From Track & Field News March 1991.
AN AMERICAN SURPRISE
Results from the fourth race in the World Cross Challenge series, held in Limerick, Ireland, came as a surprise. There, in second, right between two Kenyans, was the name “Mark Coogan.”
American Mark Coogan ahead of Irishman John Treacy and Briton John Nuttall? Taking it to the Europeans on their home turf?
“I got lucky, that’s all,” says Coogan. Luckier than the previous week when he placed fifteenth at the Belfast race. Winds there were measured at one hundred miles per hour. 100 mph.
“The airport closed. Trees were breaking off and falling over. It was like running in a hurricane. You couldn’t even move,” he recalls. “We were running eight-minute pace into the wind and four minute pace with it behind us. There was this hill. Running up it with a tailwind was easier than running on a flat. The strongest guys survived. The young kids were all in the back.”
The 24-year-old Coogan, all 5-10, 140 of him, found the Limerick course more to his liking. “It was pretty cold and windy. Muddy and mucky,” the 8:28 steepler offered. “Ondoro? Just took off. Nuttall was the only one to go with him. I was running with the other Kenyan and Treacy. We caught up to Nuttall. The whole place was yelling, “It’s for your country, John!'”
Boston resident Coogan trains regularly with Treacy, the cross country world champion in ’78 and ’79. “I knew I could run with him,” Coogan says.
He knew something else. “There’s a tree on the course near the finish. By the time the four of us got there, I was getting really tired and I fell off the back a little bit.
“Then I saw the tree. Before our race, I was timing the Juniors from that point to the finish. It took about sixty (60) seconds. I said to myself, ‘You can run as hard as you can run for just another sixty (60) seconds.’ So, I put my head down and took off.”
And surprised the heck out of his competitors. Treacy, Nuttall & Co. never had a chance.
“It’s the first time I’ve ever beaten John,” Coogan says, still seeming somewhat amazed. “It was definitely the best race I ever ran.”
