Nick Willis, I have to admit is one of my favorites. While Nick is known as a miler or 1500m man, his 3000 meter race indoors in the 2003 NCAA versus Alistair Cragg is, well, EPIC.
Nick Willis broke the legendary John Walker, 1976 Olympic gold medalist, 1500m record in 2005, I believe. He also gave New Zealand its first Olympic medal in the middle distances since 1976, with his 2008 Olympic silver medal.
This interview was done at the adiRunBASE Boston store prior to the adidas BOOST Boston Games. On Friday night, after a hard week of training, Nick Willis held off Collins Cheboi until the last meter of the race, taking second in 3:35.85. When I congratulated him after his race, Nick Willis, in his typical form, with a half smile noted, “it was not a really good race.”
Nick was simulating the hard weeks at the Olympics, with three rounds of 1,500 meters.
Nine weeks until Rio.
Larry Eder has had a 52-year involvement in the sport of athletics. Larry has experienced the sport as an athlete, coach, magazine publisher, and now, journalist and blogger. His first article, on Don Bowden, America's first sub-4 minute miler, was published in RW in 1983. Larry has published several magazines on athletics, from American Athletics to the U.S. version of Spikes magazine. He currently manages the content and marketing development of the RunningNetwork, The Shoe Addicts, and RunBlogRun. Of RunBlogRun, his daily pilgrimage with the sport, Larry says: "I have to admit, I love traveling to far away meets, writing about the sport I love, and the athletes I respect, for my readers at runblogrun.com, the most of anything I have ever done, except, maybe running itself." Also does some updates for BBC Sports at key events, which he truly enjoys. Theme song: Greg Allman, " I'm no Angel."
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by Larry Eder
