So they never get used to, so they have so much problem or they don’t like, you know, their body doesn’t perform.
The digestion’s not perfect. You know, it just like your body have to get used to the food. You are eating it too. Like when you’re running that long, that long for two hours and, and everything have to go your way.
Alison Brown: Do you have a favorite marathon? A favorite course.
Abdi Abdirahman: Ah, for me, I love, I love Boston and New York.
Two two, my favorite, I love, I love Boston is a great, like, it just, I, I call the Boston marathon equalizer in New York because people don’t run like a London or Chicago. They don’t run like a 2 0 3 or 2 0 4, you know, just a lot of Hills. It’s a challenging. And they always bring the strength of the runner.
So that’s why I do well there.
Alison Brown: And what are you thinking about the Tokyo course in not Tokyo?
Abdi Abdirahman: Uh, yeah, that course I have seen [00:14:00] it is a loop. I’m just, I’m not like for me, one thing I, like, I don’t know why this kind of, it’s kind of something that I like to do. I don’t like to know about the course. I just, I just, it just, I don’t wanna think about it a lot.
I feel like the best thing for me to do is prepare myself, get fit, and just go out there and compete without worrying about what’s in the course. How is it gonna be? What trying, what just. If you are ready and you prepare yourself, you do well. And if you are not, you’re not gonna do well. So the less, the less stress I have, the better I do.
So for me, I’m not even worried about the course. I’m just worried about myself. I’m trying to get as fit as I can
Jill Jaracz: does having such a long career help you in that when you know your body and you know, your, your running and Audi and you know, you’re, you’re running and it’s race day and you know how far to push yourself or when to go back or when to chase.
Abdi Abdirahman: Yeah, definitely you, for me running like a 20 plus years, you know, it always helps a lot, you know, just because I [00:15:00] know there’s so many races that I make mistake and, and the people they say don’t make the same mistake twice. So it just, I don’t make that, that big mistakes, a lot of, a lot of the races, but I just run my own race.
So, and also ex my experience is just, I run and that’s the reason I don’t wear a watch. I just run how I feel. It just, I pace myself and I know the people to run with and just like, and I know like where to make my move, where not to make moves, you know, just, I usually, I don’t get a competitive with people until I pass the halfway races.
So just, they say the first half marathon is not even the race or the race. That’s the next half. And that’s how I approach.
Alison Brown: what’s going through your head for two hours,
Abdi Abdirahman: two hours. Like to be honest, most of the time, nothing actually like, uh, sometimes like, you know, and to be perfect sometimes there’s like you just thinking about the finish line so you can’t finish line, get any closer just, and that’s when you not having a good day.
So I don’t have the best days [00:16:00] most, but when you having a good day, you just, nothing goes through your head, but just the.
Jill Jaracz: some races have pace setters. Do they have pace setters at the Olympics?
Abdi Abdirahman: There’s no pace set in the Olympics is a fewer competition
Alison Brown: with the Olympic races. You obviously have many fewer runners just in the environment.
I mean, obviously when you’re racing New York and Boston, most of the crowd is way behind you, but does it feel significantly? And of course now we’re not gonna even have spectators, but does it feel significantly different in an Olympic environment versus those big marathons? Uh,
Abdi Abdirahman: not actually not to be honest, it just feels the same way to be because you’re running against the same people.
Because like, if you think about it, if you think about it, like in New York or post marathon, they usually have like about a hundred elite or like maybe co maybe like, They, they have like over two, maybe a hundred to one 50 elite. And after the first couple miles, there’s only maybe like a 20 or 30 guys who are together in, in the lead [00:17:00] group.
And that’s how the Olympic works. Usually. Like they have a, they maybe have each country over three people, so they will have maybe like, Maybe two, 300 athletes. And that the first three months there would be only 50 or 60 guys who are together just like a major world, major marathon. So it’s just, it doesn’t feel that much different.
Only the difference is gonna be the crowd this year. And I hope we’re gonna have a crowd, the Japanese people, because they love marathons. So they’re gonna come out. They’re gonna come out, I think.
Jill Jaracz: Is there trash talking?
Abdi Abdirahman: Oh, yeah, there’s a lot of track. Not really, but I like to talk people like not in the Olympics, but in, in, in New York city or just like some of the guys, you know, just during the media day, you know, just, you’re trying to get outta people’s head, you know, just.
Some of the guys who are not like, if, you know, if you know their weakness and the thing that they know, they don’t like, you just tell them, oh, the race is gonna go out so fast to tomorrow. Someone somebody’s gonna go like a four 30 piece. Let’s say that’s the pace they asking for. So just to miss up with their head, that doesn’t work with me [00:18:00] cuz I don’t care, whoever runs.
So I usually don’t wear, watch. And I can tell people who usually. Think about the pace, how fast? Because they ask, usually ask me, how fast are you gonna go? What group you gonna go with? And I say, I’m going with the lead group. And they usually just leave me alone.
Alison Brown: What does your race day look like? What’s your ritual?
Abdi Abdirahman: Uh, my race day ritual. Usually I just wake up in the morning around. Maybe the rate usually starts at 10, so I’ll usually wake up like five 30, just, uh, shave my head, usually just, I don’t know why it just shaved my. And then just get my breakfast. And other than that, I don’t have any ritual. I should just go to the start line on the bus.
Just listen to music, relax. Just, uh, somehow warm up 20, 30 minutes before the race. And then when guns, I’m just, I’m nervous before the guns goes off before, before, like we at the stand super navs and that navs goes away [00:19:00] right after the first, like even the 400 meter. I’m just back to normal. And because that’s usually happen when I’m about to do well.
Alison Brown: So when we’re watching the marathon on TV, other than somebody’s ahead, somebody’s behind, how do we know that a runner’s having a good day or a bad day?
Abdi Abdirahman: Oh, you can tell them their face expression. And it depends what point of the race, if the, if the race that, that if the race is in a 22 mile mark and someone is like, uh, way behind and someone’s, you can always tell the guy in the front, the one who’s leading, having a good day, even though.
Marathon anything can happen 23 to 26.2 miles. Something, anything can happen the last three miles. So you just, you just, if someone, if they’re close to each other, you just never know who’s gonna win until someone cross that finish line. So, because anything, a lot of people collapse the last mile or just even 800 meters to go.
People usually just break down. They cannot gonna run anymore, barely moving on and they [00:20:00] get past many times.
Book Club Claire: in the 10,000 meters, you’re running on a track. There’s nothing in front of you, but when you’re running a marathon and you’re in that lead packer, even in the, in the packs behind, there’s usually a car with a bunch of people with cameras trained on you, is that at all distracting or are you just able to get past that and just focus on the course?
Abdi Abdirahman: Uh, you can just focus on the course and that sometimes helps though, like the, if you are leading the marathon and about two, three miles to go on the lead cars in front of you. So you just trying to, you just trying to get as close as you can to the lead card maintain. So you can drift, you can drift on the lead car.
So yeah, sometimes it helps.
Book Club Claire: That is news. I did that though. That’s great to know. .
Alison Brown: I’m just imagining the drafting on the lead car. Like, are we gonna have to adjust for that depending on what the car is?
Jill Jaracz: London, London was not a great experience. Tell, tell us a little bit about what happened.
Abdi Abdirahman: Uh, London was one of [00:21:00] those races.
I just totally forget about it and just, I, I lefted everything in London, just, I didn’t wanna even think about. It was a, you know, it was a difficult time for me, you know, I got injured, right. When I get there, I have a knee problem, just, I tried to run it, but I made it to the halfway. I just, I just couldn’t run with pain.
So sometimes they say in the marathon, you rather, I came in a real, real good shape, but I was not healthy. Sometimes they say you should come in like 60%, 70%. With the healthy party. So I was like one 90% shape, but I was not healthy to, so I have a new problem. I was DNF and it was one of the saddest days, but you know, that’s passed and you know, it just happened is just, it just injures something that we all deal with as a, as an athlete,
Jill Jaracz: when it kind, it kind of piggybacking on that.
One of the things you talked about in your book that I, I really thought was a good message was for younger kids. You don’t have to run so far so fast, you know, your body’s still [00:22:00] developing and, and how you listen to your body and maybe you take off longer times or take more rest in order to be healthy.
And that that’s really helped with the longevity you’ve had.
Abdi Abdirahman: Yeah, that’s true. You know, just for me, I wasn’t a high mileage guy when I was in college and that’s when I started running in college. So I wasn’t high mileage. I wasn’t doing like 120 hundred 20 plus miles a week and just. I was doing 60, 60, 50 miles a week when I was in college.
Even when I was, when I became a professional, the first few years I was running, uh, the track I was, I was doing 80 miles, you know, just, and now these days you see the kids who are doing like a hundred hundred plus miles. They not, they an marathons, they have 5,000 meter, 1500 meter runners. You know what?
You will have a great career, but you. Your career will be great for a few years, but you will never have a long jeopardy. And for me, I choose, I wanna have a long career and I, and I enjoy running too. And if something happened to [00:23:00] me from, if I, if I’m, if I’m having any problem with my body or just, I’m not feeling well, or just something’s achy, instead of just pushing through being like that macho man to say nothing is going for I’m the toughest guy.
No, I just let just my, let my body recover because that. , you’re not a machine because you’re a human being and you, if something is hurting, is your body telling you, Hey, you’re pushing too much or something’s wrong. So the best thing to do is just take a time to recover. You will come back stronger than ever, instead of being like a five, six weeks or doesn’t matter how long, however, take you like a, to recover injury.
It will take you three, four days to recover. So instead of four to six weeks, you can take three. Three to four days to recover. So that’s the way I look at it for me. I’m in the long term, not the short.
Jill Jaracz: When you think about your race year, how many marathons do you like to do?
Abdi Abdirahman: I like, for me, I like to do two max, two [00:24:00] marathons a year.
That’s plenty
Jill Jaracz: because
Abdi Abdirahman: yeah. You know, two marathons a lot too, because you know, two S just the races, but those to get ready for those two marathons, you have to train. Four to five months, each of them, and you’re doing like a hundred miles. So that’s a lot on your body. Just imagine doing three or four marathon your career instead of lasting like, uh, 20 plus years career up having like a 10 plus years.
And that happened a lot. I won’t call any names, but you see a lot of people who came after me and retired away before I even make my second, third, fourth Olympics. Forget about the fail. So.
Jill Jaracz: So these, these people who do like 50 marathons in 50 states and 50 days are just really crazy.
Abdi Abdirahman: Uh, that that’s a difference.
I wouldn’t call them crazy, but it’s just a different kind of people. So I’m talking about the elite level, those people they do.
Jill Jaracz: Okay.
Abdi Abdirahman: Yeah. Those people do those kind of marathons, but they don’t do like 120 plus [00:25:00] miles a week to train for. And at the, and same time do like a marathon each week. So for them, they probably do 50, 60 miles and they do.
and they do a marathon a week for me. I do marathon almost every weekend, 20 plus miles. Every Sunday I do a long run. It’s not as fast. It not, it’s only like at maybe 20 seconds slow in the marathon pace.
Alison Brown: I’ll be the one to say it. That is a lot of running.
Book Club Claire: But let’s be honest. It only takes what two hours for you to, to do 20 plus miles. For some of us, it takes a lot longer. So it’s just like a normal, early morning run. No big deal.
Abdi Abdirahman: Yeah. This morning for 12 miles. And it took me like a two hours and seven minutes. So no one hour and seven minutes
Book Club Claire: there, we. I had a question about your competitors in Tokyo slash Sapporo.
Let let’s say, who, who are you looking to be in that lead pack with? I know, [00:26:00] uh, Elliot Kipchoge is the current world record holder, Galen Rupp, uh, qualified for the marathon as well in the United States. Who are you looking to be in that pack with?
Abdi Abdirahman: Oh, my God. I’m looking for everybody, to be honest, all the athletes who are, who made it to support or are, are the best in their country.
And, and that’s the ethic, you know, that you wanna be with. So to be honest, I’m, I’m looking for, I’m looking to all the athletes who are gonna be there, and I think it’s gonna be amazing race and just, I’m gonna get to the front and, you know, see what I’m capable of just, but I’m not gonna take anyone lively because I know.
If you count someone out what they’re capable of doing, because I was one of those people, sometimes when people say, oh, abs done, he’s not gonna be able to do it. But Hey, I accomplished my goals. There’s a lot of people who are like me and people, accounting without there’s people like, you know, from Uganda, he’s a defend, he was the Olympic champion 2012.
So he’s going to do great things, you know, just that’s a lot of people I’m looking, seeing [00:27:00] every.
Book Club Claire: you’ve been training with Mora. Is he qualified to, to, uh, go to the marathon?
Abdi Abdirahman: No, no, he’s doing the thing.
Book Club Claire: Okay. That I didn’t know what they were doing in great Britain. So, but you have been training with him in Ethiopia.
How has that been?
Abdi Abdirahman: That that’s been great. You know, just sometimes, um, man, it was, it was the best training camp because it’s in 9,000 above sea level in Ethiopia, less distraction. And group of guys who have the same goal, who, who have the same team that you wanted. Yeah. Just is, is the best motivation athlete will ask for training the fourth time Olympic champion.
We trying to, we trying to get one medal, but he has a full gold medal. So that’s amazing. So it just, that’s kind of, they say that, say if you wanna be successful surrounding yourself with success, successful people. So you learn from, so that’s what I tried to do.
Jill Jaracz: Does he, do you have to call him cer.
Abdi Abdirahman: Oh, yeah, we call him SERMO he doesn’t like it, but we call him SERMO so, yeah, it just is funny.[00:28:00]
Sometimes we go to eat, we go out to the restaurant and we just say, say, Hey, SMO farm. And people will just look at it. And a lot of people recognize him. So even sometimes he, he, he wear his hoodie and then we say CMO farm, and everybody would just stand. I said, some of us here and he doesn’t like.
Jill Jaracz: Thank you so much, Abdi, you can find Abdi on all socials at Abdi runs.
We will have links to those in the show notes you can pre-order his book@solsticepublishing.com. It will be out in August. Booklo Claire was on the interview with us because. This book will be one of our 2022 book club selections. It’s a really fun read. So we thought you all would enjoy it as a well, so, uh, you can get it, order it now for a pre-release or if you wanna wait till 20, 22 or put it on a, let, you know, gift wishlist or something, we won’t falter that either, but know that that’s coming down the horn.
You know, he talked at the end [00:29:00] about Ferra and training with CMO. CMO is not going to Tokyo.
Alison Brown: Oh, no CMO.
Jill Jaracz: I know he did not. He was going to run the 10,000 again and he did not make the qualifying time. And it’s been something that’s a little confusing. They have Olympic standard times that you have to meet.
So even if you won your national trials, but did not have the Olympic standard you have until a certain date to make that standard. And I think that that’s right around now. And if you don’t make that time, you don’t get to.
Alison Brown: And that came up in the us swimming trials in some of the distance speeds, because there were people who finished lower in the trials, but because they had made the standard in some other event are the ones who are going,
Jill Jaracz: mm.
That makes sense. And there were at track and field trials, there were runners who ran races again in order to get that standard. That, that, that was interesting to watch. And I [00:30:00] think it’s something that’s a little confusing, but they do have standards of times. And I bet it’s like an Eddie, the Eagle Edwards type of rule,
Alison Brown: right?
Jill Jaracz: Where,
Alison Brown: or, or the infamous halfpipe skier from Chang, from Hungary.
Jill Jaracz: Right.
Alison Brown: Air quotes.
Jill Jaracz: So yeah, they, they, the IOC doesn’t always want to have. They wanna maintain standards and have the best in the world compete. And, and there have been exceptions. Like we, I know people would point to Eric the E uh, from, I believe he was from equatorial, Guinea who competed in swimming that’s right.
And could not swim very well, but the IOC was really trying at that point in history to be more inclusive of other countries. So they made a few spots available to. Countries that normally wouldn’t participate in some sports. So we did see some slow swimming there, but, uh, I think they’re really trying to make it be the best of the best it’s time to check in with our team.
Keep the flame alive.[00:31:00]
Team Keep the Flame Alive News
Alison Brown: Welcome to shook Luan
Jill Jaracz: citizens of shook Luan. Our members of team. Keep the flame alive. Our roster of past guests.
Alison Brown: So speaking of the best of the best Deanna price won the hammer throw at the us Olympic trials, she broke her own American record twice first in the third throw. And then again in the fifth throw where she surpassed the 80 meter mark for the first time.
Jill Jaracz: And she was amazing. Oh, good man. She’s so amazing to watch. I cannot wait to watch her throw at Tokyo. She’s gonna do fantastic, but she looks so strong. Uh, Jordan Gray, our de she ended up competing in the hap Athlon and she finished 11th. She was pleased with her performance. She said on social media, she’ll be back to compete for 2024.
Alison Brown: Tony Acevedo will be part of the water polo broadcast team on.
Jill Jaracz: Which is very exciting. Do had, did you see the list of announcers and, uh, broadcasters are going to [00:32:00] have it’s huge.
Alison Brown: I did not. So now I need to take a look.
Jill Jaracz: They, they are gonna have,
Alison Brown: Tony’s gonna be great.
Jill Jaracz: He is. And he’s gonna add a whole lot to the water polo coverage.
They’re gonna have 178 commentators. Just on NBC for all of the sports, but they’ve really built out those teams. So I’m excited about our coverage. I noted that the BBC’s gonna have like 350 hours or so of coverage and I was just like, UK gets three 50. Us gets 7,000
Alison Brown: though, as somebody in our Facebook group noted, there may be about 6,000 worth of commercials.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah.
Alison Brown: so we’ll, we’ll have to see
Jill Jaracz: how, how
Alison Brown: actual coverage we get.
Jill Jaracz: Right. See how ti I am very curious about what listeners think of the commercials that they see all the time. And I can tell you already, I am tired of the, to some of the Toyota commercial.
Alison Brown: I haven’t seen it yet. You know what? I have been watching most of the trials on [00:33:00] replay.
I haven’t been watching the live.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, okay.
Alison Brown: So I’ve been doing the fast forwarding, trying to get through as much. As quickly as possible.
Jill Jaracz: Gotcha. Gotcha.
Alison Brown: Which I think is a good way to go because then by the time Tokyo comes around and I’ll be watching a lot more stuff live mm-hmm, the commercial, the commercials will be new and fresh.
Yeah. So I recommend that approach.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. We’ll see what happens and, and something like, I, I can imagine that peacock’s gonna be showing the same five commercials all the time. I’m very,
Alison Brown: yeah. That’s the, at the NBC streaming service probably does not have the full penalty of mm-hmm selections.
Jill Jaracz: News from Madeline Mims listener Manu in the Facebook group posted the fact that, uh, Vera Nili, who was Madeline’s big competition back when they competed, she was a Sur, uh, Yugoslavian runner at the time she passed away this year at, uh, age 72.
So I forwarded that onto Madeline because the news was all in Serbian. And I didn’t think that it would be getting to her. And she responded right away. She was really sorry to hear the news [00:34:00] and said, she’s not gonna be able to go to the game. She didn’t have credentials. And because of the ban on foreigners, she doesn’t get to go.
Would’ve been her 10th Olympiad to serve. So that was a little. Disappointing for her. She’d trained a tra an Olympic chaplain to serve the track and field team, but that also shut down with the, the pandemic postponement they’ve sent gift bags to the track and field trials for those who made the team and the coaches and the managers.
And so they said during the games, video clips from Olympic alumni will be posted on social media for them in support of their athletic endeavors. And they’ll have three Olympic alumni chaplains on. Uh, via WhatsApp for prayer and counseling and listening. So it’s nice that they’ve been able to figure out ways to offer those services, even if they can’t be there in person.
Alison Brown: John McLeod won an honorable mention at the 2021 Hollywood new director’s film festival for his documentary [00:35:00] conviction, the Steve ner story, which we have talked about and screened and absolutely adore. So congratulations to John.
Jill Jaracz: Yes.
Tokyo 2020 News
Bunch of news on Tokyo. The IOC is going to relax the ban on protests a little bit. So this was reported by inside the games and the IOC is set to. Relax, some of this complete band they had on athlete demonstration. So they’re talking about granting athlete’s permission to demonstrate, including raising a fist or taking a knee at certain times.
And in certain places before their competition at the games. So this could be like when players line up to be announced or walk into the arena or are introduced on the platform prior to their events, they still would be banned from protesting or demonstrating on the podium at the games. But this is kind of a shift from rule 50, which is kind of interesting that [00:36:00] they’re backing off a little bit.
Alison Brown: Well, it makes sense because their whole dance has been it doesn’t. Belong on the field of play. We don’t want it to interfere with the competition and we don’t want it to interfere with other athletes or take away those athletes moment of moment in the sun. So if it’s just the introductions, will that work?
Jill Jaracz: Uh, you know,
Alison Brown: that appease,
Jill Jaracz: that’s a good question, but that is a moment in introductions. That is a moment when the spotlight is on that. In particular? No, I would say not necessarily impacting other athletes who did not ask to be impacted, say a podium.
Alison Brown: And it’ll be interesting to see, especially does, do you end up then with more protests because podium is, there are three people there there’s only three people who could potentially protest and now you’ve opened it up to everybody in a way.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. In a [00:37:00] way it’ll be interesting to. How many athletes do do something and see if this is a, we just want the right to be able to speak freely and demonstrate, or if getting the right causes a lot more protests, then there’s a lot more unrest that we see in the world that needs attention.
Alison Brown: It’ll be, you know, between this and all the COVID things.
Those, those are absolutely being set up to be the two big stories,
Jill Jaracz: right?
Alison Brown: Not the heat.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, we’ll talk about the heat too. Making a U-turn Japan will now allow babies of breastfeeding mothers to travel with their moms. So this is a good thing because several athletes were faced with this impossible choice between leaving their children in order to compete or not being able to bring their child and having to come up with another feeding source.
So many [00:38:00] people prefer to breastfeed their children. This included American marathon or Aine Tuuk soccer star, Alex Morgan and Canadian basketball player. Kim goer. This is a good sign. What I’m wondering is okay, if the babies get let in, who comes in to take care of the babies while mom’s working.
Alison Brown: That’s a fair question though.
I assume there will be staff with those teams that will have that role possibly. We’ll have to see how, you know, big teams like the us and Canada will, will make it work. It’ll be interesting to see how smaller teams who don’t have as much support personnel. Will they create a role for dads that all of a sudden are now trainers to that to, to actually be.
But I mean, if you’re a breastfeeding mother and you’re gonna be away from your baby, For more than 12 hours, you’re gonna end [00:39:00] up not being a breastfeeding mother anymore.
Jill Jaracz: Right?
Alison Brown: So this was, this was a significant ask of mothers. And the fact that this was even an issue was ridiculous.
Jill Jaracz: I agree with you, this, this should have been taken into consideration, especially since also this games is gonna be the games of the mom.
Alison Brown: So many women who are mothers have qualified and Serena Williams pulled out. She’s not no longer breastfeeding. Her daughter is older, but clearly because she didn’t wanna be from her away from her daughter for two weeks.
Jill Jaracz: Mm-hmm , mm-hmm, , that’s hard. And, you know, note to Paris, 20, 24, or even Beijing, 2022 Olympic village daycare.
Alison Brown: Absolutely. I mean, you’ve got dads too. I mean, it’s not just the mothers. I mean, mothers obviously have that physical breastfeeding mother just have the physical question, but there’s a lot of parents competing. These careers are going on longer and people are figuring out you don’t have to give up one for the other.
Jill Jaracz: I also think that [00:40:00] Olympic daycare would be fun. Can you imagine all those kids. Just have races and climb things.
Alison Brown: I was just gonna say the running around would take on a whole new meaning you could just have Husain bolt, you know, monitoring the kids. Cause he’s the only one who could keep up with them. I can
Jill Jaracz: imagine they then, and, and within like five minutes, he’d have all of them doing that.
Usain bolt hand. Thing that, that he always did after his racist, where he just makes that pose.
Alison Brown: Well, he’s a dad too now.
Jill Jaracz: Exactly. He knows what he’s doing. Exactly. Oh, Hey, have to have to throw that into the middle of the Tokyo 2020 update because Columbia has just lost five of its eight places that it earned for the weightlifting competition due to multiple doping violations.
Columbia was only one of three nation. Alongside China and the us to qualify the maximum eight athletes for Tokyo, [00:41:00] but now they can only send three. And this is rough for them because weightlifting is Columbia’s top sport in terms of metals one.
Alison Brown: So apparently those three athletes will not only receive a COVID test in the airport.
They will also have to pee in a cup.
Jill Jaracz: I wonder, I wonder just how the ITTA, every, all the testing agencies are just looking at people like, okay, well, we’re looking at you and this is not good news for weightlifting, cuz we already know they’re on the outs and it’s like, and some other news came out today about the international weightlifting Federation, how they said no to constitutional reforms.
And it’s just like they’re poking at the I O C E forcing them to take the, take the hard stance. And we, we all know the IOC loves to take a hard stance. I, I really would not be surprised if this is the last time we see weightlifting in the Olympics for a while, which would be very sad for clean athletes and clean organizations who participate.[00:42:00]
Alison Brown: Happier news.
Jill Jaracz: Give me
Alison Brown: some happy news
Jill Jaracz: torch relay is coming to to, well, I don’t even know if this is happy, cuz the torch relay is coming to the Tokyo prefecture on July 9th, except for the Kyoto news reported that the first eight days will be offroad. They’re gonna be offroad for another week before the torch will actually make it to the streets because of COVID.
Alison Brown: Okay. That was not the happy news I was looking for. Try again.
Jill Jaracz: This I thought was really cool. Kyodo news also reported that every time a Japanese athlete wins a gold medal at the Olympics or Paralympics, a mailbox is going to re be replaced by a golden mailbox, ESP with the, the little Tokyo logo on it.
And it will be put in a location linked to that athlete. So it could be in their hometown. It could be at their training base, but that that’s what, uh, will be one of the commemorations that will be there for a long time. I’d love
Alison Brown: that better. I’d better that
Jill Jaracz: [00:43:00] idea. And then the international Paralympic committee named its refugee team, they will have a six member team, five men, one woman competing in athletics, swimming, canoe, and TaeKwonDo.
They will compete under the IPC flag and they will March in first at the opening ceremonies.
Alison Brown: Oh, that’s an excellent idea.
Jill Jaracz: I like that. I’m excited for them.
Alison Brown: I’m excited for the Paralympics in general. This year, I had a really horrible thought last night when I couldn’t sleep at four in the morning, I woke up and I said to myself, what if there is a terrible COVID outbreak during the Olympics?
And they cancel the Paralympics because of it.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, that would be horrible.
Alison Brown: So Olympians, please, don’t be stupid and ruin. For your fellow team members,
Jill Jaracz: right? That would be horrible. That would be so sad, but hopefully not. Hopefully the Olympics [00:44:00] will go well so that the, the Paralympics could get the recognition and the attention it deserves.
Alison Brown: Remember when we read Roy Thomas’s book and he. about 1964, the last Tokyo games mm-hmm and he spoke a lot about how, when the Paralympics came to Tokyo, then it really changed how the Japanese viewed disabilities and also how internationally the view of disabilities changed and what people were able to do.
And I feel like the Paralympics are at a tipping point
Book Club Claire: mm-hmm .
Alison Brown: To say they’re equal to the Olympics. They, they deserve recognition. These athletes are amazing. So I feel like, again, the Tokyo Paralympics can change how people view disabilities and view disabled athletes. So don’t screw it up.
Jill Jaracz: Right. Right.
And we kind of saw one of those tipping points at [00:45:00] London with right. So many fans and I think. Rio’s organizing committee having some financial issues and that took away some of that momentum that London built. But I think if we look at Tokyo going into Paris, going into LA three very strong host cities that were set.
If, if all goes well at Tokyo, it just sets it up for a much stronger Paralympic movement and more awareness and hopefully participation in the Paralympic movement.
Alison Brown: Which is the key.
Jill Jaracz: All right. So that’s gonna do it for this week. Let us know what you think about running marathons.
Alison Brown: Email us at flame alive pod, gmail.com or call or text us at (208) 352-6348.
That’s 2 0 8. Flame. It. We’re flame alive pod on Twitter and Insta and keep the flame alive podcast group on Facebook
Jill Jaracz: on Monday. We’ll have a sh another show for you with author Jeremy [00:46:00] Fuchs, who has written the new book, total Olympics. So as we go out to music by mercury sunset, thank you so much for listening.
And until next time, keep the flame alive. Of
Theme Music: what’s inside.
Some time [00:47:00] to.