Interview: Max King

by Beth Whitney

Max King, 26, has recently risen from relative obscurity to establish himself as a top athlete at the national level. While employed full-time as a pharmaceutical researcher, he has managed to finish fifth at the 2005 USA 8K Championships and third at the 2006 USA Half Marathon Championships.

Originally from Central Point, Oregon, King attended Cornell University. While representing Cornell, he was the 2001 and 2001 Heptagonal Games Champion and a 2002 NCMK All-American in the steeplechase.

With bests of 8:40 for the steeplechase, 23:04 for the 8K, and 1:03:08 for the Half Marathon while representing Eugene's Team XO, King is still in the process of discovering what his strongest events are. He will attempt to secure his first spot on the U.S. world cross country team at this weekend's USA Cross Country Championships.

MensRacing.com: So you actually run to and from work?
Max King: Yeah, once in a while, a couple of days a week or so, that or bike. In the winter, it’s a little bit harder.

MR: Up until around late last year, your name has barely registered with people who follow the sport. Your name may have registered in Oregon where you are, but it was not recognizable on the East Coast. Your 3rd-place showing at the half marathon nationals, coupled with your 5th-place finish at the 8K road championships, has resulted in a growing buzz surrounding you. How do you feel about the new attention?
MK: I can’t say it’s bad. When you’re in this sport, it’s so hard to get attention.

MR: Are your co-workers very aware of your athletic accomplishments?
MK: Since they’re not runners, they don’t really appreciate the times that much. I get a lot of local attention from the paper—any time the Olympics are mentioned, that kind of tunes everybody in to how well you are doing. They have a pretty good idea of where I’m at, at least in terms of national placement and stuff, even if they don’t necessarily know what the times mean.

MR: What do you attribute your recent breakthrough to?
MK: You know, I can’t really say. [Laughs] It’s not a secret or anything, because I don’t really know. After college, I kind of took some time off, and when I came back I was running significantly faster than I had when I was in college, and I think a lot of it was the really hard training in college. As it built up over the years, I was always fatigued and tired, so when I took that break it kind of let my whole body rest and recuperate. When I came back, I was stronger than ever, and now I’m just training a little bit smarter and I’m still improving. I think that’s part of it.

MR: You’re a member of Team XO, and right now you’re carrying the banner for them in a big way. I’ve been to their Web site and got an overview, but I’m still curious about their history and how you hooked up with them.
MK: If you’ve been to the Web site, you know quite a bit about XO already. It’s a fairly young team—it’s only been around for about four years or so. I got hooked up with XO about a year and a half ago. Basically I was kind of invited by one of the members from the team, Jeff Sather. He gave me [director] Ross [Kremply]’s name. Ross contacted me and said, "Hey, Max, do you want to run for us at this race?" and I said, "Yeah, sure." I’ve always liked being part of a team and I don’t like running on my own quite as much. In races it’s kind of nice to have a team there, because then you know other people and stuff like that. So I started running with them at a couple of little races. I was part of a team, and after doing well by myself, I didn’t mind running with and meeting some new people, so I stuck with it.

MR: How often do you get a chance to train with the other runners there?
MK: Well, basically never, since I’m over in Bend and they’re all over in Eugene. I hardly ever go over and train with anybody, so I’m mostly on my own over here. It’s just me and a few guys here, but they’re not on Team XO, and I don’t train with them too often. [Team XO] is more like a racing team—we go to races together, and it’s people to meet up with. Things like that.

MR: In what ways do they support their athletes?
MK: Well, this is all pretty grassroots and pretty young. We don’t have a lot of funding. They do help, though, with some gear and some travel expenses to the bigger races, such as the national cross country meet, and for hotel expenses for some of the local races that we need to travel to up in Seattle. They actually do their own fundraising through events like the XO Invite that they put on every year.

MR: Seeing as you do most of your training in Bend, and you fit that around your work schedule, what does a typical day of training during a work week consist of?
MK: Well, I’ve been pretty lucky because Bend Research, the company I work for, really supports their employees in all kinds of hobbies, or whatever they want to do, and they’ve actually given me a little bit of time off every week to do my training. I’m now working about 30 to 35 hours a week so that I can get a little bit more training time in, so typically three or four days a week I run or bike in the morning, and then sometimes I’ll either bike or run at lunch. If I run at lunch, I probably won’t do anything else, but if I bike at lunch, I’ll do another run in the afternoon, either a workout or an easy run.

MR: Are you using those bike sessions as crosstraining or are those in anticipation of duathlon racing?
MK: A little of both. Mostly for crosstraining, but I do some triathlons and bike races in the summer, so I stay in shape for that as well.

MR: That’s interesting. Are you self-coached?
MK: Um, basically. I do about 50 percent of my own coaching, and then another guy in town, Jim McLatchie, a pretty well-known coach in the U.S., coaches me since he lives here as well. We kind of go back and forth. I bounce stuff off of him.

MR: What does Team XO have in terms of expectations from their runners? Do they let you choose your races, or do you come up with a plan together?
MK: It’s a very laid-back team. They’re really more of a group of people to race with than a team that picks your races. They are definitely very flexible—they let you pick whatever races you want to go to. Since there really is not much [financial] support, they don’t have any pull in terms of what races you have to go to. It’s a lot about what you want to do and feel ready to do, and it’s pretty open to just about anybody as well. You don’t have to be a super elite athlete or anything.

MR: Sounds like a great program.
MK: It’s really good, and hopefully it grows and gets a little bigger too, and we can get some more support eventually.

MR: Based on first impressions from visiting the Web site, it seems like a labor of love for the people involved with it. It’s nice to see that level of excitement.
MK: Yeah. Ross Kremply is intimately involved and in love with XO, and it’s just amazing what he does, and how much time he puts into it. He works a job, and he’s a student, and he does Team XO. I’d say he puts 20, 30, 40 hours a week into XO. It’s just amazing.

MR: He also had very nice things to say about you. He said, "Max is one of the nicest people you will meet, because he does things for the right reasons. He only has one problem—picking what will be his best event."
MK: Yeah, I’m kind of all over the place.

MR: You aren’t yet on the roster for the cross country championships. Are you running the 4K, the 12K or both?
MK: I’m having a little trouble deciding. Originally I was really thinking about doing the 4K because my speed has gotten a little better, and I’m a 3K steeplechaser. But I’m usually better over the longer distances, so now I’m thinking of doing the 12K. My coach and some of the other people I run with have been talking to me and convincing me one way or the other. Right now I think I’m leaning toward the 12K, because I am stronger than I am faster, so I think it would be in my best interest to do the 12K right now.

MR:Since you are still on the fence, I’ll assume your training leading up to the race hasn’t been specific to either distance. What has your build-up been like coming into this?
MK: Well, for the half marathon I was doing a lot of strength work—longer intervals, a lot of mileage—so I’ve got that really good base under me. Since then, I’ve got in a little more speed work. Since I’m not all that fast, the more speed I do, the better I’ll be at either distance. It hasn’t been that [race] specific, but I need to work on my speed more than my endurance, so that’s what I’ve been doing the last couple of weeks.

MR: Do you have any race strategies in place? Are you planning on going out with the leaders, or is that a secret that should stay off the record?
MK: [Laughs] No, I haven’t given it a whole lot of thought right now, but I definitely want to put myself into a good position. I would like to run right with the leaders, or just far enough back where I’m still in contention for the top six places, since my goal is to make a world team this year. A lot of my race plan is to just wait and see how the race plays out. Every race you go into is going to be different, whether it starts out fast or slow. You really have to go with the flow, and take it as it comes, and all those good things.

Editor's Note: Max King finished in 3rd place in the 12K at the 2006 USA XC Championships, with a time of 35:20.

(Interview conducted February 9, 2006, and posted February 17, 2006.)