Nike Elite Athlete Panel -- Pre-Race Q&A Session
Reported by Becky Orfinger

The panelists. (All Photos by Alison Wade/New York Road Runners)

After the 64 Foot Locker finalists filled up on pasta and dessert on Friday night, they had the opportunity to ask questions of several Nike-sponsored elite athletes. Some of the athletes, like Alan Webb, had competed in the Foot Locker Cross Country Championships just a few years ago. Others, like Bob Kennedy and Suzy Favor Hamilton, had been top high school runners in the 1980s and run in the championships back when Kinney sponsored it. And one "surprise" guest on the panel -- 100 meter world record holder Tim Montgomery -- was a sprinter, not a distance runner. No matter what their background, all 10 panelists have had success at the national and international level, making them prime candidates to speak to the next generation of American running stars.

Panelists:
Tim Montgomery
Regina Jacobs
Bob Kennedy -- two-time Kinney finalist; winner in 1987
Suzy Favor Hamilton -- two-time Kinney finalist
Pascal Dobert -- competed at 1991 Kinney championship
Sarah Schwald -- three-time Kinney finalist
Alan Webb -- two-time Foot Locker finalist
Nicole Teter
Bernard Lagat
Abdi Abdirahman

At the beginning of the panel discussion, moderator John Capriotti directed a few specific questions to panelists. Later, the audience was invited to ask questions.

Q: Regina, you've been at the top level of the sport for so many years. Is there a secret that you have that allows you to compete at such a high level for such a long period of time?
Regina Jacobs: I think I'm just having a lot of fun, which is the most important thing, and I think that's what is great about [the Foot Locker Cross Country Championships]. It combines the love of running with competition. These kids are having a great time here tonight, and they are going to go out there and put it down tomorrow.

Q: Bob, what do you think about our future prospects in terms of distance running?
Bob Kennedy: I think our future is bright. I think we have a lot of talent in terms of American distance running -- both men and women. If, as a group, we continue to strive for the top, which is a global-type attitude, then we can be competitive with anyone in the world. In the past, I've seen us get too pigeonholed into what we're doing in this country. Although that's important, I'd like to see a little more global thinking, and I think we're getting there.

Q: Sarah, you competed here three times. Did the Foot Locker Championships have any effect on your running career?
Sarah Schwald: I think it's huge. It's a great opportunity to come together and meet other people that love running. My freshman year in high school, we didn't even have enough people on our cross country team to score in meets. We didn't have five people. To be able to make it here my freshman year and see all these other girls who were runners was huge for me. It really opened up my eyes to how much work I needed to do and how many opportunities were out there.

Q: Pascal, you [competed] in the USA Olympic Trials in 2000. I know that you spent a lot of time training with the Kim McDonald group along with a large Kenyan contingent. Did that help your development as an athlete?
Pascal Dobert: It definitely did. Working out with guys the level of athlete that the Kenyans are -- Moses Kiptanui, Daniel Komen, Noah Ngeny -- and seeing their level of commitment and work ethic makes you realize the amount of work you have to put in to achieve what they have. It gives you a different frame of reference as to what you need to do. I think that sometimes, in this country, people don't really see the big picture. They think only about what the best runners here are doing, and they consider that a really high level of running, but being around the [Kenyans] gives you a different perspective.

Suzy Favor Hamilton.

Q: Suzy, I know you've had a long relationship with Coach Peter Tegen at the University of Wisconsin. You also recently set your PR [of 3:57:40] in the 1,500. How much faster can you run, and has that coach relationship helped you in your development?
Suzy Favor Hamilton: Definitely. I've been with Peter now for over 15 years. I know that by working with him, I've gotten to the level I'm at today. I honestly believe that I may not have gotten to this level without him. But I definitely think I can run faster than 3:57 -- I know I can. So it's kind of exciting -- I'm excited for the next two years to see what I can do. But I don't like to set boundaries for myself, and I definitely know I can improve.

Q: Well, a 3:57 1,500 is approximately a 4:14 mile. And this young man next to you [Bernard Legat] has run 3:26 for 1,500 meters, or about a 3:43 mile. Did you ever think you'd be a 3:26 1,500-meter runner when you first started running?
Bernard Lagat: Not really, no. When I started running, I didn't even think I would be running professionally. But then when I was running in high school and then in college, my coach[es] set high goals and I found myself running fast. So, when I ran 3:30, 3:28, and then I ran 3:27... I knew I was getting close.

Q: The world record [in the 1500] is 3:26.00 by Hicham El Guerrouj. What do you think is possible?
Bernard Lagat: It's quite hard, 3:26.00, but that's what I'm now trying to move my training toward… I'm going to try and [set] a world record.

Bernard Lagat and Alan Webb.

Q: Now [we turn to] the youngster of the group. Alan, you were out here just a couple of years ago. I think it's pretty well-known that you broke what might have been the most famous high school record of all time -- the mile record once held by Jim Ryun -- at the Prefontaine [Classic in 2001] when you ran 3:53. You've gone pro, you're still attending college at George Mason University -- do you have any regrets about your decision to turn pro?
Alan Webb: I definitely don't [have any regrets.] I feel like this was the best thing for me. I put myself in a situation where I'm back with my old coach [with whom] I ran my personal best…I'm just moving forward. Bob [Kennedy] mentioned that the way the U.S. is going to step onto the international scene is by doing just that -- stepping into the international scene and not being bogged down by U.S. competition. Even though it is, obviously, very important to take care of business here too. I'm definitely looking forward to achieving international goals, and it's great to have people like Bernard [Lagat] here for me to chase around.

Q: Nicole, you have always been a talented runner, have had some good things happen at the University of Arkansas, and then this year, you kind of jumped out onto the international scene. You had some big wins in Europe, you set the American record indoors [in the 800], you ran fast outdoors…what brought about the big change? I know you moved out to the West Coast. Tell us how, all of a sudden, you're on the world scene.
Nicole Teter: Well, a lot of it had to do with finding a training group that was right for me and finding a coach that was right for me. I had a great coach, but I needed a coach who had a lot of experience with elite athletes. Just being able to train with the people I train with -- in a group -- it just all came together. I trained consistently, had a great season in Europe and had a great season here in the U.S.

Nicole Teter and Abdi Abdirahman.

Q: The last young man over in the corner there, Abdi. You didn't even start running until your sophomore year in college, right? What made you all of a sudden decide to run?
Abdi Abdirahman: It's kind of a long story, actually. One day -- I think it was a Saturday -- there was a track meet at the University of Arizona and I just decided to go watch it. And one guy there was running the 3,000 meters and he was like a lap and a half behind everyone, and I thought to myself, if that guy can run, I can run, too. So the next day I went to the coach and told him I would like to be a member of the cross country team. He asked me if I could run, and I said, 'I guess so.' He said, 'Well, have you run before?' And I said, 'No.' But he told me to go ahead and try it, right then and there. I had a pair of boots and jeans on, but he said to go right [then]. So I went with the team for a five-mile run, and I took the lead with a mile or so to go. One guy, I think he was the captain, passed me but I came in second on the team. When we got back, the coach said to me, "See you tomorrow."

Q: So what year was that when you first started running?
Abdi Abdirahman: 1996.

Q: So 1996 was the first time you started running, and four years later, you make the Olympic finals in the 10,000 meters. Based on that, you have got to believe that you have some great things ahead of you.
Abdi Abdirahman: Oh, definitely. I hope so.

[Audience now invited to ask questions.]

Q (Bobby Curtis, South Regional Team): I don't really have a question; I just wanted to congratulate Tim Montgomery on his world record. It was nice to see that record taken away from Maurice Green -- so congratulations.

Q: I have a question for Alan Webb. We were just sitting here talking and wondered if you had gotten a chance to meet Jim Ryun and what he had to say about your record.
Alan Webb: I've met Jim a few times now -- once, my sophomore year when I broke his sophomore class [mile] record, and then I met both Jim and his wife after I broke his national record. He is just the nicest guy you will ever meet -- it's pretty easy for me to meet up with him since he's a Congressman and I live close to D.C. The second time I met him was at a T-ball game on the South Lawn of the White House. Anyway, I was there with Jim Ryun and the President was there…it was a pretty amazing little trip. To meet Jim Ryun was sort of weird because when I first got involved with track -- freshman and sophomore years of high school -- and started to get closer and closer to those records, his name came up so many different times. In my head, his name meant so much to me.

When I finally broke the [national] record and met up with him, it was a weird set of emotions. For so long, my goal had been [embodied by] a person, and to meet that person was like… wow. It was an amazing experience, and I think it taught me to set my goals even higher. When I broke his sophomore record, [Ryun] told me, 'Don't try to be the next sub-4 minute miler -- just try to improve.' Obviously, if you are at 4:05, you work a little harder, you improve and you'll be closer to four minutes. But I wasn't necessarily trying to break four minutes; I was trying to improve. So once I broke 4:00, it wasn't like, 'Oh no, what do I do now?' -- I was motivated to keep doing what I had been doing and keep improving. And that's what I'm [still] doing now.

Tim Montgomery.

Q: I have a question for the whole panel. Do you guys think we need more 'Hanson projects' here in the U.S.; more money invested into getting American distance running back on top where it should be?
Tim Montgomery: Can I answer that question? I know a lot about distance running. [Laughter from the audience.] But to answer your question, it's not about camps, it's not about a group -- it's about what you believe in. I came from Gaffney, South Carolina, where we didn't even have a track. I grew up hoping I'd get a letter inviting me to come to a championship like this someday, and I never got that letter. But I knew in my heart that I could be someone. It's about getting out and doing what you want to do, working hard and making the best of it.

Q: My name is Nef Araia, from the Midwest. I know a lot of us have had some bad things happen to us during races. I was wondering what the worst thing that's happened to some of you during races has been.
Bob Kennedy: Well, I've been doing this a long time, so I've had a lot of great experiences and a lot of not-so-great experiences. One that I remember in particular was after I won the 1990 NCAA Championship in the 1,500, as a sophomore. In 1991, I failed to make the final of the 1,500 at the NCAA Championships. I was really on a down cycle after that; I didn't know what was going on. What I learned from that was that sometimes happens -- the reason I didn't make the final was mental, not physical, and I failed to really be involved in the race. I learned that lesson and that mistake didn't happen too many times again in the future. If you are going to take the risk of competing -- and stepping on the starting line, you are always risking failure -- that's what it's all about. If you do fail, you should make a positive experience out of it -- learn from it, advance, grow and become better.

Regina Jacobs: I have a good one. In 1996, I had never made the finals in the Olympics. So, I went to Olympics and I was like, "I am going to make the finals." So I'm in the semi-final, go through the bell lap, 350 meters to go, and I'm in great position. All of a sudden, all heck breaks loose behind me. This big Romanian girl had tripped, and as she went down, she grabbed my shorts. I was like the Coppertone girl, with my shorts halfway down. And I was thinking, "I want to make the final -- I don't care if she pulls my shorts down!" But I realized that I was feeling more and more air back there, and I literally had to turn around and grab my shorts out of her hand, and then I did go on and make the final. But that was the worst.

Pascal Dobert.

Q: My question is for Pascal Dobert. You hear a lot of talk now about the 800, the mile, the 10,000 and you really don't hear much about the steeple, and it has traditionally been a weak event for Americans. What are your thoughts on that, and how much of your training is actually done over barriers or hurdles?
Pascal Dobert: Well, I really don't agree with your statement that the steeplechase is a weak event for Americans. If you look at the top 20, top 30 steeple times in the world, you'll see as many Americans among those as you would for any other event. The last couple of years -- 2001 and 2002 -- we had Tim Broe and Anthony Famligetti running under 8:20, which is probably not competitive on the world level, but definitely a good stepping stone. So I think to say that the steeple is not a strong event for Americans is not totally accurate. And to answer your second question, most of my training is geared toward the flat 3,000 meters, because when I first started in the steeplechase, I was in college and I did a lot of hurdle work. My coach doesn't want me to do that much more training over barriers because I can hurdle fairly well and it's not going to get too much better than it already is. So my training is geared toward the 3,000 and the 5,000.

Q (Megan Kaltenbach): Suzy, I was just wondering how your training changed from high school to college.
Suzy Favor Hamilton: It changed a lot, actually. In high school, I probably did about 40, 45 miles a week and then in college, it went up to about 55, 60. Which doesn't seem like a lot, but the quality of work we were doing was really intense. And at the time, our team had just won the NCAA Championships, and I was joining this team, and it was very competitive. It was a big change for me, especially since I was a freshman coming in, and these girls were all older. To be honest, they weren't very accepting of me because I was beating them, and they didn't realize that I was their friend and not their enemy, and that we were a team together. That was probably the hardest adjustment for me in college -- getting the girls on the team to accept me. Once they found out that I wasn't a threat to them -- that I was actually going to help their team to win -- they were really cool.

Q (unidentified female FL finalist): I was just wondering how each of you are able to deal with injuries, or setbacks, or sometimes just not feeling sure why you are competing… How do you keep motivated and realize you are doing something that you love and get out of the rut?
Bob Kennedy: That's me, to a "T", for the last two years. I've had a lot of problems, a lot of things happen that I couldn't control. Sometimes I have said to myself, 'Why am I doing this? I can't train for more than six weeks without getting injured,' or 'I used to be good and now I'm not good anymore.' I think when I really, truly, sit down and think about stopping, I just can't. I just love it so much. I'm just so competitive. I think I realized that I truly, truly think that I can be better. I'm going to weather the storm, and do everything in my power to get healthy, and then everything in my power to get extremely fit again. I think you have to realize what you're made of and why you started; what that fire was at the beginning, and what that was like. I started thinking back to being here [at the XC championships] and what that was like -- the passion, the excitement…and that's what keeps me going, even 15 years later.

Q: I'm Brian Sullivan, from the South. This is for the distance guys -- do you like racing track or cross country better?
Abdi Abdirahman: I really like cross country and track both, but cross country is my first love.

Alan Webb: I'm definitely a track guy. Cross country's great, it definitely breaks up the monotony of all those laps, but I love getting out there on the track in the spring, when you've done all the base work, and just running fast. That's what it's all about -- running fast.

Bernard Lagat: I didn't realize how important cross country was until I finished running cross country for the last time in 1998. In 2000, when it came time for track season, I was working extra hard to build my base, because I hadn't had a cross country season… I think they go hand in hand, cross country and track.

Q: My name is Ahmed Haji, from the Northeast. What is the hardest workout that you do?
Regina Jacobs: My hardest workout was this hill repeat workout -- it was actually mile repeats, but on this six-mile long hill. We'd do a mile, and then kind of rest, and then another mile. And by the last mile -- my coach was in the car, driving alongside us, telling us how much time had gone by -- we all just looked at him and yelled, "Shut up!" because we were just dying. We never did that workout again, either.

Sarah Schwald.

Sarah Schwald: I don't even know what my hardest workout would be, because we don't do the same workouts over and over. We do the same types of workouts, but [Peter Tegen's] always throwing new things in there. But probably the hardest one for me is 2 x 800, with 10 minutes rest in between. You can make any workout as hard as you want, really.

Q (Ruth Graham, West Regional Team): What's good about distance running, what are we lacking, and do any of you see that coming anytime soon?
Bob Kennedy: I think that you guys are what's good about distance running. These types of events, and kids being involved, on a broader level, at a younger age, ultimately increases the amount of talent out there. Almost every year, out of this race, there are one or two men and one or two women that go on to do amazing things.

Regina Jacobs: And just to add to that: people always want to know what happens to these incredibly talented distance runners we have here. And I think that America is an incredible place, with so many opportunities. As I was reading through all of the [finalist's] bios, and all of your other accomplishments, I was thinking how tough it is to choose a life of just running. A lot of top runners are smart -- they are 4.0 students, they are National Honor Society members -- they are not just runners. They go on to become doctors, lawyers, and do other things in life.

Q (moderator): Many of you were sitting out here not too long ago. What advice would you give to this group of 64 outstanding people so that they could someday be sitting up here? [Note: Tim Montgomery and Bernard Lagat did answer this question, but their answers were hard to understand on our tape recorder.]

Regina Jacobs.

Regina Jacobs: You can do anything you dream you can do, but I think the most important thing to learn is if you fall down five times, get back up six times. The reason that we are all up here is because of the way that we've handled failure. We've learned how to redefine success for ourselves, which is why we've reached beyond what we thought was possible.

Bob Kennedy: I think you are going to hear a common theme in the answers. We've all had ups and downs along the way, and we've only continued to move forward as best we can. If you can stay focused on your goal, handle the ups and downs that will happen, and move forward, and then when you achieve your goal, set a new one. Never settle -- don't set boundaries for yourself, and I think you will be able to accomplish amazing things.

Sarah Schwald: I think that something very important to me is making sure that I enjoy my running and that I'm having fun. If I'm not enjoying it, I need to take a step back -- race less, change my workouts, find new people to train with. These are things that I've found over the years have kept my running fun and entertaining. When running becomes a job, and something that I dread doing every single day, I'm not going to have any success. I think that it is just really important to make sure that you enjoy what you are doing.

Pascal Dobert: I would say that you should never lose sight of the big picture, and never lose sight of what you ultimately want to accomplish. You're going to have your ups and downs; it's going to happen -- and there can be times when you basically don't want to run, don't want to do that workout on the track. You can have a setback, recover from a setback, and accomplish things that you never thought were possible. That's when it really gets rewarding. So, make sure you always have fun and never lose sight of the big picture.

Suzy Favor Hamilton: My failures in my career have probably been the best things for me in that they've motivated me to work even harder and made me even more successful. I think what you have to realize about the sport of running is that as you get older, it doesn't get easier. It only gets harder. It's a very tough sport. All of you have chosen this sport, so know that you have to work extremely hard to push your body -- it doesn't come easy. Keep working hard -- you guys are the future.

Alan Webb: Just run because you love to run. When things are tough -- if it's too hot, too cold or you just don't feel like running -- you just have to remind yourself why you're out there. You love to run on the cross country course. When you're at two and a half miles and you're hurting real bad, you look at the guy next to you and know he's hurting just as much -- it comes down to who wants it more. That's the beauty of it, seeing how far you can push yourself.

Nicole Teter: Something that I think about myself is: follow your dreams, and conquer your fears.

Abdi Abdirahman: What I want to say is: believe in yourself. Also, running is just like going to school. Some of us are better at it than others, but as long as you put in 100 percent effort, you are going to be the best that you can be.