A Brief Chat With Jorge Torres

Jorge Torres, 29, a 2008 U.S. Olympian in the 10,000-meter run, will make his long-anticipated 26.2-mile debut at the ING New York City Marathon, which is serving as the USA Men's Marathon Championships on November 1. His personal bests on the track are 27:42.83 for 10,000 meters and 13:20.57 for 5000. Torres was third in the 10,000 at the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials in Eugene in 27:46.33 and 25th in the Beijing Olympics. His 2009 race results include a fourth at the USA Cross Country Championships and a fifth at the USA 15K in 44:05. In 2008, Torres was second at USA Cross Country and 19th in the World Cross Country Championships in Scotland (the top American). He won the USA 8K on the roads in 2008, having previously won it in 2005. Torres was the 2006 USA 10,000-meter champion. At the University of Colorado, he won Big-12 titles in the 5000 in 2003 and the 1500 in 2002. He was 15th in the 5000 at the 2003 World Championships. Torres and his twin brother Edwardo - who was on the U.S. team for the 2008 World Cross Country Championships with him and was his teammate at the University of Colorado - grew up in Illinois. He now competes for Boulder-based Tempo Sports and is coached by former marathon world recordholder Steve Jones. In September, Torres was seventh in the Great North Run, a half-marathon from Newcastle to South Shields, England, in 1:02:42, more or less training through. The winner was Martin Lel of Kenya, a two-time ING New York City Marathon champion in 59:32. Lel is returning to New York for November 1's race. "The guy's in shape," affirmed Torres.

People have been asking you for a long time about the marathon, and you're finally doing one now. What are some of the factors that led you to decide it's finally time to do one?
Jorge Torres: Well, one is time itself. I'm getting a little bit older, and I think it's time that I give a shot at the marathon. One of the things I wanted to do was make an Olympic team on the track, and that was accomplished. I think it's a good year to try and see what the marathon has to offer. Mainly, I think I need to get the experience before the Olympic Trials come around in 2012. My focus is going to be the marathon, so I've got to get the experience a couple of years ahead.

Do you think you'll be doing marathons pretty regularly between now and 2012?
JT: I'm going to do probably two before the Trials. This will be my first one. The other one might be next fall or the next spring. But then I'm going to take a break until the Olympic Trials and hopefully be on the Olympic team.

And picking New York - is it because it being on November 1 gave you enough time to prepare after your track season ended, or because it's a USA Championship? What are the reasons to pick it over, say, Chicago or Twin Cities?
JT: People are probably wondering why I wouldn't do Chicago, (it) being my hometown. I was leaning toward Chicago, for a while, but under the circumstances, I didn't think I was going to be ready to run Chicago. And New York being a U.S. Championship and also being a "Major," I decided on New York because it gave me a little more time.

How far out from the date were you thinking of doing this? Were you toying with the idea even before you did the 10,000 at the USATF Championships (in June; Torres was ninth)?
JT: I was playing around with the idea. I was talking to Coach (Steve) Jones about it. He said "just get through your track season, take a little break, and if you still have the itch to do the marathon, we'll start training for it." And I did exactly that, but my break went a little longer than expected due to personal reasons. Since that went a little longer than I wanted it to, I was leaning towards New York.

We'll talk about those reasons only as much as you want to. We did talk to Edwardo about it right before he was going to Berlin for the World Championships. We know that your beloved coach was killed and your mother was badly hurt (in a car crash on the way home from Jorge's July 11 wedding in Colorado). Do you want to talk about that, about what kind of shape she's in?
JT: Well, yeah. It's a bittersweet thing. My mother is doing well. She's 100 percent. Full recovery. Right now, the only thing that's holding her back is her neck brace. She had a couple of fractures in her skull and those are healing; it's just taking a while. Once she gets that fully healed, she's going to be 100 percent normal. From the initial time I saw her after the accident, for her to be alive is a miracle in itself. And for her to make a full recovery is more than we could have asked. It's a gift from God. It's like a second chance at life.

But unfortunately, I did lose my coach (Greg Fedyski), somebody I respected a lot, somebody who touched me in so many ways in this world. I was fortunate enough to have a man like that in my life that was able to guide me and show me a nice smooth road in life. He's definitely going to be missed, especially by myself and Edwardo, because he was our mentor. It's something that got taken away from me this summer. Fortunately, he got to see me get married and it was a happy time the weekend before. And then the following weekend was a whole different story.

READ ON...