|
Twenty-eight year old Brian Sell will lead a large contingent from the Hansons-Brooks Distance Project at the Boston Marathon on April 17. In the past year, Sell has won two national road titles—in the 25K last May in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and in the half-marathon in January in Houston. He set a personal record of 1:02:38 in the latter race.
Sell set his marathon PR of 2:13:18 at the 2004 Chicago Marathon. He was only 9 seconds off that mark in August, when he placed ninth in the World Championships Marathon in Helsinki. Sell placed 13th at the 2004 Olympic Marathon Trials after leading from mile 7 through mile 22.
Sell and his Hansons teammates live in the Rochester, Michigan area, where brothers Kevin and Keith Hanson own four running stores. Other Hansons runners heading to Boston with Sell include Clint Verran, Trent Briney and Luke Humphrey. The group’s Web site is located at www.hansons-running.com.
MensRacing.com: Your last race was the half- marathon in January. Why no racing between then and Boston?
Brian Sell: Right, that was mid-January, and we won’t race again until Boston. That was Kevin and Keith’s choice. We did the Philly half [marathon] before Chicago two years ago. It was supposed to be a controlled effort, 1:06, but we ran 1:04, pushing it pretty hard, so Keith and Kevin are having us hold back on the racing. We did a 26.2-kilometer time trial about three weeks ago.
MR: Is this the same build-up you followed before the World Championships?
BS: Yeah, same thing. We didn’t race before Worlds.
MR: Other than the 26.2K time trial, without racing, what do you use to gauge your fitness?
BS: We have a core workout that’s part of every marathon segment—two times 6 miles at 5 seconds per mile faster than race pace, with a 10-minute jog between. I just did that yesterday.
MR: What did you run?
BS: I ran 29:20, and then 28:45. I was supposed to run 4:55s [per mile], but I cheated it down a little. We’re allowed to go [faster] the last three miles of the second one.
MR: And how does that compare to what you did before World Champs?
BS: Before World Champs I was a little faster—I think then I ran 29:10 and 28:30. But it was about 40 degrees yesterday and a little windy.
MR: Have you done things in training to prepare for the unique demands of the Boston course?
BS: Definitely. At the beginning of this segment, we did mostly downhill intervals to beat up the quads. The time trial we did was on a really hilly course. Now we’re focusing on pace—we’ve read how you can get in trouble if you go out too hard. And we’re heading to Florida next week for a little heat acclimation, just in case it turns out to be 70 degrees on race day.
MR: Has this build-up been different in other ways?
BS:
It’s pretty similar to what we did before Helsinki. One big difference is that, this time, Clint [Verran] is running really well. He’s been pushing me hard on every workout. Before Helsinki, I was kind of more on my own—like on the two-by-6 miles, I would start a minute after the others, and then try to catch them by the end. This time, Clint and I have been running together on everything. Another marquee workout we have is a 22-miler with three miles in the middle at or below race pace. Clint’s been beating me up on those pretty good.
MR: So in a normal week, you’re running 13 times, right? How many of those are with members of the group?
BK:I would say seven to 10. Every morning is with the group. Clint and I live under a mile apart from each other, so sometimes if it works out we’ll run together for the second run. But in terms of group runs, the only requirement with the Hansons is the morning workout at 7:30. That’s the main workout of the day. After that, most of the guys are working at the [Hanson] stores or somewhere else, and so the second run is more on your own.
MR: What are some of the other requirements of the Hansons program?
BS: They have a set of standards. To be tier A, which means you can live in a house rent-free and work at the stores, it’s sub-29:00 [for 10K], sub-14:00 [for 5K] and something like 2:20 or 2:18 in the marathon. And then there are guidelines, like in the marathon, you’re supposed to lower your time by two minutes a year. Clint and I are kind of on our own in that respect. Clint is a physical therapist and doesn’t work in the stores. I have my own place. We’re here more for the marathon group-training than anything else, although obviously the Hansons and Brooks have been really good to us. But the new guys have to meet those standards, and Kevin and Keith also want to make sure they’re going to be good for working in the stores. And they have to be on the same page with the training, willing to do the training.
MR: Have there been people who have left the program because they thought the training wasn’t right for them?
BS: Yeah, that’s true of pretty much everybody that’s come and gone. Kevin and Keith believe in really high mileage. It’s not really a place where even a 5K guy would probably want to be. Everything is more set up for 10K runners and up. But there are some guys trying to make it work more in that 5K/10K range. Two guys are really doing well at that end—Josh Moen and Jeff Gaudette, they just PRed in the 10K at Stanford the other night. Josh ran 28:40, Jeff 28:58. Those are two of the faster 10Ks we’ve had come out of the group.
MR: And then there was Mark Menefee [who placed fifth at the 2004 Olympic Trials 5000 meters while training with the Hansons group].
BK:Yes, Mark kind of bucked the system. He said he wanted to do a 5K segment, and they let him. It was great to see him crank out that kind of race on the type of training we do.
MR: You said you’re going to Florida before Boston. How often do you leave Michigan for training stints?
BS: Once or twice a year. We were in Florida back in January. We were having a string of days here where it was zero to ten degrees. The training starts to drag on you. Most of us, it seems, can put up with that sort of thing for five or six weeks, but then you start heading downhill mentally. The training just really becomes a drag. So if we go away for some time in January, by the time we get back it’s starting to warm up a little bit.
MR: How often do you work in the stores?
BS: I’d say five or six days a week. I’m on the schedule for a lot less than that, but I wind up working most days. I handle the shipping and receiving. There are four stores, so I handle the receiving when stuff comes in, and then send it out to the other three stores. I work for five or six hours at a time.
MR: The eight guys in front of you at Helsinki, I’m not sure off the top of my head, but most if not all of them aren’t doing that sort of thing during the day, standing on their feet and pulling boxes or whatever. Do you ever feel like working in the store is a drawback?
BS: I honestly feel like it’s the opposite. When I was in high school, I spent the summer putting pools in people’s homes, and I was running 10 or 15 miles a day to get ready for college. I feel like when I take a couple days off, of just running and then lounging around between runs, I get lethargic. Maybe we could run better if we didn’t work in the stores; I don’t know. But I know I feel better when I get out and do a little work every day. You’re on your feet, but working in the stores is not really all that demanding.
MR: The first time a lot of people became aware of you was when you led the Olympic Marathon Trials for so long. In Helsinki, you sort of did the opposite—running patiently at first and picking off tons of people.
BS: Actually, at Helsinki I was out faster at the half [marathon] than at the Trials, but there were 60 guys out a minute faster than me. I went through in 1:05:50 and was in 62nd place. I slowed in the second half and still reeled in 50 guys. At the Trials, the plan was to run 5:02s. We went out in 5:23, then 5:25. I knew that I needed to take off. In hindsight, it probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do, but I’d probably do it again.
MR: How will you run at Boston? Everyone always says how the first half is so fast, but the last few years, it’s gone out pretty slow, and then the winners negative split.
BS: I am a little scared. I’ve been having this bad dream about every third night where I’m leading at 20, 21 miles, and then they all blow by me. My biggest fear is that they’ll let the pace lag. I want to be 1:06 at the half, and what if they go out in 1:06:30?
MR: A few years ago, there would be statements from you once in a while about how you were almost ready to quit, but then you’d have a good race and that would motivate you to stick with it. Has that sort of thing passed?
BS: Yeah, I’m definitely in until 2008, now that it’s getting close.
Look, the whole goal is to make the Olympic team. If I’m not seeing that I’m taking steps toward meeting that goal, then I don’t want to be banging my head against the wall. It’s tough. I’m training as hard as I can, and it’s tough when you see what some guys can do. Guys like [Dathan] Ritzenhein, it seems like they’re injured half the year, and then they come off that and run great. Like at the [national road championship] 10K last fall, he made me look like I wasn’t even in the race. [Ritzenhein won in 28:11; Sell was 3rd in 28:48.] Stuff like that sometimes makes it tough to get out there and do it—it makes you wonder if the work is really paying off.
MR: Is there any part of training as hard as you do that you enjoy?
BS: I love running with the guys. But I’m also a very competitive person, and I have a lot of goals I want to reach. Everyone in my family but my wife and I are back in Pennsylvania. So sometimes it’s tough to be here when you don’t feel like you’re making progress toward your goals.
MR: Have you had discussions about this with the Hansons?
BS: Actually, they find out a lot of stuff from reading interviews like this one. I was raised not to complain and to make my own decisions. If I’m not meeting my goals, I would feel like staying here would be taking advantage of the situation. So, no, we don’t sit around and talk about it. I’ll be 28 in a couple of weeks—I can make my own decisions.
MR: When you were thinking of quitting, what were you planning to do?
BS: I would be happy to go to dental school eventually. I’ve always worked on model airplanes and cars, and I’ve thought I’d like to be in the medical field. Dentistry would kind of combine the two. Physical therapy probably seems more up a runner’s alley, but I like the idea of looking in their mouth, seeing what the problem is, fixing it and then sending them on their way.
MR: Other than making the Olympic team, what are your goals?
BS: 2:09 would be really nice eventually. Back in the day, in the 70s and 80s, you had maybe 20 or 30 Americans between 2:09 and 2:11. You run 2:11 now and you’re looked at like a hero. If I ran 2:09 or 2:10, to have my name there alongside guys like Greg Meyer and Bill Rodgers, that would be great.
Editor's Update:
Sell finished fourth in the Boston Marathon with an impressive personal best time of 2:10:55.
Interview conducted April 2, 2006, and posted April 5, 2006.
|
