Here’s an article I forgot I had written. Haven’t forgotten the runner. Keith Brantly was what I used to think of as a “trier.”
Like all my favorite athletes, his biggest fault was working too hard to be best. From Track & Field News, February 1990. – JDW
The thing I had to keep telling myself was that I could be bleeding from the eyes and I would not drop out.
“It’s so flattering just to be considered among the country’s best,” said Keith Brantly after being named our Road Runner Of The Year. He’s grateful for the recognition, another reward for the effort and talent that makes the 27-year-old Gainesville resident a factor every time he steps to the line.
Like at the Gasparilla 15K, a win he points to as his most satisfying achievement of ’89. “In terms of performance and focus, it had to be,” he says, stirred by the memories. “For ten weeks straight, I pointed for that race. It’s the one I’ve wanted to win since I was fifteen (15) and it’s fifty miles from my home town. It reaffirmed for me that an athlete can succeed if he focuses and prepares properly. It gave my running career a new breath of life after my Olympic Trials disappointment.”
The crucible of track formed an exceptional road campaign. “I fell apart completely in the Trials 10K,” Brantly confides. “In the heats, I could tell something was wrong – I was tired, exhausted and I started to panic. When the final came around, I was nervous; there was nothing I could do. I talked myself out of a good performance.”
He had another opportunity to make the team, at five kilometers. The pressure was off, with 800 meters remaining, he still had a chance, but he ran out of gas, finishing fourth, going home instead of to Korea.
“I’ll tell you what I took away from it,” he offers. “I’m a very talented athlete. Five races (5) in nine (9) days, finishing where I did among my peers… that tells me something. I can get the job done, if I can just let my body do the work. Secondly, focus. Don’t dilute your effort.”
Brantly refuses to let his effort get watered down. “I’m cutting way back on my racing this year. For example, I’m not going to Red Lobster or Gasparilla. I’ve already won those races. I don’t need to win them again. The problem with road racing – with all the fame and money – is not to let it get in the way of your real goals.”
He refuses to run just for the bucks. “The money’s good to a point. I consider myself a victim of it. I don’t need to win a road race every weekend to maintain my lifestyle. I plan to race less and focus more. Of course, it doesn’t necessarily mean I’ll win more races.”
But it can’t hurt, he feels. “I get upset when people say road racing is ‘the rock and roll of the sport.’ The road is so much more competitive than it’s ever been. You stand there waiting for the starter’s gun and you’re surrounded by a dozen Olympians and another dozen world-class athletes.”
Chasing international glory has its costs. After winning a tactical 5K on the track against Great Britain, Keith sprained his ankle badly. Scratched were appointments at Peachtree and Falmouth. July was spent in rehabilitation, and his road-race year was essentially over. Except for his first marathon.
It’s a race he’ll carry with him for a long time, that 2:20:35 for seventh. “I hit the wall like you wouldn’t believe. At eighteen miles (18M) I felt great, phenomenal. At eighteen and a half (18.5), I felt like the world had fallen in on me.”
He sees not just a little proud of himself for pushing through it, the sign of some potential at the distance.
“The thing I had to keep telling myself was that I could be bleeding from the eyes and I would not drop out.
“Crazy thing is that only two people passed me in the last eight miles.”
He’s even thinking about another. Mentions taking a shot at making the ’92 Olympic team in the marathon, then changes his mind as he speaks.
“I’ll stick with the five and ten (kilometer) for now. Maybe ’96. That would be the natural progression,” he says, but you know his interest has been piqued. “Am I willing to give up events I’ve been moderately successful at, for something with which I’ve had no experience? That’s the question.”
The answer is down the road for Keith Brantly. But for now, well, he thinks he’s on the right track.
And here’s down the road.
On the left, Dr. David Martin, coach, mentor and physiologist extraordinaire. On the right, a guy buying dinner.
HONORABLE MENTION
An alphabetical listing of the year’s (1989) other leading men:
Ed Eyestone – first American in seven of his ten races. Led 5000 list at 13:32.
Ken Martin – top U.S. marathoner was first American at both Pittsburgh (1st) and New York City (2nd). Led list at 2:09:38.
Mark Nenow – his 27:55 to win Bowling Green led the 10K list.
Steve Spence – first American at Bloomsday, Cascade and Falmouth.
