Day 4

By Lee Juillerat
Wow, and wow, and WOW!
This is no attempt at objective journalism, not when a person you've known, watched and admired beats the odds and earns a spot on the U.S. Track and Field Olympic Team. Ian Dobson, who grew up in Klamath Falls, the city where I've worked and lived longer than I expected, showed that persistence and hard work pays by placing third in the 5000 meters run Monday at Eugene's Hayward Field. Clocked in 13:29.76, he was less than a second behind Matt Tegenkamp, with both trailing 2008 outdoor World Champion Bernard Lagat, who won in 13:27:47.
A bit of disclosure: one of my year's ago running partners, a teacher at Roosevelt Elementary School who also coached fourth, fifth and sixth grade track, told me about a fifth grader who was incredible. He predicted the boy, Ian Dobson, would break all the records in junior high and high school. And Ian did. He was a two-time state cross country champion, led his Klamath Union team to state titles, and, because he's also smart, earned a scholarship to Stanford University. While at Stanford, Ian was a 10-time All American, 5000 meters NCAA Indoor champion and set four school records. Immediately after graduating he signed a professional contract with Adidas. Despite some ups and downs, he's enjoying a career most of us dream about. Over the years at Stanford and since, it's been my pleasure to be his friend.
So Monday night, when Ian was a member of the group of five that had broken away from the rest of the pack with a final lap to go, I was whooping and hollering. And, with less than 100 meters left, as he broke away from Chris Solinsky and Bolota Asmeron, I realized that - Wow and WOW! - Ian was running his way to Beijing.
What followed was delicious. His mother, Marita Kunkel, somehow made her way to the track, where she embraced her son, who handed her the bouquet of flowers he had been given on the award podium. Weaving his way off the track, he found his father, Ted Dobson. In the interview area I was too flabbergasted to ask an intelligent question. When he finished the first round of talks he grabbed and wrapped me with a warm hug.
A week before the race we had talked about his plan. He told about the need to stay with the leaders, to not take the lead, to be prepared for the final 400 meters and the training he had done to be better able to finish fast.
"It has been a very long process," Ian said at the press conference afterwards. "For me it's been a matter of buying into the (coaching) process. I love being a runner. I'm in it for the long-haul. If I hadn't made this (Olympic) team I'd still be in it for the long-haul."
Of the race itself he said, "I pretty much did everything I could. There's no grand strategy. Don't get too far back. Don't do too much work. Run hard the final lap. I wasn't thinking too much with 200 meters to go. I was just running as hard as I could."
Hard and fast enough to run all the way to China.