USA coach keeps up with four distance runners
OLYMPIC TRACK AND FIELD
La Habra native Terrence Mahon guides marathoners Deena Kastor and Ryan Hall as well as 5,000-meter runners Ian Dobson and Jen Rhines.
BEIJING -- Terrence Mahon's legs couldn't quite carry him to the Olympics but his mind and motivational talents did, enabling him to guide four remarkable athletes to Beijing and accelerate the rebirth of American distance running.
The La Habra native, an eight-time All-America at Villanova, qualified several times for the Olympic trials in the marathon and 10,000 but Mahon never made the U.S. team. He joined the Team Running USA group in Mammoth Lakes for a change of scenery and gradually changed his focus to coaching.
"Putting together all the mental, the physical, the emotional -- that dynamic, I think, is very important and is something that goes very underlooked," he said of his approach.
"Some of those have just been my influences. It just opens up your mind a little bit."
Two of his Olympic athletes are marathoners: Athens bronze medalist Deena Kastor, who's expected to contend again, and U.S. trials champion Ryan Hall of Big Bear, whose London marathon time of 2 hours, 6 minutes, 17 seconds in April made him the second-fastest American ever.
The others are 5,000-meter runners Ian Dobson and Mahon's wife, Jen Rhines.
Kastor's event is Sunday, Hall's is Aug. 24, Rhines begins qualifying on Tuesday and Dobson on Wednesday.
Juggling the needs of runners who are at varied stages "takes some organizational skills," Mahon said.
"The Olympics make it a little more complicated. Everyone is running pretty much at the same time."
Mahon, 37, ran with Kenyans when he lived in the Philadelphia area and admired their purposeful attitudes. He brought those impressions with him when he and Rhines moved to Mammoth Lakes, and he added to them by picking the minds of the renowned resident coaches, Joe Vigil and Bob Larsen.
Mahon took charge of Kastor's workouts when Vigil retired after the Athens Games. She won her first marathon at Chicago in 2005 and set an American record of 2:19:36 at London in 2006.
"I owe the longevity of my career to him being so knowledgeable and for reinventing training and therapy to keep me healthy," Kastor said via e-mail.
"One of Terrence's greatest strengths is his insatiability to learn, not just about coaching, but life. He is full of so much knowledge and keeps reading great books and visiting with other brilliant people to continue growing."
