Interview with Nathan Brannen

by Scott Dance

Nathan Brannen, 24, is a graduate of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he still lives and trains under his college coach, Ron Warhurst. He is wrapping up his season this Saturday, September 30, at the Continental Airline Fifth Avenue Mile in New York.

The Cambridge, Ontario, native made history in 2001 with Alan Webb, becoming the first sub-4:00 milers and roommates. While Webb departed, Brannen flourished at Michigan, winning four NCAA titles and getting his personal best in his main event, the 800 meters, down to 1:46.00. He has since signed with Reebok and more recently specialized in the 1500 meters. He was a semifinalist in the 1500 at the 2005 World Championships in Helsinki and earned a silver medal in the same event at the Commonwealth Games in March 2006. This summer, he lowered his 1500-meter personal best to 3:34.88.

MensRacing.com: So you’re racing the Continental Airlines Fifth Avenue Mile for the second year in a row. The competition looks pretty good, with two guys I guess you’re pretty familiar with, Kevin Sullivan and Nick Willis, and then of course Matt Tegenkamp, who has been doing pretty well this summer. How are you feeling about the race?
Nathan Brannen: Just based on the competitors, I’d say it’s probably one of the deepest years they’ve ever had. I’ve raced everyone in the field. I don’t think there’s anyone that stands out as a clear favorite, which makes it pretty fun and interesting. Really out of the nine guys that are on the website, it could be almost anyone’s race. That’s a race I like to run, where really there’s no clear favorite, and it’s basically who’s on that day and who’s going to take it, so I’m looking forward to racing.

MR: How do you like the course out there, right in the heart of Manhattan?
NB: I really liked it last year. I didn’t run too well; I got a little sick the morning of the race and didn’t have the best race, but just the atmosphere there and just running that straight shot down Fifth Avenue is pretty fun, with the crowds cheering and everything. The course itself, it’s not as easy as people like to think, but at the same time it’s pretty fun.

MR: Looking at the Canadian list at 1500 meters for the year, it looks like you had a pretty consistent summer of racing. How did you feel about it?
NB: Well, I had the Commonwealth Games in March, so that was where Nick Willis and I geared our summers toward—racing well there and then also for the summer. We tried to train to peak there, but also to run well in the summer. So I guess that’s where it started, and then I cut back my mileage and basically stopped doing some track stuff and speed stuff and started working on strength again. I started racing again in early June, and I guess overall the summer went well. I guess I planned it pretty well after Commonwealths, taking it easy and taking it down enough to carry through to nationals.

So I went to Europe in early June and ran my first race over there in Athens, where I ran a PR of 3:34. After that, there weren’t too many opportunities to run fast—a lot of slower races, sit and kick, just try to win and stuff. Then in August, I actually suffered Achilles tendonitis, and I’ve been battling that since right after Canadian nationals, so I actually didn’t race any races through August until World Cup, and I was sixth there. So that’s kind of where things stand now—I went to Europe trying to run fast, and then have been trying to get over this Achilles tendonitis and had some down time trying to get ready for World Cup.

MR: About World Cup, how did you get in that race? I’m not sure how it works outside the U.S. You had Commonwealths in March and then Canadian nationals in August? Was that the qualifier for World Cup?
NB: Well, how it works for Commonwealths is the qualifier was last summer, and you had to hit the standard in 2005. They kind of had to move things around ’cause Commonwealths was at an odd time. And then World Cup, it’s based on your IAAF world ranking. The Americas send a team—it’s one athlete per event—and then the United States sends their own team. So I was selected on my world ranking for the 1500 spot. I had the top time in the Americas.

MR: How was that race for you?
NB: It was all right, it was pretty interesting. It was pretty slow the first three laps and then quick the last 300 [meters]. With 100 to go, I kind of got boxed in a little bit behind the Russian runner [Aritkulov Ramil] and Gabe Jennings, and they were tying up, but I was stuck right behind them. At that point, I’d run myself too close behind them where I couldn’t slow down and get around, and I kept trying to wait, wait, wait for the gap to open up and it never did, so I ended up finishing sixth, when I probably would have been fourth had I gotten through. It was bad tactics on my part; I ran up right behind them and got myself into a box. I guess you race to learn and get better.

MR: That’s a good segue, actually. In 2004, you narrowly missed making the Canadian Olympic team.
NB: Yeah, I made the “B” standard and was just off the “A” standard.

MR: Since then, you’ve fared much better, with races at the World Championships in 2005 and at Commonwealths. How did that disappointment affect those later races, and how do you feel about big championship meets like that now?
NB: The Olympics was definitely a big letdown. Everything I was doing that year was geared toward making that team, and what happened actually was I was on a run in May and I sprained my ankle pretty bad, so I took six weeks off, no running, and I tried to make a comeback and make the Olympics and hit the standard. So with six weeks off and six weeks of training, I tried to make the standard, and it was just a big letdown because the whole year was geared toward that. And that’s every runner’s dream, to make the Olympic Games. That’s all anyone cares about, too. Any normal person would ask, “Oh, you were in the world championships? But were you in the Olympics?” So I put a lot of pressure on myself for that, and then not making it was such a letdown, and building up was kind of tough after that, going out for runs. But I turned things around and the next two years ran, I think, pretty well for myself, making the semifinal at Worlds and then getting silver at Commonwealths. Basically, all the races have been geared toward the next Olympics and the championship races, just getting ready to run confident and stronger.

MR: Tell me about the experience at the Commonwealth Games. I guess it was probably Ron Warhurst’s goal to get you and Willis to go 1-2. Were you surprised, and how did the rounds and final go for you?
NB: We were pretty surprised. We were both looking for a medal, and I knew there was a pretty good shot I could get third, and I was thinking it was going to be Nick and Craig Mottram going 1 and 2, and I thought third place was pretty wide open. So that’s what I was shooting for, and I’m not sure if you saw the race, but Mottram went down just before the 800-meter mark, and right when I saw that I said, “Well, here’s my opportunity to snag the silver medal.” I basically kind of rode off that, and it’s definitely not a good thing to see a competitor go down, especially as strong as Mottram is, but when he went down I think everyone in that field kind of jumped on the bandwagon, knowing that it was one more person they didn’t have to look out for the last lap of the race.

MR: It seems like you definitely have a pretty good partnership with Nick Willis, racing and, I guess, training together a lot.
NB: Yeah, definitely, both training under Ron, but the funny thing is we’ve only trained together a handful of times in the last year. He went home in December, back to New Zealand, for the winter, and he stayed there until Commonwealths. So preparing for Commonwealths, I was in Michigan and he was in New Zealand, and we didn’t train together at all throughout the indoor season. When we got to Melbourne, we did a couple runs there together, and then we came back here and somehow we were on different schedules. He was doing totally different stuff than me, but that was really the only time we trained together all year. Then he went to Europe a little bit before me in the summer, and it just seemed like the last year we haven’t crossed paths much. We’ve raced a lot together, just not trained a lot together. It seems weird, because we both have the same coach and we’ll both be in the same place, but the circumstances have limited the amount of running and training we’ve actually done together.

MR: So what has the training been like in Ann Arbor? You’ve pretty much just been there?
NB: Yeah, I’m here 100 percent of the year basically, other than being in and out for small things. I train with the team quite often; I get a lot of help from them. There are enough of them that I have guys in and out for short intervals. We also have Grant Robison, who graduated from Stanford a few years ago. I was training with him during the indoor season, and then he actually got injured, so I was on my own again. And then we have Tim Broe, who has been injured the last year, but he’ll be back this year. We actually have a good group; if we can all finally train together this year, it will be really good.

MR: I reread Chris Lear’s book about your freshman year pretty recently, and it sounds pretty similar to the situation you guys faced then. Does it seem like that?
NB: For a couple years, no, because both Nick and myself were in school, so we trained together basically every day, and then I guess since just before we both signed with Reebok we got on different pages. He was training more for 5K because he ran the 5K at nationals his senior year, and I was training for 1500, and then in the summer when you start racing you aren’t training as much, and we were in different places, and this is the first year we’ve both been done college. It just seems like things haven’t worked out for us to train together, but at the same time it’s worked out perfect for us to be able to do things on our own and both go to races and run well. We just haven’t been there to help each other out.

MR: It’s an interesting situation where you’ve had these non-American guys at Michigan coming to the American collegiate system to be the best in the world. Do you feel like there’s a unity among you, maybe to be unified as non-Africans to come out and break the dominance of a lot of Africans?
NB: Well, about Michigan and how we have a lot of guys who aren’t Americans, it’s not that our coach tries to recruit foreigners. He just tries to recruit the best athletes, and a lot of times he goes after the top Americans. They just choose to go places like Stanford or Oregon or stuff like that, so he loses out on them, but he’s had a lot of success bringing in foreigners and he’s had a lot of success with the ones that he’s had come to the school. There are lots of runners, who come to the NCAA system and don’t pan out, but I think Ron has been lucky with the guys he’s had, and they’ve run well under him. But whether there’s a unity among us to beat the Africans, I’m not sure if it’s the Africans or just the rest of the world. Every top runner’s goal is to win every race they run. I know realistically I’ll go to the World Championships and make a goal to make the final, but realistically I’m not going to win, but yeah, my ultimate goal would be to win and be the best in the world. But I also run realistically, knowing that I’m probably not going to win; I’ve got so many years left, hopefully, one day I’ll have a chance to be one of the best guys. I think more or less every runner’s goal is to beat everyone else, but I don’t know if there’s a unity to be better than the Africans because they’re the ones dominating the scene right now.

MR: How do you feel about the American collegiate system, having been somebody who came down from Canada to go to college in the NCAA and now go on to compete internationally? How do you feel the NCAA prepares runners for international racing?
NB: I think the NCAA system is a great system. It obviously depends on what college you go to and stuff like that. Some of the best coaches in the world are in the NCAA system, but at the same time, there are some schools with coaches who have absolutely no idea what they’re doing. It all depends on where you plan on going to school, but in terms of international racing and getting prepared for that, it’s definitely a big stepping stone. It’s given me the opportunity to do a lot of different races, whether sit-and-kick races or fast from the gun, it just gives you experience for all the different sorts of races and different race strategies, and prepares you for that on the international scene.

MR: I’ve heard you used to call yourself an 800-meter runner who occasionally would do the 1500, but looking at the races that you’ve done recently, it seems more like the opposite. Has it changed?
NB: My training is definitely geared toward the 1500 now. I don’t think I could run nearly what I was capable of running in the 8 a couple years ago, because I don’t do the speed I used to and my mileage is a lot higher, so that limits what I can do in the shorter distances now. But every year I’d like to make sure I have the opportunity to run a couple of 8s. The injury I got at the end of the season kind of limited the races I could do, so I didn’t get to do an 8, but every year I plan on doing a couple 15s and a couple 8s for a little speed in there, but I’m definitely more of a 1500-meter runner now than an 800-meter runner.

MR: So where has the mileage gone training for the 1500?
NB: When I was running the 8, I was still doing quite a bit of mileage for an 800 runner; I did about 70 or 80 miles per week in cross, and then come indoors I was still up in the 70s, so I was more of a strength 800 runner. Now throughout basically the whole indoor and outdoor seasons, I’ve been averaging 90 miles a week, which is a little too high to run quality 8s anymore. I have a lot of strength but not as much leg speed as I used to have. It’s still there, it’s just muscle memory. I wasn’t working the speed, so I kind of lacked that, and if I ever switch back in training it would have been there still. But I’ve done longer distance stuff, longer intervals, higher mileage, and more consistent higher mileage as well.

MR: I read somewhere that you abide by a philosophy of, “It’s not who’s the best but who has the most guts.” How do you feel like you’ve come to that and applied it to yourself? Considering what you were saying about the Fifth Avenue race, it seems like it’s something you think about.
NB: It’s actually a quote from Prefontaine. I guess you read me somewhere quoting that, but it’s just a quote I’ve lived by when I run. That’s how I approach races. I guess a lot of times it is who trains the hardest, but not always. It’s who wants it the most, and that’s what really played out at Commonwealths. I put a lot into it in the indoor season, and I just went there wanting it really bad. I went to run knowing I could medal and out of all the guys there, I thought I was one of the ones who wanted it the most. That quote is just really what I try to run by and train by.

MR: What are your plans after 2008—maybe to use your Michigan degree and move on, or do you plan to do this as long as you can?
NB: Basically, I’m going to stay in running as long as I can. I don’t want to be a runner that is just hanging out because I can. I definitely want to end with a year where it was a positive year and I’ve had a really good year. I don’t want to be one of those guys who people are like, “Man, when is this guy going to get out of the sport?” I’m not going to hang around just because I can qualify for teams. In terms of after 2008, I’m definitely looking ahead to the 2012 Olympics. I think I can make it there and be competitive. I’m basically going to take it a year at a time. Next summer I’d like to run well at Worlds, and then obviously after that would be the Olympics, so basically right now it’s one step at a time, keep training hard, stay injury-free, and try to be the best I can and see where it takes me.

Interview conducted September 25, 2006, and posted September 29, 2006.