Interview: Anthony Famiglietti

By Scott Douglas

March 27's USA Men's 8K Championships in New York City's Central Park will mark Anthony Famiglietti's second appearance at the event. In the 2002 race, Famiglietti was the mid-race aggressor, and finished third in 22:30. Later that year, he won the 3,000m steeplechase in a PR of 8:19.07 at the USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships. Famiglietti injured a foot at the meet, and eventually had to miss six months of training, an odyssey that he describes below.

Last year, Famiglietti was one of four runners picked to form Team USA Monterey Bay, a new training group in California. He soon left the program, and resettled in Knoxville, Tennessee, where he had graduated from the University of Tennessee in 2000.

Famiglietti is a native of Port Jefferson, New York, on Long Island. Formerly a painter, he now orients his creativity toward the music he makes under the name Starts the Party.

MR: Why is a trackie running this road race?
AF: Do you consider me a trackie?

At this time of year, it's perfect timing for a lot of people. You're just finishing your base training, and you're pretty primed to start racing. It's good to start off with something longer. An 8K, that's a pretty good indicator of your fitness, and it helps you build strength and endurance for later in the year. Later in the year…I'm approaching this different than most people — I've just decided to try to peak for the Olympics. It's worked out great — I'm doing long, hard strength stuff, like this 8K, 10-mile tempo runs. It's really going to pay off in September. July, too, yeah, the Trials, but I'm thinking beyond that.

I like this race also because the course is, it's not quick, it's definitely challenging. But you can run really fast on it, really test it.

MR: You ran pretty fast on it in 2002.
AF: That was a huge year for me — I won the national championships, I set my PR. It started with that big time here. Unfortunately, I got hurt at nationals that year.

This year, how I run at this 8K is going to put on the board what the rest of the year is going to be like. I think it's going to open a lot of people's eyes about what kind of year I'm going to have.

MR: Since you balk at being called a trackie, are you going to do other road races?
AF: No other serious road races, no. One of the biggest lures of this race is the prize money. You can run all around the country and work your ass off and maybe win a thousand dollars for a 5K on the roads. The prize structure here is great. And you can't beat the location.

MR: I assume you'll have lots of people there rooting for you.
AF: Oh man, I'm going to have like 100 people cheering for me. I talked with my high school coach, he's bringing a busload. My girlfriend lives in New York. I stayed there with her when I was making the transition back from the West Coast. I ran that course in Central Park every day for two or three months. I know that course like it's retarded.

MR: When did you go back to Tennessee?
AF: I just drove down when the weather was about to get bad [in New York]. I skipped about two feet of snow. I came down here around New Years.

Man, the stories I could tell you. I got plastic surgery last year to help me breathe better. The big thing is, getting hurt, you learn who your allies are. It's kind of a cliché, but it's true. It changes your entire mindset. Running is a sport where you live for the rewards. In this sport, that's not money or fame. Maybe it's the performances. So when you're hurt, I don't care how mentally strong you are, if you're sitting there physically broken, you don't have the money or fame, you're just left to sit there and deal with what's going on, kinda like a lame horse.

Now, though, I'm telling you, I'm at the point…I'm doing workouts I've never done before. It's almost like fate. Taking that time off set me up for this year. It allowed my body to be ready for what I have to do. I have a whole new attitude of what I want to get out of this sport.

MR: When was it that you weren't running?
AF: 2002, I won national championships. After that, I still ran 8:23 and 8:24, but man, those were painful. Going into the World Cup, I was the fittest I'd ever been. I was thinking 8:15, maybe 8:10, maybe even 8:09. But I couldn't do it. My foot…

So September through March of last year, all I did was swim, lift weights, do 2,000 sit-ups a day. I was training like a boxer! I lifted weights every day. I got really fit, but if you don't run, I don't care, your leg strength isn't there, especially in the steeple. And I still got fifth at nationals last year! Fifth off of no running, I only started running in March. If I can stay healthy this year, wow, this year is going to be ridiculous.

You know what also helped me come back from my injury is this stuff called FluidJoint. I called the 800 number on the back of the bottle and said, 'It's a miracle, this stuff is a miracle.' And they sponsored me! Yes, I'm sponsored by FluidJoint. I've been able to run without any pain since I started taking this stuff.

MR: Nothing banned in it?
AF: No, it's just a calcium supplement made for old people with arthritis. My agent was adamant about having it checked out. I don't know, I mean, maybe it's a placebo, but any time you have pain, that's holding you back, it's registering in your subconscious.

MR: You mentioned plastic surgery.
AF: Rhinoplasty. I had a deviated septum real bad. My sister beat me up and broke my nose when I was a kid. Beforehand, the doctor said, 'I can't say how much this will help you.' After, he said one side of my nose was completely blocked. He couldn't believe I could run like that. It's made a huge difference. It's like when you have a cold, and you've had it for awhile, and then you get better, you realize how bad your condition really was. You'd gotten used to it. Now I can realize how much I was hurting before.

This cost a crapload of money. How many football players do you know spend $10,000 of their own money on their own equipment? In running, we're spending all this money on ourselves just to be able to compete with others. That's why I'm against altitude houses — it depends on how much money you make whether you can have one. Altitude training, though, that's good.

MR: Where do you do yours?
AF: Flagstaff. At the Northern Arizona High Altitude Complex, you can get like a hotel suite for 40 bucks a night. There are trails and dirt roads all over town. It's incredible. The first time I went there was just before the [USA Men's 8K Championship] in 2002. I came down five days before the race and was like, whoa! I told Dan Browne after the race, 'Altitude training is crazy! You ever try it?' And he said, 'Yes, for the last several years.'

MR: After the 8K, what track races will you run before the Trials?
AF: The adidas Oregon Track Classic in Portland. At least one other steeple before that. I'm thinking about the Cardinal Invite 5,000. The races I'll do, I'm doing them not to get PRs but to see where I'm at. I want that chance to test myself. At the Cardinal Invite, I should break 13:30, maybe run 13:20. If I run 13:20 there, that will tell me what to do before the Trials. The weekend after the 8K, I'm running a 1,500 here to see where my speed is at. Maybe I'll do the Penn Relays steeple.

MR: Are you self-coached?
AF: No. George Watts is my coach. He's phenomenal. He's helped me stay in the sport. My best friend died before 2002 nationals. I sprinkled his ashes in my shoes before that race. Last year, my dad had quadruple bypass surgery just before nationals. Watts went through all that crap I went through with me. He does stuff normal coaches don't have to do. He knows all my quirks. Most coaches want a lot in return. He just wants some credit. Hell, he doesn't even want that.

When I went to California, I really struggled with not seeing others I was used to. All the guys here were retiring. Todd Williams retired. I called up Tim Broe and said, 'Man, move down to Knoxville and train with me.' But he didn't. I thought maybe I could go out to California and George could coach me by e-mail, but you really need to be there in person.

MR: Why did you go to California?
AF: The main reason I went there was for the money. I had just about quit the sport. I hadn't run for six months. The only money I had was from my adidas stipend — they were great that whole time. When I started running again, I went up to altitude to get back my base quicker. I'd spent all my money. I was sleeping on a friend's couch in Flagstaff. For reasons I can't explain, I had to clear out of there. So I'm at a dorm at Northern Arizona University. It's just me and the sheets on the bed. I had almost no money for food. My sister is sending me money and macaroni and cheese and PopTarts. And I'm trying to train for U.S. nationals!

I ran out of money. I could fly back because I'd already paid for the return ticket. But I couldn't afford to take a cab to the airport the morning of my flight. I found out there was a shuttle the night before my flight, so I took that and slept on the airport floor for 15 hours. I'd had nothing to eat for two days but PopTarts. And then in Knoxville, I knew I was evicted from my apartment. I didn't know what else was going on, because my friends had stopped picking up my mail — they just, poof, you're injured, you're not running, they didn't return my calls. And I knew my car was impounded because of too many parking tickets. So even when I get to the airport, how am I going to get home, and where am I going to live?

George came to my rescue. I told him, 'George, man, I can't live like this! I've spent all my money just to try to train. I'm either going to quit the sport right now or…' And Watts said, 'You're too talented. Keep training.' So with the California thing, I figured I could at least go out there, with the free housing and meals. And the weather, Monterey Bay, was supposed to be great. But the way it was set up, I was kind of the keystone of the group. They were great guys out there, but it wasn't what I expected. I thought, 'There's no reason to stay here and suffer just because it's free.' So I figured I'll go home and get a job if I have to, but then the FluidJoint thing came along.

Going through all that stuff I went through, and going through it alone…Most people, I don't care what country you're from, most people at least have a teammate with them during bad times. This has made me more mentally tough. Especially if I'm overseas, by myself before a race, forget about it. It's just made me tougher. I could not eat for five days and still run a peak performance.

MR: Now that you're healthy, what has your training been like?
AF: It's huge. I used to only do…I used to be six weeks of 65 to 68 miles. That was my base. Now this year, 10 weeks, 85 to 100 a week. I did my first 100-mile week. It used to be, a 10-mile run, I'd be flat on my ass after that. Now, 16-, 18-mile runs, it's not a big thing. The other day, I did 20 x 400 in 63 with a 30-second rest, and that was my first track workout.

MR: What's the deal with Starts the Party?
AF: When I went out to California, I gave my drum machine and instruments to a friend. He programmed some stuff, and sent it to me, and it was good stuff, so I wrote songs on top of that. It's electronic, sort of ambiance music. Around that time I'd stopped painting — it costs too much — so I needed a new creative outlet. Also, paintings are expensive to sell. Music, you can make something good and sell someone a CD for $3, rather than $100 for a painting. I'm not trying to self-promote this — it's just a hobby. I don't care if you're Alan Culpepper or [Haile] Gebrselassie, if you're a distance runner, you're sitting on your ass the majority of the day. I can't sit and watch TV all day — I've got to be doing something creative.

MR: Keith Dowling has said it can be tough to be an artist or musician at the same time as being a runner, because art or music requires you to embrace emotion, while being a runner involves suppressing emotion.
AF: For me, it's a symbiotic relationship. They are these complete opposites that exist side by side at the same time. It's like with my girlfriend — she's more of a Type A, organized. She complements all the things I need in my life, and vice versa.

Running is structured, disciplined, you don't have to think about it — do your runs, do your sit-ups. This works a whole other side of the brain. It's a release from the monotony. Most really good runners are Type A's. That's why they move up in the sport. Like Culpepper is so disciplined, regimented. It's hard for me to really get along with guys like that. They look at me and say, 'Fam, man, what is wrong with you?' Like I was rooming with Robert Gary and I thought we were getting along, and he says, 'Man, I just spent three days with you and I didn't understand a word you said.'

This sport is so far from what I am as a person. It's like having a bipolar disorder — I feel like I'm living this temporary life while waiting for my running career to be over. You know what I mean? It's like this temporary personality I have to put on, where I'm really regimented. I don't do the social things I want to do. My best friend who died? The one whose ashes I sprinkled in my shoes? I hadn't seen him forever, and now he's dead. My girlfriend, we've had a long-distance relationship for six years. I'm living this temporary life, but right now, nothing else matters. I don't do anything but make my music and run.

Maybe I'm an extreme case, but a lot of guys are like this, where you have to tack on this temporary personality. It's eventually going to go away. [Steeplechaser] Tony Cosey, I can see now, he has a wife and kids, his temporary personality has already shifted. That's why I really admire Culpepper, how regimented he is. Maybe it comes naturally to him. It probably helps with having his wife doing the same thing.

Some people, they buy every running magazine, they're on every running site all day when they're not running. That's crazy! How can you be so into something that's so arbitrary? I told Rich Kenah, 'Running on the track is like vacuuming your apartment every day to see how fast you can do it. It's so arbitrary.' He said, 'Fam, some people like that.' I'm just the opposite. That's why my mileage used to be low. I might have 50 in a week instead of 70 because come Sunday, I didn't feel like going for a run.

But now I'm focused. I want to be that guy who gets the Olympic distance medal for the U.S., and I understand what I have to do to get there. I have a goal in sight. That gives this arbitrary thing a little more meaning. But once that goal is gone, phew, I'm not always going to be like this. I'm not like Todd Williams. He comes and watches me run sometimes and then calls me up and says, 'Fam, man, that was a hell of a workout.' He's into jujitsu now. His ears got cauliflowered to hell, but he rose right to the top of his class. He just can't let go of that competitive side of his identity. That's not me.

(Interview conducted March 11, 2004, and posted March 17, 2004.)