Mary Decker Slaney And Me

Mary Decker and I used to live together.  There, I confessed.  Of course, she was at one end of the house, I was at the other, far end of the house.  We ran together once.  I am not over it.  

So, anyway, I sold my Elliptigo to somebody who needed it more.  And then I thought how sad I was to see that machine go.  Life is like that.

But I digress.  Here’s a tale from the mid-Nineties about one tough lady.

Slaney’s back.

The rumblings started last Fall, like drums along the road circuit. Slaney’s back. With her eye on the 1996 Olympic 10,000. And get this, Alberto Salazar is coaching her.

Brown ponytail streaming, Mrs. Mary Decker Slaney covered the rain-slickened New Times 10K in a course record 32:38. Her first competitive effort in a year. Following her Phoenix flight, Slaney chilled out at Manchester’s 4.748M Thanksgiving melee. Fairly frozen at 18 degrees, Slaney warmed to the task, finishing in 24:31, far in front of Olympians Judi St. Hilaire and Cathy O’Brien. Slaney’s back… indeed, that was all they saw of her.

“I never look back,” she once said. The rest of us should.

* * *

At age eleven, very little Mary Theresa Decker enters a cross country race. Without the faintest idea what ‘cross country’ means, she runs the 1320-yard event and wins. A natural.

The next year is 1971. The soundtrack from Jesus Christ, Superstar is the country’s top album. Cheryl Bridges becomes the first American woman to break the 2:50 barrier for the marathon. Decker turns 12. Runs a 5:04.8 mile on Saturday and Sunday finishes a marathon in 3:09:27. Competes in track meets next two days. Thursday, she undergoes an emergency appendectomy. The doctor says her condition is brought on by too much running. A prophetic diagnosis.

1972. Burglars are caught creeping inside Democratic Party offices at the Watergate complex. Blue Ribbon Sports, a distributor of Tiger shoes, becomes NIKE. Decker, age 13, runs 4:55 for the mile.

1973. Twelve-year-old long jumper Carl Lewis wins his age-group at a local Jesse Owens meet. Craig Virgin sets the high school record for two miles.

Decker competes in her last open quarter. Her time? 53.8, a mark which would have made her the fifth fastest prep 20 years later. At 14, she runs 23.7 for 220 yards. On a dirt track. From a standing start.

The next year, Suzy Favor starts school… elementary school. Doug Kurtis enters his first marathon. Margaret Groos runs 5:12 to win the RRCA 14-15 age-group national mile championship.

No wonder they call her “Little Mary”, she’s 5’3″ and 90 lbs. But she earns a berth on her first national team and ranks 4th in world, number one – with a bullet – in the U.S. at 800, which she covers in 2:02.4. She runs 4:40.1 indoors for the mile.

At fifteen, Decker sets three world records indoors.

“People just expect too much,” she said then. “Just because you break a record or two, people expect you to do it every time you step on the track. You can’t run records to order…. So I just try to do my best in every race and satisfy myself.”

The leading half-miler in the U.S.A., Decker wins the 800 in a dual meet against the USSR. Bodychecked off the track during a relay, Mary gets up and throws her baton at the muscular Russian offender. She misses. She throws the baton again. Remember the Cold War?

A stress fracture in her right foot requires Mary to spend six weeks in a cast.

1975. The Vietnam “Conflict” ends. Steve Prefontaine dies. Joan Benoit, who clips and saves articles about Decker, runs 5:29 to win Maine’s state high school mile championship. Edwin Moses enters his first intermediate hurdles race.

Meanwhile, Mary Decker, age sixteen, grows three inches and is sidelined with shin pains. It hurts so bad.

1976. Alberto Salazar is prepdom’s top three-miler. Lynn Jennings runs 4:55.3 indoors to become the first Massachusetts schoolgirl to break 5 minute barrier. Decker leaves high school and heads to the University of Colorado “to escape the pressure of Southern California.” Hampered by constant pain, she guts out one race indoors and misses the remainder of the year. Dominant when injury-free, she is unable to compete for a spot on Montreal Olympic squad.

1977. First issue of Running Times appears. Renaldo Nehemiah graduates from high school.

At 19, Decker’s career seems ended. “I cried a lot,” she admits, “but I don’t think I gave up at any point.” Dick Quax visits Boulder, points to scars on his own calves and recognizes Mary’s problem as Compartment Syndrome, where the tissues surrounding the calf muscles fail to expand with the muscles’ growth. Decker has two operations to correct problem.

1978. Grete Waitz wins her first NYC marathon in 2:32:30, a world record.

By January, Decker’s comeback is official. Running outdoors in New Zealand, she lopes to personal bests of 2:01.8 and 4:08.9. Back in the U.S.A., she covers 1000 yards in an indoor world record of 2:23.6. Decker sets an indoor 1500 meter collegiate record of 4:13.4. Followed by Achilles tendinitis and another bout of Compartment Syndrome. Another operation. Decker wins the collegiate women’s cross-country championship that fall.

1979. Carl Lewis sets high school long jump record. Decker becomes first female member of famed Athletics West.

A sciatic nerve problem springs up, so Decker is unable to train for three and a half months early in the year. She moves to Eugene, never to compete again collegiately. About those missed years Decker said, “Your body just doesn’t burn itself out by the time you’re 20.”

Summer. Decker sets mile AR of 4:23.5. She wins Pan-Am Games 1500m gold medal, runs a personal best and is ranked #2 in U.S. at that distance.

1980. Gore-Tex invented. Salazar’s marathon debut is a 2:09:41 win in New York City.

Do you believe in miracles? While America’s ice hockey team upsets the Soviets at the Winter Olympics, Mary Decker runs 1:59.7 for 880y. A mark still standing.

Decker’s 4:21.7 makes her the only American woman ever to hold the world mile record. In fact, she’s the first U.S. woman to hold any world record at a distance longer than 200m.

“But it really wasn’t a race, was it?,” she said. “I have to learn to run with people and not just against myself.”

Working as a sales clerk in a NIKE store, Decker lowers world mile standard to 4:17.6 indoors and covers 1500m in 4:00.8, another indoor world record.

“To me, the bad things in my career were my injuries. I don’t think about those things now because I’m looking ahead,” the 21-year-old confided. “I’m not living in the past, not living for what ‘Little’ Mary Decker has done. I want to achieve more… and I’m a whole different person.”

Decker wins Olympic Trials 1500. But all athletes lose, as U.S. boycotts Moscow Games. “I would love to win an Olympic gold medal,” Decker says, “but if it isn’t possible, it isn’t possible. Maybe I can prove I’m the best in other ways.”

Some other ways. She runs 4:01.17, an American Record for 1500m. Her first 3000m on the track results in an 8:38.73 AR. Then a 4:00.87 AR. Three national marks in a week. After missing the Olympics, a 4:00.04 AR.

Decker becomes the first American woman under four minutes for the metric mile – 3:59.43. She finishes in a distant second as Tatyana Kazankina sets an astonishing world record of 3:52.47.

“I was psychologically beaten before the race started,” Decker conceded then. “I looked at the Soviet women and literally could not believe my eyes. They didn’t look like any women I had seen before. Their muscle definition is so pronounced! I don’t doubt they are women biologically speaking, but, shall we say, chemically I’m not so sure.” In September, Decker undergoes Achilles tendon surgery to repair a partial tear.

1981. Prize money comes to road racing as NIKE and Cascade Run Off pay cash for performance.

Decker injured. Does not compete. Gets married to marathoner Ron Tabb instead.

1982. Pat Porter wins his first cross-country championship. Salazar sets national 10K record.

Decker Tabb undefeated. Wins national championship at 1500m. Lowers world indoor mile mark three times, leaving it at 4:20.5. WRi 3000 8:47.3. Sets three world marks outdoors- 4:18.08, 5000 – 15:08.26, 10K – 31:35.3. AR 3000 8:29.71. Top ranked American at five different distances. Number one in world at three. Sports Illustrated names Decker Tabb Sportswoman of the Year.

1983. Ronald Reagan takes the credit. George Bush, too. Track historians, however, trace the fall of the Soviet empire to Decker Tabb’s double gold performance in Helsinki against two of the best women’s fields ever assembled. Two. Gold. Medals. Count’em. Assay them.

Undefeated, she’s tops world-wide at 1500m and 3000m. Ranked #2 in U.S. at 800m with PR 1:57.60. Lowers American 1500m record to 3:57.12. Divorces Tabb.

By year’s end, Decker has run the fastest dozen 1500m races in U.S. history, the thirteen fastest miles, the eight fastest at 3000 meters.

1984. Junior Ed Eyestone wins collegiate national 10K championship. Lisa Weidenbach places fourth in marathon trials. Benoit wins first Olympic women’s marathon. Decker sets road AR for 10K with 31:38.

Everyone remembers The Fall Of L.A.  Zola Budd cuts in front of Decker, who crashes to the track, injured and screaming.  Maricica Puica goes on to glory.

1985. Cathy Schiro is top high school 3000m runner. Decker celebrates New Year’s by marrying Big Richard Slaney, British discus thrower. A very solid guy.

Slaney is unbeaten in 14 races outdoors. She sets five national records and runs one mile in 4:16.71, a world best. Wins Grand Prix easily, defeating both Puica and Budd.

With the year’s fastest times, Decker is ranked #1 in world at 1500m and 3000m. Says this is her best year ever.

1986. Suzy Favor completes her reign as country’s top high school miler.

After nine hours of labor, Slaney gives birth to Ashley Lynn on May 30th. Six days later – don’t try this at home – Ma Slaney goes for a run, admitting later she tried to come back too fast. Fourteen weeks after giving birth, Mary runs her first road mile in 4:32.01, finishing 6th at NYC’s Mercedes mile. November, she undergoes arthroscopic surgery on her right Achilles.

1987. The country’s top high school sprinter is Quincy Watts. Slaney continues to be plagued by Achilles problems. Does not compete.

1988. Lisa Weidenbach places fourth in marathon trials.

Slaney runs her first track race in 19 months, a 4:09.14 1500m victory. “I feel really confident all the problems are over,” she says after the race. Her 3:58.92 win at the Olympic Trials gets her to Seoul where she places 8th. Ranks 8th in world, tops in U.S. Decker doubles, also winning the Trials’ 3000m with a time of 8:34.69. Finishes 10th at the Olympics. Ranks #8 in world, #2 in U.S. at 3000m.

1989. Berlin Wall comes tumbling down. Pattisue Plumer takes away Decker’s 5000m AR with a 15:00.00 clocking. Mary ranks 7th in U.S. at 1500m with her 4:23.9 indoor mile.

1990. Plumer becomes only the second American woman ever ranked #1 in World at 3000m. Slaney, the first U.S. female so honored, can’t even recall why she doesn’t compete that year. “Probably injured,” she says. “Probably Achilles tendinitis.”

1991. Francie Larrieu Smith, ironically the woman Decker replaced as this country’s greatest middle distance runner, breaks Mary’s 9-year-old 10K record.

Slaney runs 2:01.28 for 800m and a 4:23.35 mile. Her 8:43.19 3000m mark earns a #4 ranking among Americans.

1992. Lisa Weidenbach places fourth in marathon trials. Craig Virgin runs – and loses – a race for seat in the Illinois State Senate.

Fourteen weeks before U.S. Olympic Trials, Slaney has surgery to correct plantar fascia injury. “Your body heals in a certain way,” she says. “You can’t speed it up.” After building a sizable lead in the first two laps of the 3000, Slaney fades to a distant, non-qualifying 6th. “If I had gone out slower, I probably would have run a better race, but that’s just not me.” In the 1500 meter race, Suzy Favor Hamilton outkicks Slaney for final berth on U.S. team.

1993. Thirty minutes after a 10K, the Chinese women are ready to race again.

Meanwhile, Slaney again injured. Again, surgery, this time to remove nearly an inch of heel bone. Mary does not compete until rising again in Phoenix.

***

She’s seen untold thousands of athletes come and go, yet she runs on.

When asked what keeps her going, Mary Slaney says the first thing that comes to mind. “Training, long runs, racing.” The actual activity. The process, not the result. The doing. Not fitness, not winning, not medals nor records or fame. What she enjoys most about running… is running. Nothing more than.

“It’s a feeling, a feeling that’s difficult to put into words. It’s like being a junkie. I love to run, I crave it. I get my fix and I just want more.

“You see, running isn’t hard for me. When I’m fit, I can push harder. And the harder I push, the better the feeling becomes. So, I want to go faster and faster. Eventually, I push too hard and that’s when I’ve run into problems.

“I don’t equate running with pain. Maybe I don’t feel the pain the way others do. For me, the only time running hurts is when I’m injured. I equate injuries with pain.”

Is it fair to call her fragile? “I guess it’s fair,” she concedes with disarming charm. “Either that or stupid.”

Stupid she’s not. “I’m just a little bit stubborn.” Study the readers’ surveys. One out of every three runners becomes injured every year. Slaney has always done her part. Talk to her about leg problems, she sounds like a medical specialist, tossing off one proper Latin term after another. She’s lost count of the number of operations, surgeries, invasive medical procedures, call them what you will, she has undergone in the course of her career.

“Fourteen to sixteen,” she estimates. Not quite one per year.

Looking at her injuries as mandatory rest periods, perhaps she’s lasted so long in part because of all the layoffs. “We’ll never know that,” she says. “I don’t think I would’ve retired. I don’t think I’ll ever retire from running. Not completely. Not ever.”

Slaney has learned a couple of things from her numerous setbacks. “I’ve learned how to make numerous comebacks,” she says. “When you’re younger, you think you’re bullet-proof. Sooner or later you find out that’s not true. I’ve finally learned, if the doctor says it’ll be eight weeks until you heal, it’ll be eight weeks. If he says twelve weeks, it’ll be twelve weeks. Too many times, I tried to rush back from injury and simply prolonged my problems. I’ve learned my lesson.”

She could teach. It’s a simple sport, after all. Stay to the left, and get back as soon as you can.

Fifteen years ago, Slaney said she needed to be able to call someone ‘Coach.’ “I think everybody needs to. Particularly at this level. I could tell somebody else what to do, that’s easy, but I can’t be objective enough with myself. That’s simply too difficult.” The need remains the same.

Enter her old and true friend Alberto Salazar, a world-class guy who’s been to the top himself. He knows what it takes to get there. And he’s not interested in making the trip again. Not for himself. These days, the former marathon genius is training like a injury-prone woman miler looking to compete the longer track distances.

“He’s been a great coach. Just great,” Slaney explains. “He’s not manipulating, not controlling like certain coaches I could name. He cares. He cares differently. He puts my goals and my racing ahead of his own running. He doesn’t feel threatened. He wants me to succeed, be healthy and perform well. That’s his only motivation.”

Listening to Mary talk, she sounds like a once lonely child who’s finally found somebody to play with. “Working with Alberto has been a lot of fun. I’ve never had a training partner whose schedule was remotely like mine. I have somebody to run with who actually slows me down. More importantly, I’m learning, finally, how to train.

Slaney, by the way, claims she can get into “reasonable” shape in eight weeks, top shape in 12 weeks. And it doesn’t take any longer than it used to.

For all she’s accomplished, she wants to do so much more. “My motivation hasn’t changed. It’s the same as when I started running. I think I can do better. I think I can run faster.”

Yet there’s more to her life than running in circles.

Sitting in her home, a two-story traditional five miles north of Eugene’s Hayward Field, in a flat neighborhood full of families and good for running, Slaney sounds less like a Zen priestess of physicality and more like a young wife and mother.

“Having a family puts the rest of life in perspective. The world does not revolve around my running the way it used to,” she says. “The way I thought it used to.”

More to life. “I’d probably be a neurotic mess if I didn’t have Richard and Ashley,” Mary concedes. “They certainly make dealing with injuries and other setbacks much easier.”

She’s been happily married over nine years to Richard Slaney, who’s currently in the business of buying, selling and restoring old aircraft. “I’m happy for him,” she says. “He’s making a living doing something he loves.”

Then there’s Ashley Lynn, an animated second-grader who turns eight-years-old this spring. “I have to set an example now,” proud Mary relates. “Such a good child. Absolutely no disciplinary problems ever.”

Ashley is not a runner. “She’s very academically oriented,” says Mrs. Slaney. “She wants to be an actress.”

Gifted with a certain fluid flair for the dramatic herself, Ashley’s mother has always been more than an athlete. Mary Slaney is a performer.

“I’m simply inspired to get better. I’m aiming at the 5000m and the 10000m, and I don’t consider myself experienced at either distance. I’ve run one 10K on the track ever, and three 5Ks, ever. I have to believe there’s a great deal of room for improvement.”

She hasn’t given much thought lately to running a marathon. “Secretly, I think Alberto would like to see me run one. If there was some way to guarantee I wouldn’t get injured. And, of course, there’s not. Richard is dead set against it. After all, he’s the one who has to live with me when I’m hurt. We all know it’s not the smartest idea we’ve heard.”

“I really don’t know what my best racing distance is,” Slaney concedes. “Depends on the most recent injury and the latest training, I guess. Honestly, I think the 5K could be.”

And does she think she can still win an Olympic gold medal? “Of course.”

And she knows just how she’ll do it. “I can outkick anybody.”

A runner’s career ends when her legs are exhausted, when the heart gives out and the drive dries up, when the mind says no. Mary Slaney isn’t even tired yet.

***

In the history of running, Slaney stands alone. Nobody even remotely like her, before or since. How do we measure this Marython?

At last count, Slaney had set 36 American records (23 outdoor, 11 indoor, two on the road) and 17 world records (6 outdoor, 11 indoor). Not so long ago, she owned all eight middle and long distance American records on the track. 800-1:56.90, 1000-2:34.8, 1500 – 3:57.12, 1M-4:16.71, 2000-5:32.7, 3000-8:25.83, 5000-15;06.53, 10000-31:35.3.

No other American woman has broken four minutes for the metric mile.

Crunching the numbers over three decades. Slaney has been world ranked in five different events, 17 times among the planet’s top ten. Eighteen times she’s been ranked #1 in the U.S., 27 occasions among the top five. Named four times U.S. Athlete of the Year. Bounced back from more knockdowns than Sylvester Stallone. Done everything possible except win an Olympic medal.

Now she’s aimed at Atlanta. Stay tuned for the next Mary-go-round.

ROOKIE COACH (THE SIDEBAR)

She’s been through more coaches than Wells-Fargo. He’s 98% slow twitch. Is this a good idea?

“A wise man learns from his mistakes,” Alberto Salazar says when the question is put to him. “My downfall was, I never took a break. You have to train hard and you have to rest. You have to have the confidence to take a day off.”

Here’s a snapshot of a work in progress. Slaney starts the week with a gentle six miler Monday morning, followed by 45 minutes of pool running. Tuesdays, late morning, she’ll do track work or trail intervals, usually 5X(800m+400m), 2:20 halves followed by 65 sec. quarters. That afternoon, she heads for the pool or a bike ride. Wednesday morning, more water. After a few miles warm-up in the afternoon, Mary completes some 20 range-of-motion exercises and calisthenics (no bounding), then cools down. The entire workout is 100 minutes of constant activity, perhaps 10 or more miles of running.

Three miles easily Thursday a.m., then 5 miles in the afternoon, followed by a pool run. Fridays, pool in the morning, then a repeat of Wednesday’s exercises that afternoon.

Saturday is serious. Slaney might do four ‘breakdowns,’ a series of shorter and shorter intervals, say 4 X 600m, 400m, 300m, 200m, the latter no faster than 31-32 seconds. Or a five mile tempo run at 5:15 pace. Or maybe a half-dozen mile repeats at five minute pace with a lap or so rest in between.

Sunday’s the most important day of the week, offers Salazar. On the seventh day, Slaney rests. Wisely.

The coach often trains with his charge. “I make Mary run behind me for most of the workout, and not just to control the pace,” Alberto points out. “She needs to learn to run from behind, in a crowd. She’s been pushing air for too many years. Let somebody else lead for a change.”

Her easy runs, once done at 6 minute pace, have slowed to 6:45. The schedule changes from day to day, week to week, but weekly mileage never exceeds 55.

Add four hours of cross-training and her effort equals 80 or 85 miles weekly, according to Coach Salazar. “We want to approach races from a strength posture and let her natural speed take care of the rest of the job,” Salazar explains. “Gentle, longer intervals. That’s the strategy in a nutshell.”

He was once the greatest, she was once the greatest. Decker and Salazar, together again for the first time. Who’s to say they can’t be the greatest again?

“We both believe Mary can run better than ever at every distance from 1500m on up.”