Maybe we should thank Jayson Swigart for the passionate return of one of the greatest distance runners the world has ever known.
Swigart, a 30-year-old 1:08 half marathoner and 2:33 marathoner, is part of Steve Jones's training group in Boulder, Colo. In 2009, Swigart entered the Leadville Trail 100-Mile Run, a grueling ultradistance race that is entirely run between 9,200 and 12,600 feet above sea level in the shadows of Colorado's highest mountain range.
"Undertrained and underprepared," as he concedes now, Swigart dropped out of the race after making it to the 50-mile turnaround point. But it turned out to be a catalyst for Jones, the former marathon world record-holder, to start getting fit again.
"I challenged him," Jones says. "I told him I was going to do Leadville 100 next year, and reckoned I could beat him by an hour."
The gauntlet was thrown down, and in true Jonesy style, a bet was made: "Whomever loses--or drops out earlier distancewise--has to shave their head for a year," Swigart explains.
Never mind the fact that Jones has never even been to Leadville, run farther than 26.2 miles or competed seriously for more than a dozen years. Jones, who will turn 55 in August, has the heart and drive for running that few others can match. In recent years, though, he's sunk that energy into coaching and not his own training.
"With Jonesy, anything is possible," says Fiona Docherty, a Kiwi marathoner training under Jones in Boulder. "His knowledge, experience, and ability to communicate and listen with his athlete is awesome; and, he is always there if you need him."
In the 1980s, when Jones won marathons in Toronto, London, New York, and twice in Chicago, he was known for his "gritty, blue collar" style of running. In more recent years, though, some might say his hard-driving zeal for running was replaced with a slightly less hard-driving zeal for having a beer--or two or three--with friends. On any given day, after coaching his cadre of elite and professional runners, one could pretty regularly find Jonesy at his favorite watering hole, The Hungry Toad, in Boulder.
That was then, this is now: Jones has not had a beer in more than two years. He drank his last one on New Year's Eve 2007. "I was out drinking with my friends TJ and Mark when we decided we were giving drinking up," Jones recalls. A wager was placed on who could go a year dry. "Mark lasted 28 days; TJ four or five months. And, I haven't had a drink since."
It shows. Jones has slimmed down and is starting to look like his old sinewy self. His spirit for running is evident, and, as shown by his drinking wager and Leadville bet, he still has his competitive fire. And with the challenge at hand, Jones is out running most mornings at 5 a.m., going anywhere from 55 minutes to 2 hours--every day--and he's feeling fitter and healthier than he has in many years. He very quietly ran the challenging off-road Catalina Marathon on March 13 in 4:31:06, a time that converts to an age-graded equivalent of 3:51:57.
"If someone at 55 asked me to coach them to a sub-2:30, I'd tell them to find someone else ... but, I'm me," he deadpans confidently in typical Jonesy style. "A 2:35 or 2:40 is more realistic, but I'd like a 2:25. ... It looks nice, it's a personal thing."
Jones recognizes that he cannot do Leadville and run fast in Chicago, given that the races are less than two months apart. He further knows that a 2:25-2:30 in Chicago will be tougher than running Leadville. And while he can run Leadville any year, the window of opportunity for a fast performance in Chicago is limited. So it seems neither Swigart nor Jones will have bare heads in 2010, but the world will once again see Jonesy competing on Chicago's streets.
"Steve Jones is the toughest man/racer/person I've ever met," Swigart says. "Is he capable of running that fast again? Absolutely."
Barry Siff is a Boulder-based masters runner and triathlete who owns a 2:42 marathon PR and a VHS tape of Steve Jones' victory in the 1985 Chicago Marathon. He writes a blog at lifeendurance.org.