by RunningTimesJames Carney will defend his national 20K title at Monday's New Haven 20K. Last year, Carney also won the national half marathon title. In June, he placed fourth in the 10,000m at the national track championships. Carney has PRs of 27:43 (10,000m), 59:11 (20K) and 1:02:21 (half marathon), but has yet to run a marathon that matches those performances. He has finished one of the three marathons he's started, the Olympic marathon trials in November 2007, where he placed 14th in 2:16:54. Carney lives in Boulder, Colo., and is coached by Brad Hudson.
Running Times: You came off 2008 with a 20K title and the half marathon title. Is defending that 20K title a realistic goal for you at this point?
James Carney: I think it is. I’m a little bit more nervous this year than I was last year because I think last year was a bit lower expectation. I was the hunter rather than the hunted, and I think that’s always a better situation to be in. So this year will look different. I’m one of the favorites, I would think, so there’s a bit of a different situation, which makes me a bit more nervous. It’s fine, I guess. It will be more challenging. We’ll see how it goes. I’m feeling pretty good, though, so we’ll see.
Training going well? No injuries?
JC: No injuries. I’m pretty healthy and ready to go.
Does being the hunted affect how you race?
JC: I don’t think so. I always try to race the course rather than race the competition. That’s how I run fast. If I start thinking about who is in the race and what I’m going to do, I usually end up doing worse. If I think about how fast I can run the course, I’m a bit more successful.
You mentioned that you race the course and try not to worry about other runners, but who are you keeping your eyes on in New Haven?
JC: Yeah, I got a list of all the runners. There are five or six guys who are definitely going to be in the mix. Andrew Carlson is a really talented guy. Brett Gotcher is in there. Jason Lemkuhle is going to be a veteran now and is just an animal at that 10-mile/13- mile distance. He’s had some injuries but he always brings his A game. Jason Hartmann will be there. Then you got some young lads in there, Sean Quigley and Patrick Smythe, you can’t discount.
Other than placing fourth at the U.S. championships, it seems like you have been relatively quiet this summer.
JC: I’ve done a couple races. I did Peachtree in Atlanta where I ran 28:19 [for 10K] on the roads. That wasn’t a bad run. I think Abdi [Abdirahman] beat me by about 6 seconds. Abdi, Fam [Anthony Famiglietti] and I went toe to toe, then Fam outkicked me. And then I ran [Quad-City Times] Bix and got third there too, which Meb [Keflezighi] took, and Fam got me there too.
Were those good predictors of what you think you can run in New Haven?
JC: I think so because I’m a little bit better at 20K. I think that’s more my house than the 10K. That 10-mile to half marathon distance is more my distance.
Why have you had more success in longer races?
JC: I think I’m good at just grinding it out a long time. But the marathon is a whole new ball game. The marathon requires you to be really good at burning fuel, and I don’t know how good I am at that. The half marathon is essentially an hour long so you don’t really burn that much fuel – you don’t have to take external fuel or anything. I can pretty much just redline it like an hour straight.
After what went wrong at the New York City Marathon last fall, do you have any desire to try another one?
JC: I’ll definitely run one again. I don’t know if I want to do one this fall, though. I’m not positive but I think I’ll wait for the spring. Next year will be a good year to run a spring marathon because there is no world champs or Olympics on the track. So next year would be the year to do it. I’ve done New York now and I kind of want to do Boston or Rotterdam or one of the classics before I retire, so next year would be a good year to try one.
Are you hopeful of getting your marathon time down to the equivalents of your 10K and 20K times?
JC: I think so. It’s kind of common – a lot of guys have struggled with the marathon the first several times out. I’m not the first guy and I’m certainly not going to be the last guy to struggle. There’s definitely a learning curve for the marathon. You just have to try it a bunch of times. There are definitely exceptions like Ryan Hall, but he’s the exception not the rule. You look at Bill Rodgers; he struggled for a long time before he got it right,
I really enjoy the marathon. It has a lot of history, a lot of prestige behind it. I actually love the race; it just hasn’t loved me back yet. With time, it will come, though.
Do you see yourself turning into a marathoner?
JC: I want to give it another shot on the track. I think I can run faster in the 10K – I think I can go 27:20s. I don’t think 14 more seconds is too far fetched. I want to do a couple track races a year.
Do you prefer racing on the track or going somewhere like New Haven, with a course? JC: They both have their ups and downs, I guess. Like going to Stanford and running the 10K is awesome. You’re under the lights, there are unbelievable performances right before your race and there is tons of electricity. Going to Eugene is awesome – they have the crowd. I feel like that’s really my bread and butter.
I think I can run with anyone in the country. If I run well [at New Haven] and I can get on the world half marathon team, I think I might do that, just so I see how I stack up against some of the Africans.
Speaking of African distance running, since Dathan Ritzenhein broke the 5K record, we keep seeing the headline, “Can U.S. runners keep up with East Africans?” Do you think U.S. distance is closing that gap with Kenya, Ethiopia, and some of those other East African countries?
JC: I think between that race and Ryan Hall running 2:06 and 59:43, it opens up so many eyes that, “If this person can do it, I can do it too.” It just opens the door, then all of the sudden the floodgates open. It makes me people realize that the human limits are a lot further than what people have expected.
People don’t want to hear this, but physiologically and genetically we don’t have the ability that these Africans have. That is my school of thought anyway. But I do think we have resources and technology that can enable us to compete with them. So we might not have the depth that the Africans do right now, but I think it’s coming. We are getting deeper, especially on the men’s side. If you look at men’s distance running even eight or nine years ago, we are so much better. It’s like night and day. It’s scary how much better we are. But [Ritzenhein’s record] is one of those eye-opening things where [Chris] Solinsky, [Matt] Tegenkamp, Bolota Asmerom and guys like that are going to believe they can do that. But a lot of times they see these Africans and think they’re inhuman. They see that Dathan is human; he grew up in Michigan, in the Midwest, and grew up at zero feet altitude and not at 8,000 feet. I think that opens the door for success and we will start feeding off of it.
What are your plans for the rest of the year?
JC: Depending on how I come off New Haven, I will run the 5K champs [on September 20]. It’s a bit underdistance for me but it will be fun. I think I can get in there and mix it up. I would really like to run the world half. I probably won’t be doing a marathon and just really gear up and get ready for [the half marathon in] Houston [in January]. When I won Houston in 2008, I was coming off the marathon trails, I really only had six weeks to get ready for it. So if I run the world half marathon [in October] and I can get like 10 good weeks before Houston, I think I can run 61 minutes. I think that’s definitely possible if everything falls right.
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