McColgan Dashes to 5,000 Record

It was a touching sight to see a gentle, patient Liz McColgan cradle her five-month old baby girl in her arms after running the fastest 5,000-meter road race on record.

Runner-up Elly van Hulst could only wish McColgan had shown a trace of that compassion toward her earlier.

McColgan, 26, ran away with the sixth Carlsbad 5,000 Sunday. Her 5:11 finish shattered the world best of 15:19.3, set here two years ago by Lynn Williams. Had she not pulled back approximately 10 meters from the finish line, McColgan’s margin of victory would have been even greater.

“I just eased up when I saw the clock,” said McColgan, who won $5,000 for the victory, $2,000 for the world record, and another $1,000 as a repeat winner--she won here in 1988.

McColgan’s intense face softened as she neared the finish. After all, she had led from the onset, the world record already was intact, and breaking the 15-minute mark was out of the question.

“At 14:57, I saw the time and started to slow,” she said. “I figured, ‘What’s the point? There’s always next year.’ ”

Scary to think what other world marks she could threaten by then. With Sunday’s victory, Scotland’s McColgan now owns world bests on the road in the 5,000, 10,000 and 15,000 meters.

Van Hulst, 31, was relying on her powerful kick to overtake McColgan, but she never got the chance. Holland’s van Hulst finished in a distant second 15:36, the same time as Libbie Johnson of Ft. Collins, Colo., who was third.

“I tried to stay close,” said van Hulst. “I thought if I didn’t let her get more than five or six meters ahead, that maybe I could stay with her. But she was just too fast.”

A spectator yelled, “It’s a good day for the Irish,” to Frank O’Mara as Ireland’s recent 3,000-meter indoor world champion neared the finish in the men’s elite race.

O’Mara’s 13:35 finish was well off the 13:26 world best set by Yobes Ondieki here in 1989, and the 13:29.5 U.S. record set in Carlsbad by Doug Padilla last year. O’Mara’s time even paled in comparison to his indoor personal best of 13:13.02 at 5,000 meters.

So, what gives?

Part of the problem, according to O’Mara, was the road itself, where his career spans a mere six races.

“It’s hard to gauge how fast you’re going compared to when you’re on a track,” he said. “On the turns, you can lose 10 to 15 yards easily.”

A pack of approximately 20 men raced together for close to the first 2 1/2 miles on the mostly flat course, often as many as six runners side-by-side.

“You have to be patient when you’re running abreast like that,” he said.”

Motherhood was good for McColgan, but fatherhood had a similar effect on her husband, Peter. With a little more than a half mile remaining, O’Mara followed Peter McColgan’s lead, and surged after the second turnaround on Carlsbad Boulevard. The former steeplechaser couldn’t stay with O’Mara, but managed to finish sixth.

“Peter made a move and opened a 10-yard lead,” O’Mara said. “Then we saw a gap. I knew if we went hard, we could get a jump on the field.”

Kenya’s William Musyoki, who now lives in El Paso, Tex., finished three seconds behind O’Mara. It was the second year he’s been a runner-up. In 1989, Musyoki was a key player in a close finish that saw Ondieki setting the current world best, and where both runners caught a fading Julius Kariuki.

“It was a slow pace,” said Musyoki, 24, of Sunday’s race. “But when the field’s that good, you don’t want to make a mistake and go out too fast.”

Liz McColgan’s fast pace was hardly an oversight. After dumping her coach recently, she has stepped up her mileage and speed work considerably.

“I put in 90 miles this week,” she said. “I’ve been training really hard. I had the speed because I’m so strong now. My training has been geared for this, so it was easy for me.”

Liz McColgan admits that caring for little Eilish has changed her outlook on life in many ways, but it hasn’t changed her attitude about winning. She exudes confidence, and doesn’t apologize for it.

“When I want something, I just go for it,” she said. “It’s the way my parents brought me up. There’s no sense going for second or third, and I have to be honest with myself about that.”

After she had the baby, McColgan took only 11 days off before resuming training. Although she has run in several lower profile track meets throughout Europe, the Cross Country World Championships in Belgium last March, where she took a third, marked her return to major competition.

“I had no idea I would come back so quickly,” she said. “I don’t feel the same physically, yet. But some people wrote me off because I was having a baby, so this is nice.”

Nicer, too, because McColgan arrived in San Diego Thursday night, after a 15-hour flight from Gainsville, Fla., which normally would have left her feeling frazzled and frantic. But her role as a mother has helped her not sweat the small stuff.

“A similar thing happened last year,” she said of another nightmare flight schedule. “I thought it was a jinx. But Eilish has changed me. She’s relaxed me. Like any new mother, my view on life is different. I ran so relaxed.”

O’Mara, 30, took time out of his law studies at Arkansas to run here. By arriving late, he avoided the pre-race publicity and hoopla he said added to his downfall in 1989, when he finished 11th.

“I came in Saturday and so I missed all the hype, and what everyone was saying,” he said.

It was yet another disappointing year for Leucadia’s Steve Scott, the course designer who virtually owned--and won--this race its first three years.

But in a haunting replay of his 1989 and 1990 finishes, Scott tied up after the two-mile mark and finished out of the money.

“It’s becoming a mental thing for me,” said Scott, who was the top San Diego finisher in 11th. “It’s like I’m anticipating falling apart or something happening after the two-mile mark. There’s no reason for it.”