V 9 N. 2 "Running With the Buffaloes" Twenty Years Down the Pike

Once Again Running With The Buffaloes

By Paul O’Shea

Some books merit a second read.

When the University of Colorado and its Dani Jones won the 2018 NCAA women’s team
and individual cross country titles, I remembered Chris Lear’s revelation, Running with
the Buffaloes.

More than two decades ago a twenty-four-year old Lear shadowed the Buffs, from
pre-season running camp through to the NCAA championship race. From that
investment he wrote Running with the Buffaloes, the book that came to be called a
“cult classic” by the chaps at LetsRun.  “Classic,” without question. “Cult,” an adjective
too far for legions who cherish the sport of cross country.

But a book well deserving a second read, if not a first.

Embedded with the Colorado team in 1998, Lear trailed the runners on his bike
(recuperating from surgery for a plantar fascia tear).  He wrote daily entries in a journal.
He grew close to Adam Goucher who would win the individual NCAA title that year.
Lear monitored Goucher’s workouts such as the run of 22 miles in two hours and three
minutes off collegiate, rather than professional, marathon training. He mourned with the
team as it confronted the sudden death of one of its top runners.  

Chris Lear brought his own significant credentials to the task.  At Princeton, he was a two-
time captain of the cross country team and All American.

Goucher wrote in the book’s foreword, “Chris was there through it all, every step of every
run.  He witnessed each moment of pain, distress, excitement, and happiness with every
workout. Almost instantly, his presence among the team became natural, he fit in, and he
became one of us.”

I picked up Buffaloes again because I wanted to find out how they did it twenty years ago.
The Wetmore formula, the camaraderie built from shared sacrifice apparently stood the
test over decades. Lear revealed the planning, work, commitment and costs paid by the
young men who were unrelenting in their drive to win Nationals. Wetmore is the only
NCAA cross country coach to win all four NCAA titles—men’s and women team and
individual titles.  Since taking the Colorado job in 1992 his teams have won five men’s
and three women’s NCAA team crowns.

While Wetmore is known for building high performance teams, he’s also played a
significant role in developing collegiate and professional talent. In addition to Goucher,
University of Colorado alums include Dathan Ritzenheim, Jenny Simpson, Jorge Torres,
Emma Coburn and Kara Grgas-Wheeler (now Kara Goucher).  Each has won an NCAA,
World or Olympic medal.

Since Running with the Buffaloes’ publication in 2000, no other writer has taken on the
challenge of writing the tick-tock, the chronology of a cross country team’s season. Lear’s
book reminds us of another engrossing day-to-day accounting, Daniel James Brown’
best-selling The Boys in the Boat, the saga of the 1936 Olympic gold medal winning
eight-oared crew.

Buffaloes wasn’t a one-time effort. Lear also wrote Sub 4:00: Alan Webb and the Quest for
the Fastest Mile.

Midway through the season the team sustained an almost unimaginable tragedy. Chris
Severy, its No. 2 was killed in an accident when he lost control riding his mountain bike
down a steep road, west of Boulder. A Rhodes Scholar candidate, Severy had been a
member of the l995 U.S. World cross country team.

The Wetmore formula takes few high profile high school runners into the Colorado fold,
works them heavily (100-mile weeks are common) and makes modifications to the
training plan.  A disciple of the legendary New Zealand coach Arthur Lydiard (see under
Peter Snell), it’s a high mileage regimen, with the Sunday run of twenty or more miles up
Boulder’s Magnolia Road weekly oil change.  Wetmore records each day’s workout, and
how it affects each runner. Moving up in mileage from their high school days, first year
runners unable to handle the program are sorted. Few walk-ons make the team.  

Wetmore adjusts his plan, sometimes in imperceptible ways.  LetsRun writer Jonathan
Gault interviewed Jorge Torres in 1999 after the Buffaloes finished seventh in the
Nationals, an unusually poor showing. Torres told Gault that the team had taken a private
plane to the meet in Indianapolis.  Wetmore considered the perk, said the team would not
repeat that transportation choice, and from then on the team flew commercial.

This past November, just after the Nationals, Gault commemorated the twentieth
anniversary of Lear’s sojourn with the team in a lengthy LetsRun interview with the
author.   

Lear exhibited refreshing modesty about the book’s acclaim.  He told Gault: “The fact
that it’s still being talked about twenty years later and I still hear from people that are
reading it for the first time and saying that man, they really like it, that means a lot to me…
Every once in a while I’m lucky enough to hear about people that say (it’s) had some
positive influence on their life or on their running.  And who can ask for more than that?
It’s pretty awesome.”

Now in his mid-forties, Lear sells medical devices and lives in Boston.

Meanwhile, in Boulder, now and for the years since landing in a private jet, the Buffs have
learned to love middle seat 27E.

George Roy and Steve:

I'm glad that you are all settled in and anxious to Blog to us all in 2019!

Can't wait!

I read "Running with the Buffaloes" when it came out. It was very informative, uplifting. Just a great read..

Including the tragic early morning episode when their teammate was en route on his downhill bicycle 

run from his cabin to the campus; only to miss a turn he'd taken hundreds of time and, hitting a tree head on: resulting in his death.

Such a shocking loss by his teammates might have made lesser men to lose heart and the NCAA title.

Even more inspiring was the Epic Novel "The Boys in the Boat".

When I first heard to title I thought it might be about Nazi's landing in Argentina  after WWII

But, the story of the U of Washington men, who rowed to victory in the 1936 Olympics, against all odds,

including the obstacles that the German Olympic Officials placed in their path was so inspiring!

Their stories of growing up poor in Washinton and their varied paths to the rowing shed at U of W.

and their lives after the 1936 Games was truly uplifting!!!   5 Stars!

Thanks for reminding me of these great reads!!

John Bork  

Thanks, John,  it was Paul O'Shea who gets the credit for the book review.

George

  Thanks for the blog update.  You have really done us all a service and yourself as well.  All of us have connected with each other in unexpected ways due to your blog, so thanks.

   As for Running with the Buffaloes, I have a love/hate opinion of the book.  Love since it caused me to bump up the mileage for the long distance types, and hate because several runners back in the 1990s were absolutely devoted to mileage when they should not have been, based on this book.  In my opinion it hurt their running. 

   There is no one way to get there because many have been tried.  What is the best method?  (1) lots of short intervals (Igloi), tempo runs (Kenyans), LSD (Lydiard & Wetmore), combination (a very insignificant Schnier).  I think there is no one answer but instead one which meets the needs of the individual and also a coach who can sell his program to the team.

   Bill

Paul O’Shea has participated in cross-country and track and field since before Mrs. Bowerman lost her waffle iron. After a four-decade career in corporate communications Paul coached the high school girls’ cross country team at Oak Knoll School in Summit, New Jersey. His assistant coach was Tim Lear, Chris’s twin brother. A long-time contributor to Cross Country Journal, Paul now writes for Once Upon a Time in the Vest.  He lives in Northern Virginia and can be reached at Poshea17 @ aol.com.