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Interview with Dan Browne

Posted on June 21, 2006, Interview conducted June 14, 2006

By Duncan Larkin

Dan Browne, of Portland, Oregon was a 2004 Olympian in both the 10,000 (12th) and the marathon (65th). Before the 2004 Olympic Games, Browne enjoyed a very successful collegiate career at West Point as well as a professional career of equal success with the following highlights: 1998 USA 10,000 meter champion, 1998 USA Cross Country champion, and 2003 Pan Am 10,000 meter bronze medalist. In 2005, Browne ran a 1:03:56 to win the 2005 USA Half Marathon Championships. After that win, he began to have severe lateral pain in his left knee. He tried a month of physical therapy, and then decided to undergo surgery to alleviate the stress. He underwent a similar surgery on his right knee in May of 2005. Dan spent from May 2005 until March 2006 recovering from these knee surgeries as well as an emergency appendectomy. In his first comeback race, in March of this year, he won the 3,000 at the Oregon Preview in Eugene, running 8:13.00. At the time of this interview, Browne was conducting altitude training with his fellow Oregon Project teammates in Park City, Utah, in the lead-up to the USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships.

We know you had knee surgery last year and are making a comeback of sorts. How's it going?
This period in my career has definitely been the most challenging. I'm learning a lot about perseverance and determination. But it's coming back. I'm working hard and have got a great program with a lot of support behind me. The body is feeling well; it's coming along. You know, being a distance runner is not about instant gratification. It takes long, hard months of training before you start to really see results. I'm sort of in the middle of that right now. I'm getting stronger, but there's a lot of strong runners out there—guys who haven't had a year layoff from injuries and who've been running strong the last two years. In terms of my racing in the near future, I have to keep that in perspective and keep the goal of making the Olympic team again in 2008 my primary focus.

Which events are you going to focus on for 2008? We've noticed that the longest race you've run since your comeback was the Papa John's 10 Miler.
Yes, and that's a basically been because I have no business doing marathons because I haven't trained properly for one. I'm looking to potentially do a fall marathon this year to see where I'm at and kind of get a feel for it. As far as looking at 2007 and 2008, I'm really still up in the air. I really want to get faster. I want to run faster times, bottom line. I'd like to do them from 5k all the way to the marathon.

So it sounds like you are going to go for the Olympic Trials all the way from the 5,000 to the marathon?
If training goes well in terms of marathon-style training, I'll probably go for it at the Trials. If it doesn't then I'll look at the track in the 5k or 10k. When I'm training and working out at my best, I feel confident both at the 5k and 10k level.

What are you going to run at the USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships?
I'm going to do the 10k there. At first the field was looking a bit weak, and now it's looking like it's shaping out to be a good field with the addition of Meb [Keflezighi] and [Anthony] Famiglietti maybe. There are no cakewalks out there.

Who are you training with right now?
I'm running with my Oregon Project teammates in Utah.

And is Coach [Alberto] Salazar out there?
Yes.

What's it like training under him?
It's been good. Alberto and I have been together for a while. We've been together since 2002 and this has been the first period of my career where I've had to lean on my support system a lot because of the injuries. He's been there for me and he's helped me get back to the level I'm at right now, which is being competitive nationally. He's been great.

What kind of workouts are you doing now?
It's varied a little bit. I've been doing some good mile repeat workouts. The track sessions that I am doing are at about 4400 feet elevation so they are a little bit slower than you might expect, but they are very, very tough given the elevation and everything. So we are talking 4:30 mile repeats and quarters in 61-62 with a decent rest. Alberto and I are trying to work the whole spectrum of running from the sprints to the tempo runs. I'm just trying to get stronger and stronger and be able to handle more and more of a workload.

What kind of rest are you doing between your mile repeats?
In the miles we are doing upwards of 500m even 600m recovery because of the altitude. It's a little bit different. There are some different nuances that you have to take into consideration with this kind of training. If you don't, it can get you.

Let's go now to the 2004 Olympics. You focused on doubling in the 10,000 and the marathon, whereas Meb Keflezighi focused solely on the marathon. In hindsight did you make the right decision to double and would you do the same thing again?
I would make the same decision again if I could. The only thing I would do differently is that I would basically do nothing between the 10k and the marathon, like 30-40 minutes of jogging.

Tell us about the Olympic experience.
The 10k went well. I feel very proud about that, and actually, I would be disappointed with my Olympic experience if all it was was me placing 65th in the marathon and not having had that positive 10k experience. I don't feel like the 10k hurt me necessarily. I feel like I recovered for the marathon. The marathon itself was such an incredibly grueling event, and given the conditions, it made it all that much more so. I'm not a 110-pound Brazilian-type runner. I've got a little bit more meat on my bones and so makes it a little bit tougher given the marathon distance. I really honestly gave everything I had out there in the marathon. It would have been very easy for me to quit, but that's just not me and so I kept pushing my body through it.

Have you ever dropped out of a race?
I did. I dropped out of one race. I dropped out a 5,000 at the NCAAs indoors when I was a senior in college. You have to understand the circumstances behind it. When you go to West Point, any opportunity you have to get away in the winter time is a golden opportunity. So even though I knew I had a stress fracture, I still wanted to go because I qualified and I was ranked well and so I went. I knew that I hadn't really trained well in the months before that, but I thought, 'Hey, let's see what happens and give it my best.' And I did, but stress fractures are not something you can just run through. They are too painful.

We had noticed that you stick in out in races which is why we asked.
Yeah, and sometimes to my detriment. But in the marathon, I'm learning. I've learned that the marathon is a different beast compared to other races. It's such a long race. The funny thing is that you can be an hour and 10 minutes into the race and feel great, but you still have over an hour of running to go and that is a sobering thing to think about.

What is your fondest memory running? And of all the achievements you have, which is the one you are most proud of?
Oh wow, that's a good question. I honestly would have to say that my fondest memory is definitely placing 12th in the 10k in Athens—toeing the line with some of the world's best runners. I remember watching the 1996 Games and the 2000 Games and I actually stood next to [Haile] Gebrselassie in 2004 and shook his hand before the race. For me that was kind of a validation, in a lot ways, of everything I had done. I was never really a runner who got the immediate results right away. I was always a hard worker who worked my way up one inch at a time. And so for me to reach that kind of pinnacle and toe the line at that race, that really meant a lot to me. I've been to a lot of neat places and trained in a lot of neat areas. In some ways my fondest memories are of different training camps that I've been to: training in Kenya and training in Italy and going to some neat, faraway places that I wouldn't have a chance to visit if I wasn't a runner. I carry a lot of those memories in my heart.

Who are your personal running heroes in your life, and what's been your source of inspiration?
Over my career it's definitely varied some. I looked up to a lot of runners who were ahead of me early in my career like the Bob Kennedy and Todd Williams guys. But the ultimate reason that motivates me to run is that I believe that God has given me this gift and I want to make the most of it. That's the most important reason. When you see me run, that's what's coming out is who I am trying to honor.

We noticed that you ran your 5,000 and 10,000 PRs within a span of 60 days. Is there something that you nailed in workouts, some feeling you had, or something that clicked in order for you to do this?
Honestly that is the way it usually works. You talk to nine out of 10 runners and a lot of them will PR in more than one event in a given season. I think a lot of it has to do with the quality and the type of training and also how consistent their training has been in the previous six months and up to 18 months. I really went through a period from 2002 to 2004 where I didn't have any sustained injuries. I built up a good base and had a marathoner's mileage underneath me. I've always had decent speed and have always believed in myself, so with the amount of miles and a little bit of sharpening, that's how I got to my PRs.

The 2004 Olympics motivated me. When I turned 28, I was thinking to myself, 'You know, I need to make this Olympic Team. It's my time and I want to grab the bull by the horns.' And that's why you saw the marathon, the 10k, and the 5k times going down because I said, 'I'm going for it' and held nothing back. That's the way it goes in running, there can be no hesitation.

What is your philosophy on recovery. Do you train with a heart rate monitor? How do you approach recovery?
How to gauge recovery. That's a very important question. Honestly, guys who've been there and done that understand that the recovery component is almost as important as the training. If you don't recover well, you are going to have a hard time getting to the next session. Now, that being said, my body has changed over the years and what I considered good recovery back when I was 21 and 22 meant only staying out until 2:00 a.m. and not like 3:00 or 4:00 a.m. Now, good recovery for me is getting to bed by 10:00 p.m. and making sure to just really not do more than I have to. I'm getting ready to turn 31 [on June 24] and have been around the block a few times. My body reacts differently. I'm not sure if it's the knee surgeries or what. I need to be careful about taking enough time to feel recovered for the next session and to be more specific, you have to learn your body over time. Obviously heart rate monitors and keeping good track of your pace on runs is important, but ultimately you have to develop a sense for your own efforts. And you have to have the maturity to coast, sit back and relax if your other training partners are going too fast. You are doing what you need to do to get the most out of yourself. That takes maturity and that only happens when you've been around the block a few times.

You are a very versatile runner, racing anywhere from the mile to the marathon. Do you have any advice to share for versatile runners. How do you approach your training?
You have to maintain both ends of the spectrum. That means doing your speed workouts as well as doing your distance runs. You can't neglect doing any area of the full spectrum of running. There's a time to sprint and there's a time to run slowly. There's a time for everything. If you look at yourself as an equalizer and [aim] to get the best results and performances, you have to learn to work on those weaknesses until you bring those up to your other areas and self monitor. It takes impartial observers: coaches, mentors, friends, family to help you. You have to be willing to listen, but you have to have an inner voice, too, that you have confidence in and that takes time. For young runners, I would say find people you trust and listen to them. Listen to everyone and form your own opinion. It's kind of like West Point where you learn leadership: you take the good and leave the bad and what you got is your leadership style.

What is the hardest workout you have ever done?
Oh man, these are some good ones. In training for the marathon, our group back in 2002 did some 20 milers at real close to 5:00 pace, and I remember those as almost race efforts. I remember those as being really, really difficult. I did sessions back in 2004 where I did 20 x 1,000 meters. That was on the grass. It wasn't a ridiculous pace, but it was still good. I was probably cooking along at 2:55 to 3:00. I was in great, great shape at that time, and that was the kind of volume that I needed to be on the top of my game. The PRs come when your body is just ready to accept everything and anything. As a runner, to know and capitalize on those moments is, in my opinion, the difference between being a good runner, a great runner, and a champion runner—seizing that moment.

Last question, Dan. How is a cow?*
[Laughing] She walks, she talks, she's full of chalk the lacteal fluid extracted from the female of the bovine species is highly prolific to the nth degree.

*This is a Plebe trivia question required to be memorized by all West Point freshmen. Since Duncan Larkin was an upperclassman when Browne was a Plebe (freshman), he thought he'd close with this trivia question. Browne nailed it.