ND Runner Interview #1- Corey Ihmels

A few weeks ago, I got this crazy idea that instead of simply doing summaries of great runners from North Dakota, I'd like to actually hear from them talking about things that matter to them. First up is Corey Ihmels, the current Head Track and Field Coach at Boise State University. 

Ihmels was originally from Williston, North Dakota, where he did serious damage to the state record books. When he left high school, he was the fastest person in state history in the 800m (1:53.54), 1600m (4:09.54), and 3200m (9:03.65). Since then, the 1600 and 3200 have only been eclipsed by one person (Jake Leingang), while the 800 has been surpassed by two (Brandon Barnes and Brain McCulley). He also still holds the state meet record in the 3200m. 

The high school champion.
Courtesy: footlockercc.com

Ihmels won the state cross country meet individually three years in a row, 1989-1991. In 1990 as a junior, he placed 13th at Kinney Nationals (now called Footlocker, the national high school cross country championship) with a time of 15:37, only 30 seconds behind the winner. As a senior, he came back and won the 1991 National Championship with a time of 15:03, 15 seconds ahead of 2nd-place and- at the time- the second largest margin of victory in the race's history. He capped off his senior year by sweeping the individual events at the State Track Meet, winning the 800m by two seconds, 1600m by 17 seconds (!!), and 3200m  by 42 seconds (!!). This gave him 5 total individual state track titles in high school. 

After that, he went to Iowa State and had a successful college career. He was a 6-time All-American (2 XC, 3 Indoor Track, and 1 Outdoor Track), as well as a member of the 1994 D1 National Championship Cross Country Team, where he placed 13th. (He was 23rd the year before with a 3rd place team finish). As for track and field, in 1996 he placed 4th at the D1 Indoor National Meet in the mile, running 4:04.03, and then 5th in 1997 with a time of 4:02.42. In the preliminaries of the '97 National Meet, he ran 3:59.7 to become the first and still only sub-4 miler from North Dakota. He also briefly ran profressionally with Nike after college.

Head Coach Ihmels
Courtesy: broncosports.com

      After doing grad assistant work at Arizona State, he came back to Iowa State and head coached the cross country team while assistant coaching the track team. Eventually he became the head coach of the track team for five years, and then recently moved to Boise State to coach there. Last year Jordan Jacob, a standout runner for Bismarck Century, ran for the Broncos, and years before that when Ihmels was at Iowa State, Brandon Barnes and Christian Brownotter (both standouts for Bismarck High) ran there. 

      It's not doubt that he's one of the fastest North Dakotans out there, and below I have a short interview with him. I tried to put in some more in-depth questions and some lighter ones. 

     

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ND Runner: I read in an interview with you from high school where you said that in the summer leading up to your Kinney Nationals (now Footlocker) victory, you would wake up at 6, take the family pickup to a gravel road, and run 10 miles before going off to coach baseball during the day. What was your motivation to get up and do that every morning? Did you ever have anybody to run with or join you?

Corey Ihmels: I was pretty self-motivated to see how good I could get.  I had great coaching and mentors along the way but really never questioned the work that had to be done.  I did all of my training alone and probably why to this day that I really do enjoy solo distance runs.  I think also the success that I had nationally as a junior was great motivation to try and win the national meet as a senior.

NDR: Were there any runners in North Dakota that you looked up to or drew inspiration from while growing up?

CI: I had great inspiration from the high school cross country team in Williston.  I was a 7^th and 8^th grader on the bus with the HS kids so to be around that and see that at a young age was very important.  Rob Heen (editor's note: Rob Heen was another great runner from Williston. A seven-time state champion, he ran 1:54.89 in the 800m and 4:12.76 for 1600m in high school. In 1987, he won the 800m, 1600m, and 3200m at the state meet) came before me so I really looked up to him and what he was able to accomplish.  That showed me what was capable even coming from a small town in North Dakota.

NDR: What led you to choose to go to Iowa State after high school?

CI: They had been very successful at the national level in XC, having won the NCAA title in 89 and had been 2^nd every year since.  Coach Bill Bergan was someone I really related to and he promised me we would win an NCAA title if I came.  I was sold. (editor's note: they did win a national title while Ihmels was there)

NDR: You’ve been successful now as a runner and as a coach. Do you prefer one to the other, or do they have their own space?

CI: They are both different for sure, but would prefer to be an athlete.  As an athlete you can control the outcome on race day and practice.  As a coach you have to rely on someone else to get the job done.  Both are very rewarding but in different ways.

NDR: As of today, you still stand as the only North Dakotan to go sub-4 in the mile. At what point in your career did sub-4 become a goal (if at all)?

CI: I think it is something that is always a goal or in the back of your mind as you progress as a runner.  I did it in a prelim at NCAA so know I could have gone faster but still a moment you will always remember.

NDR: Do you see yourself as someone who can inspire future North Dakota runners?

CI: I hope so, although it’s been so long since I was a factor in North Dakota.  I hope if anything it shows you can run at a high level coming from North Dakota.  I am very proud of where I grew up and really am fortunate to have grown up in Williston and being coached by Clint Chamberlin.  Also, the coaching in the state at the time I was running was truly special.  It seemed as if every program had great coaches that really cared about the progress of their athletes.*

NDR: In regards to running, what is your biggest regret?

CI: Probably my biggest regret is being too hard on myself day to day.  I think I had a tendency to train too hard and always want to do it a little harder and more each day.  That isn’t sustainable over a long period of time.  It requires patience and if I had to do it over again that would be something I would try and do.

NDR: I understand that you were injured a few times in college. What helped you through the times of being injured? Did you ever want to give up on distance running?

CI: I think you always have the motivation to get back to the level of success that you had before.  I truly love to run and enjoy the process of it and what you have to do to be successful.  Everyone goes through bad patches where you want to pack it in but running has a way of sucking you back in.  I don’t think I will ever give up on running it has given way too much to me.

NDR: What is a piece of advice you would give to a young runner who wants to be successful?

CI: It takes patience and then more patience.  To be great in this sport it takes years and being consistent and patient is of utmost importance.

NDR: If you could recommend a great place to run in North Dakota to a runner who’s never been to the state, where would you say to go?

CI: The Maah Daah Hey Trail.  I didn’t find this until recently but it is fantastic. (editor's note: the Maah Daah Hey Trail is considered one of North Dakota's most well-kept secrets, and it's.....well actually you should find out for yourself :) )

These next two questions are currently being talked about nationally:

NDR: What is your opinion on the surge of the beer mile?

CI: I guess it has its place and it does bring some attention to our sport. 

NDR: Do you agree with the NCAA moving towards the mile in outdoor championship races?

I would prefer the 1500.  I think it is shortsighted on our part to move in this direction.  The rest of the world isn’t going to move to the mile.  The Olympics will always be the 1500.

I'd like to thank Mr. Ihmels for taking time to answer these questions for a lowly fringe blogger like myself. I enjoyed getting to know a little more about him, and hopefully you did as well.

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*I actually made a post earlier examining the difference in winning times at state track over many years, and it appears that in the last thirty years, the fastest haven't gotten all that faster. That means that the athletes and coaches of 20-30 years ago, with different tracks and equipment than we have now were producing the same kind of times. It definitely seems like the late 80s and early 90s were a booming time for distance running in North Dakota. The Winning Times

Doping Isn't the Real Problem

Yesterday I was blessed with the opportunity to eat some doritos. Now, I don’t know about you, but I can’t eat one dorito; I can’t eat two doritos; Hell, I can’t eat 10 doritos- I eat the whole damn bag every time. I have no self-control, and the worst part of it is that I know exactly why. The combination of delicious salts and seasonings is too much for my taste buds and each chip leaves me craving for more. I feel like crap the rest of the day as a result, but nonetheless I’ll do it again next time they are presented to me. One will never be enough.

Diminished returns is usually something we hear about in economics. The general idea behind is that eventually you will reach a point where something just isn’t worth the trouble anymore. Case in point, I likely could be satisfied after one dorito. I recall a nutrition professor in college telling us that 80% of the enjoyment in the taste of a food comes in the first bite. But I want to keep the taste alive, so I eat another, even though it won’t be as satisfying. With each chip, the enjoyment goes down, so the desire goes up- it’s almost like a drug.

A drug.

Through my extensive watching of the evening news and NatGeo documentaries growing up, I’ve learned some basic truths about some kinds of drug addictions. The first step is getting addicted, and some drugs are so potent that the first hit can be enough to do the job. Then, once hooked, the money to keep the drug flowing is needed because with each hit, the enjoyment is going to go down a little, so more needs to be purchased for the same effect. Over time the amount of the drug needed hits a level past the person’s income, and once finances are exhausted we hear about theft, break-ins, family trouble, and all sorts of horrible things that eventually end up with people in jail*.

We Americans are addicted. We are addicted to money, television, social media, oil and gas, self-image, and sports. It’s evident in our everyday lives that some things, we they to suddenly disappear, would leave many people without a sense of reality. Think about sports: we watch sports endlessly, bet on the winners, listen on the radio, play constantly, and stay ruthlessly loyal to teams that we honestly have no real affiliation to other than ‘my parents always liked them, so I did too’ or ‘I live in __insert big city here__ so I like them’. For athletes, performance means contracts and exposure. Exposure and contracts means advertising deals, which means $$$, which means financial stability and freedom that is the essence of the American Dream™. The huge amounts of fans and the insane amounts of money involved in sports are a lure, and once an athlete takes that first hit, they are addicted.

I didn’t make it far in the sporting world. I competed in baseball and lettered in swimming in high school, and ran decently well for a small, relatively unsuccessful D1 men’s track team. But even I know what it feels like. Beating people in a race is an exhilarating feeling, and I still to this day can’t get enough of it- it’s a rush. I would push and push and push to get where I needed to be in order to win. Long nights of sleep, healthy food, proper exercises, high mileage, and adequate equipment coupled with a strong desire to give everything in practice every day led me to gains I never would have expected out of myself. It was all fun, but it was also addicting. I can’t even imagine getting paid to do it.

Individual sports have a dorito doping problem. We’ve seen it in cycling, weightlifting, and track and field. It seems that each week brings a new story of a high-level track athlete being busted for performance-enhancing drugs, and in many cases we have seen athletes receiving Olympic Medals years after the fact, as a result of a medal winner being stripped of their award. We’ve reached a point in the sport where racing simply isn’t good enough anymore. We want records, fast times, big names- everything to bring us excitement in our instant gratification world. Running message boards are filled with young people asking questions about what kinds of workouts elites do to become as fast as they are. The truth lies in 100+ mile weeks and bone-breaking weariness, not some fancy workout designed by some genius coach. What’s a quick way to the top? For some, the answer is PEDs.

Recently, Nike has announced that it will pay marathoners to be put into a perfect situation in order to break the 2-hour barrier. Before that, a group called the Sub-2 project was created for the same purpose, the difference being trying to race below sea level in the Middle East instead of in Oregon. Many big races across the world offer large bonuses to run a certain fast time, and once one person uses PEDs, the rest almost need to follow suit. Did you ever watch interviews with cyclists busted for doping? Most of them said they had no choice; in the world of cycling EVERYONE was doing it, so the only way to stay competitive and keep making money was to dope as well, because only a small handful of people on this planet are talented enough to be as good as professional athletes who are doping. Track would be no different. If someone bursts onto the scene and has amazing success from doping, odds are some of the athletes will either figure that out or be tempted to use PEDs themselves. From there, it rainbows out to everyone, and soon after that, the ones who didn’t use PEDs are losing sponsorships because they can’t perform well in races. To add insult to injury, some countries don’t have effective measures to prevent doping from happening, and this leads athletes in stricter countries to push the boundaries.

Look at the women’s world records for some of the distance events (the ones held by Chinese women from more than 15 years ago). No seriously, do it. Tell me that those times are attainable and that female athletes wouldn’t be tempted to try every means necessary to get to that level. Do it.

Doping isn’t the problem. Our obsession with records and fast times is the problem. We no longer can be satisfied watching a race simply to see who gets to the finish line the quickest. Heck, there are runners out there getting paid to be a pacer for another- often faster- runner. The lead them out for the first part of a race, and drop out usually around 2/3 into the race and leave the runner to themselves after that. In major marathons a good pacing job pays out tens of thousands of dollars. I like to think of racing in terms of when I was a camper as a kid. When lunch was served, the race to get into line first was on- I had to get food first. I would race other kids to the building where lunch was served. It didn’t matter how fast you got there; the only thing that mattered was who got there first. That isn’t the case anymore.

This past Olympics the Men’s 1500m final came under scrutiny for its absurdly slow finishing time. The winners came in around 20 seconds slower than they were capable of running a in race slightly shorter than a mile. We forget that tactically it was brilliant. We forget that the last lap was run in something around 50 seconds by the eventual winner. What we remember is the slow first few laps. I myself have had significant problems with that race, but for different reasons. I don’t like tactical racing because I love watching people give 100%, start to finish. It shouldn’t have anything to do with records for fast times that we say mean something. Times disappear- races do not. Time is a human construct, but our bodies are not. The reason we have doping is because we are obsessed with time, speed, instant gratification, money, and success.

The solution is complex, and obviously I don’t know the answer. It’s one thing to tell people not to use PEDs, it’s another to say ‘hey, just don’t be as fast as people who use PEDs and get away with it. You won’t make as much money, but it’ll be ok’. I was fortunate enough to never have to witness people using or dealing with PEDs, but I was a victim of our time-intensive culture. We wear GPS watches that nail down our run distances to the hundredth-of-a-mile; we can track our pace at any point during a run, especially during a workout; we run races where we are more focused on our pace than our outcome; we even create special ‘distance carnival’ track meets where athletes are shipped onto tracks like cattle and race only for a time important to them, not knowing more than handful of people in their race. We have taken away the joy of racing to win, placed the emphasis on times, and then wondered why people cheat in marathons and use performance-enhancing drugs on the track. I take performance-enhancers every day- vegetables, fruit, whole grains, doritos, and healthy meats. I don’t take performance-enhancing drugs. You shouldn’t either. Our culture makes it ok to take shortcuts and cut corners on the way to the top, but the process is truly what makes life enjoyable.  Doping isn’t the real problem- our culture is.

*disclaimer: not all drug addictions work this way, so don’t lump everyone together. However, this does happen