Always Be Closing (A Tribute to Rich Strike)

As a child, every race I ran was a fight to the death. It didn't matter if I was expected to win or if I was destined to lose: I simply buried myself in order to cross the finish line first. I quickly realized I was rarely the fastest in the field & this is a profound handicap: we all know that the fastest wins. However, my natural competitiveness wouldn't allow me to just acquiesce to the swiftest. I did everything I could to stay as close to the lead as possible.

Being tenacious is not a given in the young, but I was hungry.

Eventually, I was rewarded for my doggedness with the realization that the fastest frequently slowed as the race reached a critical juncture. In fact, I didn't have to actually be the fastest, I just had to parcel out my effort to be close enough to strike when the fastest started to crack. If I could strike at the moment the fastest's will to win faltered, when his physical limits were exposed to a flood of lactic discouragement & a finish line that seemed too far away, I could snap his resolve.

There is a primal surge that comes when you break someone in this way. It's like their personal power leaves them as you pass & attaches to you, providing a savage joy that is overwhelmingly delicious.
& ferociously addictive.

Yesterday, I watched 2022 Kentucky Derby. Rich Strike pulled off an impossible win at 80-1 odds. I was riveted by the stretch run, vicariously experienced the savage joy of closing down on your prey, mouth on their neck as they go limp in resignation.

The full race video:

Below is a sweet breakdown of the tactical genius of jockey, Sunny Leone, to find the open & available spaces.  

But the brilliance is all in the horse. Rich Strike was unstoppable. Sure, he benefited from so many other jockeys taking the married man's route, which opened the rail. We've been seeing this tactic much more consistently in track & field lately. However, this is a primer on how to measure yourself for a ruthless come from behind strike.

A key takeaway for those of you looking to find some practical gold at the end of a race's rainbow:

ABC, baby.

Always Be Closing.

This is an attitude, a strategy & a habit. Recalling my early running days, I found that if I accepted the foot speed superiority of everyone in the field, I simply needed to mark their moves & remember that the one with the fastest foot speed does not always finish first. The winner will nearly always be one who has the most speed available for the final move.

Below are some suggestions for developing your own close:

Attitude: Once you accept you don't have to be faster, you simply need to stay in it so you can win it. Much of this is simply a decision. However, the decision is not an easy one to make or follow through on. It is critical that you spend time developing a closing attitude & mindset. If aren't able to execute this immediately at the front end of a race, just commit to doing it where you find yourself in the race. There are always people to beat in front of you. Just keep looking up & closing the distance. If you go out at the appropriate effort for your fitness in a race, you can be confident there are some fools who didn't. I guarantee it. But you must have the attitude & mindset that you can close. Practice this in training. Close out the last 100 meters of easy runs. Work at finishing your last rep in any session to ensure it is the fastest. If you are running with training partners, let them get away in the opening portion of the final rep, work to close the gap in the middle & launch by them at the end. I would refrain from taunting or histrionics, but that's entirely up to you.

Strategy: At every race distance, my de facto race strategy attempts to engineer a fast finish or negative split. Sometimes I'll get push-back from an athlete who thinks that they can't run a negative split. Of course, if they think that they can't, they won't. Any attitude or mindset you bring to bear on a race will require a specific strategy that accounts for the course, the weather, your fitness &, last but not least, your competition. Ensuring that you have the best strategy to parcel out your fitness over the entire race distance is essential.  Having a reserve to close out the race must be planned. This shit doesn't just happen. Be sure to assess your fitness to run your goal time, account for the challenges the race will likely throw up & have a problem-solving attitude for those you didn't account for. Simply having a plan significantly improves your likelihood to execute the kind of finish you desire. It's working out the details, combined with the attitude to close, that allows for the magic to happen.

Habit: Once you you have a the mindset & the strategy, you must practice, practice, practice. You need the final move to become a habit. You do it in many training runs. You execute a close in every race you can. You visualize the moment of truth over & over in training. It helps greatly to watch classic races where the strategy you plan to employ is displayed. Not only do you have the ability to break the race down into key learning opportunities, you have a visual representation that you can contemplate & bring to your training scenarios.

I can't tell you the number of times that I beat Lasse Viren in the 1972 Olympic 5000m final, where Steve Prefontaine faltered.  On the streets of San Antonio, Texas, I would feel myself cutting through the wind, holding back just enough juice to cover Viren's big move with 150m to go before I'd launch my own withering attack 50m from the finish to defeat my hero.

I can't tell you the number of times that I beat Viren but I was undefeated. My senior year in HS, I won the state championship at 3200m with almost exactly the same move. It was simply muscle memory & a fire in the belly.

ABC, baby

(Don't get it twisted: Pre's valor, heroism & courage are on full display. I honor his style. It's still the epitome of running with heart.
But he didn't get a medal. Too many foolhardy moves.)