Interview with: Alistair Cragg

by Mario Fraioli

Former University of Arkansas standout Alistair Cragg ran a personal best of 13:08.97 for 5000 meters at the Reebok Grand Prix meet on June 3 at Icahn Stadium in New York City, placing fifth and cutting nearly four seconds off his previous PR. The 26-year-old South-African-native-turned-Irish-citizen has his sights set on medaling in the 5000 meters at the European Track & Field Championships this August in Goteborg, Sweden.

Mensracing.com spoke with Cragg before he headed off to Europe in preparation for the European Championships.

MensRacing.com: First off, congratulations on your recent 5000 meters PR of 13:08 at the Reebok Grand Prix meet in New York. It’s still relatively early in the season for you, so I imagine you’ve got to be pleased with such an outstanding result.
Alistair Cragg: Yeah, definitely. Actually, just prior to the Reebok meet, I ran a 2-mile at the Adidas Classic which didn’t go very well. [Cragg was secnd in 8:23.75.] I felt sluggish there, and my confidence wasn’t too high. In the 5K, I felt good at the early pace, going through the mile in 4:09. Through 3K, I was just sitting in the back and lost my concentration for a bit. If there’s anywhere I could have done better, it was there, but overall I’m happy with the race and that I came out of it with a PR. I’m excited about my form, and my training is starting to come around. I just started doing decent workouts, which is a good sign because things hadn’t been going well at all.

MR: How do you mean?
AC: Things just weren’t clicking in the workouts. I think I just needed a race or two.

MR: Speaking of workouts, are you still training in Fayetteville?
AC: Yeah, nothing has really changed since my days at Arkansas. Coach McDonnell is still coaching me, and I’m training with Daniel Lincoln for the summer. He came down from Little Rock and is staying with me at my house for a few weeks. Also, Mark Fountain, an Australian, is here training with us, as well as Said Ahmed. We have our own little alumni training group.

MR: What does a typical week look like for you in terms of mileage and workouts?
AC: The mileage has been consistently between 80 and 85 miles per week, but the intensity of the workouts has picked up recently, so we’ve slowed down on the easier days. We stepped up the mileage to about 90 after the indoor season but stopped doing workouts. We kept it there through most of the preseason until we started adding workouts again. We’re still running about the same amount of volume now, but the easy days have been very easy. It’s the only way you’re going to recover from the workouts.

MR: What kind of workouts, specifically?
AC: We recently have been working a lot more on my speed-strength, doing workouts like a mile step-down, where we’d start the workout off with a mile in 4:01, and stepping down in distance but picking up the speed as the workout progresses. Track workouts at Arkansas are always intense. That’s why it’s easier having these guys here. If they’re hurting out there, then I’m allowed to hurt, too.

MR: You mentioned Coach McDonnell earlier and that he’s still coaching you. Can you talk a little bit about your relationship with him?
AC: John McDonnell is a father figure to me. If it weren’t for him, I never would have run in college or be in the situation I’m in now. I owe everything I’ve gotten out of track to him. He’s easy to follow and is usually right in his assessments. And if he’s wrong about something, he usually takes the blame. We’ve always had a great relationship. Now that I’m out of college and helping him as an assistant coach, we have a friendlier, business-like relationship. He’s given me a chance to learn a lot about how and why he does things, and I really think that’s helped me become a better runner.

MR: Going back to your most recent 5000 in New York, it was a four-second PR for you and also put you within five seconds of Mark Carroll’s Irish national record of 13:03. Is that a time that’s floating around in the back of your head to go after later this summer?
AC: Yeah. It’s one of the greater Irish national records out there. I respect that record a lot, and I also have a lot of respect for Mark, but I’m going to try and chase it. No disrespect to Mark, but 13:03 today isn’t the same as 13:03 seven or eight years ago. I need to aim higher than that to keep pace with the caliber of athletes I’m competing against.

MR: I imagine by that you mean the Africans and guys like Craig Mottram who are routinely running under 13 minutes for 5000?
AC: Right. The big 13-minute barrier isn’t as big as it used to be. To break it is not an amazing feat anymore. 13:08 just isn’t good enough to be successful on the world level, but it keeps us hungry. Other than Craig, I don’t know whether or not we’ve closed the gap on the Africans, but I know none of us are scared to mix it up in a sub-13 race.

MR: What are your racing plans for the rest of the summer?
AC: After USAs we head over to Cork, where we’ll kick off our season. I’ll take one more chance at a fast 5K in Paris a week after the Cork meet, and then I’ll run the Irish National Championships, but everything else is just building toward running well at the European Championships.

MR: Being a foreigner who competed collegiately in the U.S., do you feel that the NCAA system prepared you well for what you’re facing now on the international level?
AC: For me, it was a big shock at first. The first few years were tough, but I found that if you can keep your head above water, you’ll come out on top. Every year I would get stronger, and eventually I started looking toward NCAA titles. If you can learn how to race at the NCAA level, it prepares you well for what you’ll face internationally. My first year out of Arkansas was like being a freshman all over again. I forgot how to race. The NCAA kept me excited about the sport and made me hungry. You’re not competing against the best athletes in the world, but with the Africans and guys like Nick Willis, [Alan] Webb, and [Dathan] Ritz[enhein], they’re not far off.

MR: How do you respond to the criticisms that there are too many older foreigners competing at the NCAA level?
AC: I think if you’re competing against people who are just below professional, then it’s only going to make you better. I understand people take their achievements seriously, and if I were an American, I’d probably be mad that I have to race a great foreigner, but in the long run, it’s only going to make me a better athlete. It’s only a good thing.

MR: Lastly, you mentioned that your primary goal right now is running well at the European Championships later this summer, but looking ahead a bit to 2008, I imagine you have your sights set at making an impact at the Olympic level.
AC: Yeah, every now and then it crosses my mind, but I’m trying not to look too far ahead. I always thought I could run at the world level, but I also thought it would come quicker for me. Because of injury, I lost an important year, so I’ve got to take that into consideration. I’ve got a lot of goals for 2008, and I’ve just got to prove it to myself that I can compete at the world level.

Interview conducted June 17, 2006, and posted June 29, 2006.