Interview: Josh Cox

by Parker Morse

The buzz around Josh Cox celebrates its fourth birthday this year, older, wiser, and a little quieter. After being the youngest qualifier at the 2000 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials (where he finished 18th), Cox ran 2:13:54 at that year's Chicago Marathon, and joined the Fila Discovery USA program, where he began training under the renowned Italian coach and cardiologist, Gabriele Rosa.

Rosa — who also organizes Fila's Discovery Kenya program and brought athletes like Moses Tanui, Paul Tergat, Shem Kororia, and Bernard Barmasai to fame — ramped up Cox's mileage and sent him to train in Kenya, but in the end, the Discovery USA program didn't last long enough to bring much lasting improvement to American marathoning. At Boston in 2001, Cox made a daring move to push the pack's pace in Wellesley, but suffered later in the race to a 2:16 finish. In 2002, he withdrew from Boston due to injury, but in Chicago ran 2:15:01 to qualify for his second Trials.

In 2003, Cox went after Chicago magic yet again, but faded to a 2:19 finish. The trend wasn't good — 2:13 to 2:15 to 2:19. But Cox, now 28, was upbeat at the Trials and finished seventh in 2:15:18.

Q: We haven't seen you for a while. What have you been up to?
Josh Cox: I've been training by myself, up in Murrieta, California, between San Diego and L.A. I had some problems last fall, with my foot. I ran Chicago, but for two months prior to that I wasn't able to do any kind of speed. Nothing at all, not even at race pace. My foot was just kind of jacked up.

In December I switched to a heavier training shoe from Fila, and it really helped me. I don't know how I originally tweaked my foot, but by about mid-December I was able to get my hand back on the plow and do some work. I built up, but I only ran two track workouts before this race.

I was definitely disappointed [in today's race]. I was here to make a team, but it's totally in God's hands. I did everything I knew how to do, to prepare myself the best I could, and I felt great. Cardiovascularly, I felt fine the whole race. Never was my breathing labored. It was just my legs. My left quad felt, every time I would stride, like somebody was beating it with a baseball bat. The first time it happened, I looked to my left, because it felt like somebody had hit me. The guy was behind me, and I thought, 'Shoot, that's going on inside. I might be in trouble.' That was at mile 16. I went from a 4:59 to a 5:22, and I was thinking, 'Don't let the wheels come off now.' It never really straightened itself out. I was talking with my doctor, Bruce Chin, and he was saying that due to the cold, particularly since we're from such a warm climate, my body's not used to it. Sometimes it feels like your blood can freeze, and it's not circulating the way it should. You have a higher tendency for cramps. It was just a big old knot.

It was somewhere around 23 miles, I just said, 'Hey, dude, you're not going to make the team, but you need to put your head down and do everything you know how to do to get your very best today.' And that's what I had prayed [for] before the race. I asked, 'Lord, just allow me to give my very best today, whatever that is. I want to lay it all out there and not have anything left at the end.' And I did that. I was able to rally a little bit and pick up a couple of spots.

Q: You must have been picking off a lot of stragglers.
JC: I was up towards the front of the chase pack around mile 15 or 16. And then I had that cramp. Fifteen to 20 is where I lost my race. I had fallen back as far as, I think, 13th. Some guys had passed me, Ryan Shay, Peter Gilmore, and I think Clint [Verran], came up on me and passed. At 23 I could see Eddy [Hellebuyck] and Peter [Gilmore] were about 30 seconds ahead. I just put my head down and thought, 'I've got to live with this spot until the next Marathon Trials in four years.'

Q: Still, this was an improvement on your place in Pittsburgh.
JC: Definitely. I was 18th there. But that was only my second marathon. I didn't have a clue then. I'm not happy, and I'm not satisfied with the results today, but the marathon's a funny game, and it's a learning process. I know what I'm capable of, and God's in control. I'm going to take a little bit of time off, then I'd like to get back on the track and give it a go at the track trials in a couple of months.

Q: What's your training situation like now that the Discovery program was discontinued?
JC: I'm still in contact with Dr. Rosa. He acts more like my advisor. I've been under him since the summer of 2000. He sends me my workouts by e-mail a couple of months at a time, but he tells me, 'Josh, this is just an idea for training.' The advantage of training by myself, I would say, is that if I go out to the track and I'm doing my warmup... You know, there are some days when you feel like, 'Dude, somebody left the e-brake on. This isn't happening today.' You can say, 'Hey, I'm going to come back here tomorrow and do this workout, today I'll run some easy mileage, build some base and put some more miles in the log.'

The disadvantage, obviously, is that you don't have guys day in and day out to push you. It's tough.

Meb [Keflezighi] is an awesome guy, I've known him since I was 14. We grew up together in San Diego. Dan [Browne] is a good buddy of mine, he was down in Murrieta in December and we trained a little bit together. I think my game plan now is... I don't know, I kind of have to meet with Dr. Rosa. The plan was for me to make the team. So now, obviously, I need to reevaluate some things and figure out what I'm going to do. I want to get back on the track, and do some of that. Perhaps get up in Oregon with Dan, he's got a house up there.

Q: He's got a pretty good situation up there.
JC: Yeah, it's a good setup. I think it will be a good situation where I'll be able to focus more on speed, on turnover, and get out on the track and see what I can do there.

Q: Have you got a qualifier for the track trials?
JC: I don't. I haven't raced on the track in three years. I know what I'm capable of, I just need to get out there and run it.

Q: You've done just two track workouts coming in here? Were those in trainers, or spikes?
JC: I'm in spikes and flats. The only two workouts I did, I did 15 x 400, then I did 12 x 500, then 4 x 400. I did that in spikes. Then I did 12 x 1,000 in flats, because that was getting close to the race and I didn't want to jack up my calves. I love running in spikes, I like running fast. I've done good things on the track, so I'd like to get back out there and give it another go.

Q: You're going to have to be chasing the Olympic 'A' standard there, too. These guys are going to be going out in Sacramento and putting the hammer down.
JC: No doubt. That's the way it's supposed to be.

Q: Now it's a matter of getting a qualifier for that?
JC: I'm still very, very hungry. I'm in this for the long haul. After the race, Amby [Burfoot] was telling me, 'Well, we weren't really talking about you a whole lot before the race.' But it's a thing where you've got to look at what the athletes have been doing for the last four years. A marathon isn't made in a six-week buildup. There's a lot of very talented guys, but it's like [Rob] De Castella used to say: 'When you run the marathon, you don't run it off of six months, you run it off of the last four years of training.' It's true. It's a cumulative effect of training. I still have that. It's just a matter of sharpening up and coming in to race.

Q: How long were you out, with the foot injury?
JC: Honestly, it bothered me from July through December. So it was pretty much the second half of last year.

Q: Were you running on it?
JC: Oh, yeah. I was running 130 miles a week. It was in my buildup for Chicago. But none of it was quality. We went through halfway there in like 1:06, and was like, 'I feel fine!' And I was kind of surprised. I'd done some 30-mile training runs at 6:00 pace, you go for three hours, and I felt fine. My legs were fine, everything was fine. But I didn't have the turnover. Really, my foot, around mile 17 at Chicago, it was pretty much unbearable. I'd put my leg down, and wince.

Q: So you've still got a lot of base.
JC: Yeah, for sure. You don't really lose a whole lot. If I took two weeks off, it's like, hey, I have four years of base. I've trained seriously since 2000.

Q: So now you can pour it right into training for the 10K.
JC: Exactly. That's my whole thing, I'd like to get out there and mix it up in the 10,000.

Q: And your coach has seen a few world records in the 10K.
JC: Yeah, a couple. He has [2001 World Champion Charles] Kamathi, and I was over there last year, in Italy, doing a workout with Charles. He has a lot of junior guys, a guy who ran 13:18 in bare feet for his first 5K. Guys like that, who are just raw. They're 17 years old. It's phenomenal, the talent these guys have.

Q: Does that build your confidence, thinking, 'I was doing workouts with a [2001] World Champion?'
JC: Definitely. And the difference between the U.S. [runners] and the Kenyans isn't a matter of talent. It's just depth. Dan and I were over in Kenya for two months in 2001. For every one of us, they have 15 guys. If one of them has a bad day, there's 10 guys to take their place. They don't miss a beat. But if a U.S. guy goes to a major international race, and has a bad day, everybody notices.

Q: And then they say the system has failed.
JC: Sure, it has. We're all a bunch of losers. But you know, I love running. A lot of guys, even over there, the Kenyans, they do this as a job. But God has blessed me with a passion for running. I love to run. I love to get out and train. And I love to compete, more than anything. Some guys like training for the sake of training. If I wasn't competing... I love to compete, and I hate to lose.

I'm so happy for Meb, and Alan [Culpepper], and Dan. The great thing about distance running is, there is no lucky day. You don't go to the gym, and your shot's on and you're dropping threes all over the place. Which can happen, the sun's shining on some people some days. But in running, you can't luck into a four-minute mile. You can't luck into a 2:11 marathon. It's all hard work, and that's why there's so much mutual respect between the guys. Just to see those guys make the team, it's awesome. I'm so happy for them.

(Interview conducted February 7, 2004, and posted February 12, 2004.)