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Photograph by Skye Dunlap
Sydney or bust: Runner Mark McManus, who works at a Willow Glen landscape architecture company, is crossing his fingers while he trains to make the cut for the U.S. Olympic team.
On the Fast Track
Mark McManus started running in high school to stay fit. Now he's an Olympic hopeful.
By Chantal Lamers
Before the hectic commute from Mountain View to his Willow Glen job each weekday morning, 26-year-old spends 30 minutes running. After the bumper-to-bumper commute home, he spends another three hours stretching, running and lifting to train for the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia.
He has his work cut out for him.
"If you make the Olympic team it means you're really fast," McManus says. "Olympic trials take the top 30 runners in the United States, out of thousands and thousands of runners."
Most Olympic hopefuls, including McManus, won't know for a few months whether they will get a shot to compete at the games, which start Sept. 15.
In the meantime, track and field stars like McManus don't spend a lot of time with their fingers crossed--they spend a lot of time trying to break their running records.
If he can beat Olympic mandatory running times, McManus will compete against runners from all over the world on Sydney's refurbished Olympic Stadium.
Today, the young runner estimates he ranks a pro-status of 34 in the United States. He runs a 3:44.5 in the 1,500 meter event and 4:02 in the mile. He runs the 5,000 meter race in 14:03.
McManus holds records in the cross country 8,000 indoor mile, indoor 3,000 meter and broke a 24-year-old record for the outdoor 5,000 meter.
Next year, he hopes he'll rank around 20th among American runners.
McManus, who wants to run either the long distance 1,500 or 5,000 meter races in the Olympics, isn't betting his bottom dollar on making Olympic trials on July 9.
Up until that date, hopefuls have the chance to succeed qualifying times for a chance to compete against fellow Americans for a spot on the prestigious track.
Thanks to his dual American and Irish citizenship, McManus has the opportunity to qualify for either team. His parents emigrated from Dublin 30 years ago. While they rally behind their son, they also want to make sure their son has a backup career. McManus says his parents encouraged him to pave an alternative path for the future in case he doesn't make the cut as a runner.
McManus trains with about 50 other runners on the Nike Farm Team at Stanford University. Three team members have already qualified for the trials and have a chance to make the 2000 Olympic team.
McManus began his running career on the track and cross country teams during his freshman year at St. Ignatius College Preparatory in San Francisco. He didn't believe his high school coaches when they told him he had a natural running ability.
"At first I just did it to help keep me in shape and out of trouble," McManus said. "I didn't really think I'd ever be any good."
Photograph courtesy of Mark McManus
Running Man: Mark McManus leads the pack in the 1,500-meter at Sacramento City College in March. McManus won the race.
McManus continued track and cross country at UC-Davis. It took him nearly four years to understand his potential as a runner. During his senior year, he took off and went all-state in both sports.
In 1995 he was a Cross Country All-American. In 1996 he was the Outdoor Track All-American in the 1,500 and took sixth place at nationals. He was named Fastest American for California Division Two college sports for the 1,500 meter and Cross Country All-American.
In 1997 he went All-American in the Indoor Track Mile and was named the Fastest American for Division Two; Outdoor Track All-American in the 1,500 with a fifth place win and Fastest American in his division. In the 5,000 McManus finished with the second fastest time overall in Division Two.
McManus decided what he wanted to after college. His coach at UC- Davis recommended that McManus try out for the Nike Farm Team. He joined three years ago. The team supplies McManus with travel expenses, pays for shoes, uniforms and coaching.
Running anywhere from 50 to 90 miles a week, McManus says he goes through about eight pairs of running shoes and three pairs of competition shoes a year.
Nike Farm coach Jeff Johnson says McManus has a good combination of speed and strength. He has good instincts, and all the tools to become a world-class runner, the coach says. "Speed is something you're born with." And speed is something McManus has, Johnson says.
Johnson says its difficult to achieve world-class running status in America because there isn't a lot of support for runners. Running professionally isn't a major sport such as football, basketball or baseball in America.
Johnson says if young McManus sticks with the sport and devotes a tremendous amount of time to the track, he has a pretty good shot at the Olympics.
Luckily, McManus says, his employer allows for a flexible schedule. McManus works about 33 to 35 hours a week at Landworks, a landscape architecture business. McManus says having a flexible job makes his life a little more manageable because he often has to leave the state and the country for races.
Landworks Design Department Manager Donna Sylvanovich says athletes like McManus make for great, team-player employees. She said the business is flexible with him because he's a hard worker who can keep his cool when stressful situations arise at work. Sylvanovich says everyone on the Landworks staff is cheering for their potential Olympian and waiting for him to jet off to the 2000 Olympic trials.
If he does, he'll compete on the biggest stage in the world.
Sydney city officials poured $690 million into resurfacing the track to make it softer and faster than the one used at the Atlanta games. The stadium seats 110,000 fans, which makes it the largest Olympic stadium ever. It features a 400-meter synthetic track, field event area, grass football field, 108 hospitality suites and an electronic scoreboard and video screen.
McManus says track runners have to be patient. Suffering from a stress fracture in his left foot, McManus isn't sure if he'll make the team this year. But he says that most runners don't reach their prime until their late 20s and early 30s. McManus believes he has a better shot of making the next summer Olympics.
"It's a really hard sport," McManus says. "You don't become good overnight."
When McManus isn't lacing up his Nikes for a long run, he spends time writing his novel--a semi-fictional story that is, perhaps unsurprisingly, about a young runner.
About 100 pages long so far, McManus' first novel isn't far from the page-turning end. At the end of the novel, readers will know whether the book's main character fulfills his dream of making the Olympic team.
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Willow Glen, California Since 1992
