Grant Fisher training — with coach Mike Scannell.
If there is any way for a high school distance runner to defeat Michigan’s Grant Fisher, the assembled stars at the Brooks PR Invitational last week failed to come up with an answer. In his 4:02.02 win in the adidas Dream Mile a week before, Fisher had convincingly demonstrated his skills as a kicker. He closed the deal on his mile with a final 200 in 28.3, a last 400 in 57.6, and a last 800 in 1:57.9. At the tape, he looked like he was already in another zip code from his competitors.
A week later, the only chance the two-milers had to defeat Fisher would have been to simply outrun him. Certainly, a few of them ran as if they had seen the video from New York. Utah’s Conner Mantz gets credit for trying first. He put himself in the lead in the first 200 and stayed there for most of the first mile. Mantz has to know how dangerous Fisher is. At the Foot Locker Nationals last December, he got a front row seat to watch Fisher chase after John Dressel in the final stages and destroy him with a searing final 100. Mantz was also in New York and finished 10th, more than five seconds behind Fisher. He knew what to do. He just didn’t have it at Brooks. Though the junior had broken 9:00 twice this season, topped by his 8:52.90m at Arcadia, he could not hit the RPMs needed. Cerake Geberkidane passed him before the mile mark, which they hit in 4:30.
Too slow, too slow, too slow. That 4:30 first mile virtually guaranteed Fisher the flowers and the photo ops. Geberkidane should not have been the only runner storming to the lead at that point. There are times when panic is called for, when the smart racer realizes that the race plan in his head is no longer happening. Time to run crazy. Yet the competition was content to let the Coloradan (bound for Oklahoma State) build up to a 10m lead, while they blithely watched Fisher gracefully slide into second place.
At about six minutes, Blair Hurlock led a charge to reel the leaders in, and he and Thomas Pollard brought the pack back to Geberkidane, swallowing up Fisher as they did so. Fisher gently moved his way to the outside again and simply waited. As did everyone else, including Dressel, who gave Fisher plenty of elbow in the final act at Foot Locker. The racing would begin with 400m to go, and six runners appeared to be in contention. Mantz and Geberkidane had spent their kicks by leading. Hurlock’s move appeared to cost him too much as well.
Cue Steven Fahy, the California runner-up, to make the big move with 450 to go, so that he could be at the forefront when the bell sounded. The Stanford-bound senior had run 8:53.95 at Arcadia, but this year he has been a two mile specialist, barely running the four-lapper at all. He hasn’t come close to his junior best of 4:13.88m. Perhaps that’s not the best evidence of him not having a kick, but I can’t find anything else. Why didn’t he help push the pace earlier? If the goal was a PR, perhaps there was some sense in holding back. If his goal was to win, waiting till the last lap could only make sense if he hadn’t see Fisher at Foot Locker, or at the New Balance Indoor Nationals, or in the Dream Mile. Who knows?–maybe he doesn’t get cable or Internet. Fahy said, “I’ve never really seen myself as one of those guys who has a blistering kick on the last lap… I knew that if I kept myself in a good spot and just stayed strong for the first seven laps, the race would be right there in front of me.”
Fisher covers other racer’s moves like velcro. When it counts, he doesn’t miss a step. He caught Fahy and ran alongside him for the next 200 as if they had carefully choreographed their steps with a dance teacher. That half-lap took 30 seconds, enough to leave the field behind. Fahy may have even still thought he had a chance at 3000m. But Fisher hadn’t started sprinting yet. He exploded with 200 to go, and jaws dropped (many jaws–this is extreme plural). Count it on the video: 18 steps into Fisher’s sprint, Fahy looks over his shoulder. He’s cooked, he knows it, and he’s hoping he doesn’t get burned. Behind him, Andrew Rafla did his version of sprinting too. He would have won Arcadia on the kick if Blake Haney had not been there. So here–with no Haney–maybe he thought he could take the Michigan kid?
No luck. Fisher finished even faster than in New York: 26.8, 56.9. This race was about two things–winning, and getting his kick ready for the USA Junior Nationals… and hopefully the World Juniors. The time? Not so important, even though he ran a solid 8:51.28. If his competitors had been able to push the pace faster throughout the race, would he still have won?
That’s the question they might be asking themselves now. Earlier in the season, they might have given him some trouble. In April, two weeks after Arcadia, Fisher’s coach told him to run hard and fast in the 3200 at JDs Invitational in Jackson, Michigan, under the lights. Running solo for the most part, Fisher shot out frighteningly fast–60 at the 400, 1:32 at the 600. He passed halfway just under 4:20, and then he started hurting. Even so, he held on for an 8:55.75 to win by more than 44 seconds.
Fisher is far more fit now. If he died and still ran 8:55 long before he hit his season peak, it’s impossible to say just what he could do now in a challenging, but evenly paced, two-mile. Let’s say that Fahy and Geberkidane and company had managed an 8:40 pace. Would that have lost Fisher? I wouldn’t bet on it. But I would bet that all the runners he beat at Brooks would have been immeasurably happier with their results.
Results (6/21/2014): 1. Grant Fisher (MI) 8:51.28; 2. Steven Fahy (CA) 8:55.24; 3. Andrew Rafla (ID) 8:56.06; 4. Conner Matz (UT) 8:56.62; 5. Thomas Pollard (IA) 8:56.83; 6. Cereke Geberkidane (CO) 8:58.08; 7. John Dressel (WA) 8:58.38; 8. Blair Hurlock 8:58.51.