David O’Meara

David O’Meara, who prefers asphalt to Mondo for his miles, recently finished a second summer of road races and achieved his goal: 27 mile runs (a little over a marathon) in a total time under 2 hours, 11 minutes. All but one were sub-5.  In fact, his cumulative clocking was about 2:07. His 2009 odyssey trumped 2008’s, when he ran 20 sub-5 miles at age 45.  So what does he do next?  At this point, I’m tempted to say: “He’ll go to the ends of the earth to avoid running a mile on the track.”  But that would only be half-true. I asked him about his plans for summer 2010, and he revealed: “We are launching our new 2010 event this week. It is ‘Around The World
In Less Than 30 Minutes.’ That is 6 one-mile races, on 6 continents (no
interest in Antarctica), in 6 weeks.” Wow!  But a bigger revelation came in his next sentence: “I am running the mile next March at the National Masters Indoor
Championships in Boston, MA. I have only run indoors twice, but since
they offer the mile — I will attend. I ran a 4:37 in 2007, I would love
to break that mark in 2010.”  Now that’s a challenge to all the M45s out there. Add David’s scalp to your trophy collection (even though his scalp is pretty thin, hairwise.)

I also asked David to compare 2008 and 2009 and talk about his injury management.

David replied:

Hard to compare events. The 20/20/20<5@45 event in 2008 and The SmoothToe New England Marathon…One Mile At A Time in 2009 were both challenging and very different events.

After completing the 20/20/20<5@45 event, my colleagues asked what would happen if we shortened the recovery even more? That is how The SmoothToe New England Marathon…One Mile At A Time came about. We added races and reduced my recovery. It seemed like I was racing all the time.

You can be in the best racing shape of your life and so many things can happen in the course of 5 months in 2008 and in 2 months in 2009 — sickness, injury, accidents, etc.

 2008: Immense travel. It took a real toll on my body. Over 5 months — 45,000 miles in the air. 2009: More races, less recovery time. Over 2 months — 13,000 miles in the car.

This leads to your other question on injuries. Incredibly, I never felt that I could not “go” on race day this year. I always had something to give even if my legs were feeling heavy or I was tired. I did not have an injury.

I think that is a testament to my new training regime, my recovery products like the SmoothToe Energizing Socks, and my body work with a dedicated massage therapist and chiropractor.

On the 26th race in Hartford, I told Charlie Olbrias, the owner of The Last Mile Racing Management Company, that after all these races I was still feeling a bit nervous, still anxious and still excited. That was a good sign — racing when you are healthy is a blast!

I asked David which mile he was most proud of, and he answered:

The race I was most proud of and it was one of my favorites was the D.A.R.E. Classic raced on the one-mile oval at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, NH. I had a unique opportunity to race on the NASCAR track that they use for the cars (the NASCAR race took place yesterday 9/20/09).

The wind was strong, so half the race was very difficult. I felt like I was standing still on the open backstretch. I really gave all that I had at the end.

Please check out this 2 part video on my blog http://blog.OneMileRunner.com as we had our videographer present and part 2 has a wonderful interview with Sister Maximilian who uses running as a part of their program at The St. Charles Children’s Home in Rochester, NH. The nuns are amazing as they run in full habit!

Finally, I asked what he could run the 400 and 800 in now. He replied:

Not sure. I will try a couple of time trials at 400 and 800 meters this winter as I prepare for Boston and let you know how they go.