As I look to embark on a bit of recreational road racing of my own at the age of 32 , I find that the inspiration I seek is from those that later in their running careers achieved success. Thus my first installment of ‘The Greats’ is on Lopes from Portugal…

Lopes was fast in his late 20’s running 28:30 in 1975 (28) and having made it to the Olympics in 1972. But in 1976 he showed the signs of what was to come. He won world cross that year then ran 27:45 for the 10,000m followed by a silver medal in the Olympic final in the 10,000m by taking the lead after 3K to push Viren to earn his win with his trademarked long kick from 400m out. I would love to know what he would have attributed this breakthrough year to. Was it perhaps the culminating work of his last 9 years of intense training? A grand motivation of the Olympic year? He wasn’t done either.

Or was he? 1980 was a bad year with injuries preventing his participation in the Olympic games. Keep in mind he was 33 at this time. It would be reasonable and perhaps encouraged by many to take your silver medal, your world cross country win and retire to start your career. Lopes kept running and in 1982 he set the European record for 10,000 with a 27:24 . In 1983 he took silver in world cross country and showed his future brilliance in his first marathon finish with a 2:08:39 runner up to de Castella at Rotterdam.

1984

Lopes is going on 37 at this time and takes another gold in world cross in New Jersey. He runs second to his teammate in a 10,000 that summer posting a best of 27:17. Although he had his mark set on the Olympic marathon in Los Angeles later that year, he almost didn’t make it despite his prime fitness. Two weeks before the finals in the men’s marathon he was struck by a car. Despite rolling over the hood and putting his arm through the windshield he left the accident relatively unhurt. A fortnight later Lopes pushed with 5K to go in the marathon winning by over 30 seconds. He closed the last 5K of the Olympic marathon in 14:33 to run 2:09:21 to this day the Olympic record.

In 1985, at the age of 38 Lopes won the Rotterdam marathon with a world record time of 2:07:12. He was the first man to ever run under 2:08.

Lopes’ amazing and unorthodox running career intrigues me. I would love to pour through his training log from 1976 to 1985 and see what he did, day in and day out that lead to the great times. Was his training on par with his contemporaries yet his competitive desires stoked to their fullest? Did he hone his masterful ability to execute on the championship race days over the years of racing such that it was perfected by his late 30’s? Perhaps he even had help in other areas.

Running is a great experiment of persistence, patience, planning and execution. Most of us don’t let it runs its course as gracefully as Lopes.

Long may you run,

Sean Coster