Rudisha & Brother Colm for Galway!

Bugsy2000

Rudisha to run a celebrity 800m in Galway plus a Q&A with Rudisha & Brother Colm.

Galway Advertiser

An open meet where athletes will try to break the 4 minute mile apparently.

Tombo2001

Bugsy2000 wrote: »

Rudisha to run a celebrity 800m in Galway plus a Q&A with Rudisha & Brother Colm.

Galway Advertiser

An open meet where athletes will try to break the 4 minute mile apparently.

Wow thats amazing.

Between Bekele in the Phoenix Park and Rudisha in Galway, the Irish sporting public has access to the big names in distance running.

Wonder will RTE send a reporter over......

shels4ever

Think this might be worth a trip to galway .

spurscormac

This is coming up next Saturday, have my ticket booked, should be a good evening.
Still haven't heard full details about the "celebrity" 800m, just that local GAA players Ollie Canning & Alan Kerins are included.

Sub-4 Mile attempt includes
Paul Robinson IRL
Ben St Lawrence AUS
Brett Robinson AUS
Rory Chesser IRL
Michael Dyer IRL
Pacer: Keith Fallon of Galway City Harriers

Still debating with self whether or not to have a go at the timed 800, haven't run a race of that length since community games so unsure how I'd do.
McMillan tells me I should be 2:35ish, but have always thought I'm faster over shorter distances, so I might even get under the 2:30 for the 10 race times.
Having said that, am far from ideal fitness so probably wouldn't make it.

Enduro

Will be there for the talk as well.... Definitely not running any 800m though!!

Looking forward to it. Should be an entertaining day.

Squeaker

What a day of athletics in Galway. The atmosphere was amazing, the crowd was huge. Is every track meet this good?

Bugsy2000

I was sick & bed bound for the last week so couldn't get near this. How'd it pan out? Anyone here go to the Q&A?

galwayspur

I made it Dangan for the last 30-40 minutes of running, so managed to see the mile race and felt lucky to have been there to witness it. Well done to the two lads that got in under 4 minutes. The athletes, the kids, the crowd, the atmosphere and the weather all contributed to what was a great event.

My daughter and I went to the Q&A later that evening. Brother Colm and Rudisha got a great welcome from everyone there. The event began with a film of Rudisha's 3 WR runs and there was applause for each. I'm sure I'm not the only one, but when you see the guy make it look so easy on the biggest stage of all, the goosebumps were there again. Incredible.

Paul Donovan hosted the Q&A session and I thought he did a good job. Brother Colm told us all about relationships differ with each athlete and various methods he uses at St Patricks with his runners. He came across very well and gave a good insight into the life of athletes in Iten.

As for Rudisha, he is very relaxed, easy going and seems nothing short of a gentleman. He gave us all an idea of how he approached the Olympic Final and that after a run in Paris shortly before London where a pacer got in his way, he felt confident he could get the WR again and dip under the 1:41 barrier. He's very humble and explained how once he achieves one target, he puts it to one side and focuses on his next as if he has done nothing yet.

I'm leaving plenty out I know. There were questions from the floor, maybe a few more of those would have been nice (submitted in advance maybe?) and there was the usual "will you manage the Cork Hurlers/Mayo Footballers/Irish Soccer team?" etc to Brother Colm but it all added to the event. Between the Q&A, the dancers, singers and auction*/raffle it was a memorable evening.


I know many clubs around the Country do great work with runners and athletes from all walks of life, it was great to have an event like this in Galway where I know first hand of the efforts that people put in out of their own time and having David Rudisha and one of the most successful coaches in Athletics right there in front of us was a great reward and motivator for coaches and runners alike. Well done to all involved in arranging it and to the charities that also coordinated and benefited from the evening.


*auction was Rudisha's Kenya singlet from the Olympic Semi-Final run complete with number etc. It fetched €3,700 for charity. Wow.

spurscormac

galwayspur wrote: »

I made it Dangan for the last 30-40 minutes of running, so managed to see the mile race and felt lucky to have been there to witness it. Well done to the two lads that got in under 4 minutes. The athletes, the kids, the crowd, the atmosphere and the weather all contributed to what was a great event.

My daughter and I went to the Q&A later that evening. Brother Colm and Rudisha got a great welcome from everyone there. The event began with a film of Rudisha's 3 WR runs and there was applause for each. I'm sure I'm not the only one, but when you see the guy make it look so easy on the biggest stage of all, the goosebumps were there again. Incredible.

Paul Donovan hosted the Q&A session and I thought he did a good job. Brother Colm told us all about relationships differ with each athlete and various methods he uses at St Patricks with his runners. He came across very well and gave a good insight into the life of athletes in Iten.

As for Rudisha, he is very relaxed, easy going and seems nothing short of a gentleman. He gave us all an idea of how he approached the Olympic Final and that after a run in Paris shortly before London where a pacer got in his way, he felt confident he could get the WR again and dip under the 1:41 barrier. He's very humble and explained how once he achieves one target, he puts it to one side and focuses on his next as if he has done nothing yet.

I'm leaving plenty out I know. There were questions from the floor, maybe a few more of those would have been nice (submitted in advance maybe?) and there was the usual "will you manage the Cork Hurlers/Mayo Footballers/Irish Soccer team?" etc to Brother Colm but it all added to the event. Between the Q&A, the dancers, singers and auction*/raffle it was a memorable evening.


I know many clubs around the Country do great work with runners and athletes from all walks of life, it was great to have an event like this in Galway where I know first hand of the efforts that people put in out of their own time and having David Rudisha and one of the most successful coaches in Athletics right there in front of us was a great reward and motivator for coaches and runners alike. Well done to all involved in arranging it and to the charities that also coordinated and benefited from the evening.


*auction was Rudisha's Kenya singlet from the Olympic Semi-Final run complete with number etc. It fetched €3,700 for charity. Wow.

Good summary - was very jealous at not having €5k to throw about at the singlet, especially as I was there to witness that semi on the night.

Interesting piece also on the cross pollination of coaches, Br Colm believes its essential in order to raise things to the next level. He has brought in a Gymnastics coach to work in areas of core strength, balance & stability.
Says all sports should be doing the same thing, athletics, swimming, rugby, hurling, etc should all be sharing knowledge to each other's benefit.
Worth noting that Mayo football are kinda doing this, with trainer Buckley apparently going off to study NFL, Premiership, etc in order to study other codes to see what they can offer.

Also on the differing approaches per athlete, he said what worked for Wilson Kipketer would never have made Rudisha a champion. Wilson could win from anywhere. David's power & imposing physique allows him to dominate races from the front, but not necessarily have the kick to push past people in the sprint finish.
Though both admitted to being surprised that nobody has tried to just get out there in front at the start to try to put him off.

One final thing, nice to hear Rudisha advised the younger Kenyan athlete not to follow him in the final or he wouldn't medal. Told him his plan (to go from the front for a world record pace) & said he would kill himself trying to stay with him, better to hold back til later in the race.
He did, 6th at the bell, but grabbed himself a bronze medal.

ChickenTikka

I had the privilege of being in Dangan for most of the day and also being at the Q&A. It was an unbelievably fantastic day. I'd rate Bolt, Farah and Rudisha as the 3 biggest names in world athletics. Total superstars. And to have 1 of them hanging around the infield of the track for 4 hours last Saturday posing for photographs with kids and adults and signing autographs ... was just incredible.

The man is a saint. For a guy of his status to spend 4 hours smiling for pictures with mere mortals was amazing.

With the day capped off by the first sub-4 minute mile to be run west of the Shannon made it all the more memorable. Well done Paul Robinson! Another legend in the making.

The Q&A was excellent. The bond between Rudisha and his coach Brother Colm was really touching. When asked by Paul Donovan about his coach, he said plenty of kind words but finished it off by saying "he is more than a coach, he is like a father".

Only downside of the Q&A was that it was hard to get a Q in because the attendance was so large ... 2500 or so people I'd say. Victims of their own success. Hats off to the organisers and sponsors on a truly memorable day.

Enduro

You summarised it all perfectly there ChickenTikka. An awesome day allround.

The atmosphere for the mile was unreal. I hear that the athletes had never experienced the like of it, and it really spurred them all on. Fantastic performances too.

David Rudisha gave so much time it was unreal. He must have met hald the kids in Galway. And he was always smiling, and always willing to be photographed with every one of them. And joining in every 800 meter race too. He's a phenomenal human as well as being a phenomenal athlete. He must have been totally knackered by the end of it all, but you'd never know.

Brother Colm is a great thinker. The most impressive coach I've ever heard.

My little bid of 1500 for Rudisha's singlet wasn't long being obliterated! There must have been phenomenal amounts raised for all the charities over the weekend.

Henry9

Did Br Colm reveal anything about his training methods? Does he do anything different to everyone else?

ChickenTikka

Henry9 wrote: »

Did Br Colm reveal anything about his training methods? Does he do anything different to everyone else?

One of the interesting points he made was that Rudisha and other Kenyan elites take a complete break from mid Sept to close to end of Nov. They return to their families and live a normal life. And then resume training ... he didn't say but I guess that means back to training camps with no breaks for rest of year.

Henry9

ChickenTikka wrote: »

One of the interesting points he made was that Rudisha and other Kenyan elites take a complete break from mid Sept to close to end of Nov. They return to their families and live a normal life. And then resume training ... he didn't say but I guess that means back to training camps with no breaks for rest of year.

Anything about mileage or intensity?
I don't know if the Kenyans are into the sports science end of things. Rudisha is such a beast he probably looks the way he does without any training at all.

spurscormac

Henry9 wrote: »

Anything about mileage or intensity?
I don't know if the Kenyans are into the sports science end of things. Rudisha is such a beast he probably looks the way he does without any training at all.

Nope, they didn't get into that at all. Speaking to a few others from the club here in Galway, we would have liked to have got the opportunity to delve a little deeper into that side of things, like how many hard sessions, what sort of recovery between them etc.
I think someone mentioned already that it was a pity more time wasn't given to questions from the floor as I think thats the stuff that would have been next if they got around to more people.
Still a good discussion, but more of the runners in the audience would have appreciated a little more elaboration on sample sessions.

Henry9

Shame, still I suppose you can't expect much more at such a large event.
Big enough achievement to get them there in the first place.

Enduro

I actually thought he explained a huge amount. But it was big picture stuff, and not those details.