Garrett Heath Recounts European PR Tour

It's not only the Team USA folks that are racing in Europe ...

Former Winona High School star Garrett Heath wrote DtB yesterday with the scoop on his brief European tour. He and Stanford teammate Russell Brown ran meets in Switzerland and Germany recently. Heath, a finalist in both the NCAA and USA 1500 meters this spring, returned from the trip with fresh PRs in the 800 (1:49.71) and 1500 meters (3:39.96).

Here's Heath's take on the experience ...

Things didn’t always go smoothly in terms of train travel and language barriers, but all in all with the racing experience and sight seeing, it was a great trip. My teammate, Russell, and I ran two races while we were over here. The first race, which was mostly just a tune-up for the second one, was an 800m in Jona, Switzerland on the 8th of July.

We had two rabbits in this race, one for the first 400m and one to take us through 600m. We went out in about 53 for the first lap and I ended up running 1:49.71 for fourth or fifth place with my teammate winning in 1:47.96. Both were PRs for us.

The second race was the main focus of our trip and was a 1500m world championships qualifier in Cuxhaven, Germany on July 14th. Here we just had one rabbit that took us through 1100m. In this race, I got out a little slower than I wanted and worked into about 7th or 8th place, but still ended up coming through 400m in 57 and then through 800m in 1:57. We slowed down a bit on the 3rd lap and came though 1200m in 2:58. From there, I passed a couple of guys in the last 200m and ended up about 5th, in 3:39 with my teammate just ahead, also in 3:39. This was also a pr for me, but I felt like I could have gone a little faster had the race tactics have gone more smoothly.

There were a couple of differences between European racing and racing in the US. The first is that the runners competing are much more focused on achieving a good time rather than racing for place as is done in the US. This is much of the reason why we had rabbits for both races and was why both of our races went so fast.

Secondly, both races were much more physical than what we were used to in the US and I was a bit reluctant to push people back too much in races because I didn’t know the rules and didn’t want to upset the meet directors that had invited us to race. I later found out that much more pushing is tolerated over there and that it takes a lot more to get disqualified. All in all though, European racing was amazing because the people there get so into the races and treat the athletes ridiculously well. Both races were an event for the whole community with the second one inviting a band and having fireworks the night before.

One thing that quickly became apparent for us over there was the language barrier. One of my coaches is from Germany and speaks fluent German, but the other three of us on the trip didn’t know anything and there were many times where we were helpless to do just about anything. By the end, we had picked up on a few words, but mostly we just said a lot of “good mornings” and “thank yous” in German to people, as that is about all we were comfortable with.

I learned a lot about traveling and racing in Europe on this trip that will help me if I go back. We had a lot of fun and were able to race pretty well, but we also learned that we could have done a lot of things better to prepare for the travel logistics and pre-race strategy. We also realized how essential it is to have someone who speaks the language.

It is hard to be too disappointed with two PRs in two races, but both times I felt like I could have gone faster. Both times I ended up putting my self in hard position to close well in the last 300m, as I ended up being boxed until about the last 100m. This was partially due to the fact that the races were much different than what I was used to here in the US, but the experience is something that will help me to run faster next time.

Photo by Sean Hartnett; Heath competing at the USA Championships.