Monday, December 11, 2006
THE FLINT JOURNAL FIRST EDITION Friday, August 25, 2006 By Bill Khan
The quote posted on Fernando Cabada's MySpace page leaves no doubt what he's all about when it comes to racing.
"I have the attitude. I'm not afraid of anybody. I tried to break (the Kenyans). I looked at their faces. I thought they were weak, so I pushed them, tested them, messed with them. Then, one by one, I ran away from them."
Cocky? Oh, yeah.
Can he back it up? Absolutely.
The aforementioned quote was uttered by Cabada after he outdueled four Kenyans to win the Fifth Third River Bank Run in Grand Rapids on May 13. Cabada won that 25-kilometer race in an American-record time of 1 hour, 14 minutes and 20 seconds. He broke a 15-year-old mark of 1:14:38 set by former Crim 10-mile winner Ed Eyestone.
Watching the race that day was Grand Rapids native Greg Meyer, the elite athlete coordinator for the Crim. He was not only impressed with Cabada's time that day, but his moxie. Meyer knew he had to get this brash, 24-year-old American on the Crim starting line at 8 a.m. Saturday for the 30th anniversary race in downtown Flint.
The native of Fresno, Calif., beat the Kenyans at their own mind game, pestering them verbally in the second half of the race as he was beginning to pull away. The Kenyans have been known to get into the heads of any outsiders who dare to hang with them in the latter stages of a race.
"He was basically tormenting the Kenyans he was running with," Meyer said. "He was talking smack to them. It was hilarious."
There was no malicious intent, Cabada said.
"I always try to, in a way, work with people," he said. "It's not so much trash talking, but I let him know I wasn't tired. I was just saying, 'Can you help me break the American record?' In a way, I was showing off like, 'Hey, I'm not tired.' I don't know what I was doing. Normally, I don't think, I just go and do whatever."
Cabada ran the final half of the River Bank Run at a 4:48 mile pace to win by a comfortable margin of 44 seconds over Kenya's Julius Kibet. The two were side by side halfway through the race.
Kibet and Cabada will be matched again Saturday in the Crim, along with a larger, deeper field of Kenyans. Kibet was third in last year's Crim.
The Crim will be the first race since July 4 for Cabada, who is gearing up for the World Road Racing Championships 20K in Hungary on Oct. 8.
"To be honest, I'm not in 25K shape now," Cabada said. "I took a lot of down time. I've been training for a couple of weeks and I'm going to go in there and represent myself with pride and try the best I can. I'm not 100 percent, but I didn't think I was going to do as great as I did in the 25K. You never know on that day. I'm still Fernando Cabada and I'm not going to just give it away, let's put it that way."
That win in Grand Rapids was not only a boost to Cabada's confidence - not that it needs much - but also to his bank account. First place was worth $8,000, which included a separate prize pool for Americans.
He was still running for tiny NAIA school Virginia Intermont College, but gave up the chance to run in the national track and field meet by accepting the prize money. He had turned down smaller amounts of prize money in other races during his college career.
"I had under 40 bucks," he said. "I didn't know where I was going to live, I wasn't sure if I was going to get a contract or not. That race changed my life forever. Now I don't have to get a job. I can focus on running. I get nice shoes and equipment now. I get paid. Now I get to come out here and don't have to worry about paying rent. I can really focus on just racing."
Cabada is a breath of fresh air on the American road racing scene. Most elite American runners stay as far away from races like the Crim as possible, for fear of coming away empty-handed against strong international fields. About the only top U.S. runners who show up regularly at the Crim are from the Rochester-based Hansons-Brooks Distance Project, a group that includes several national team members.
An American man hasn't won the race since 1990, when Ken Martin captured his second Crim. Prize money was instituted the following year, leading to the current era of Kenyan domination. Kenyans have won 12 of the last 15 Crims, while the other three were won by Mexico's Alejandro Cruz (1993), Morocco's Brahim Lahlifi (1997) and Tanzania's Fabiano Joseph (2005).
The best finish by an American-born runner in the prize-money era was Brian Sell's fourth-place showing in 2004.
According to Meyer, the pre-race favorite is David Langat of Kenya, who ran a 2:08:58 debut marathon and a 1:00:47 half-marathon. Also expected to do well is Kenyan Samuel Ndereba, the brother of six-time Crim women's champion Catherine Ndereba. He was eighth two years ago and fifth last year.
Returning to the Crim is defending women's champion Alevtina Ivanova of Russia, who finished in 53:34 last year to win easily by 1:07.
She took over first place when Asmae Leghzaoui of Morocco had to quit the race with medical problems after setting a blistering pace that had her just behind the men's leaders at the 3-mile mark. Leghzaoui was second to Catherine Ndereba in a controversial 2002 Crim in which she forfeited $1,000 of her winnings for being aided by a male runner.
America’s Best Chance Is Young, Brash And, Oh Yeah Fast
Cabada
“I’m not afraid of anybody” - Fernando Cabada
