Walking Drama

Just one man in American history had ever made an Olympic team as racewalker, missed out four years later, then came back to make another Olympic team eight years after the previous one.

That was National Track & Field Hall of Famer Ron Laird, out of Peekskill, N.Y., who actually competed in three Olympic Games — Rome 1960, Tokyo 1964, Mexico City 1968, then failed to get to Munich in 1972, but rallied back to make his fourth and final Olympic appearance at Montreal in 1976.

But here were two men — John Nunn and Tim Seaman — battling it out to equal the Laird miss-one, make-one feat, in the USA Track & Field National Championship 50k walk Sunday in the San Diego County ‘burbs.

Both had walked the 20k for USA at Athens in 2004, then fell short in the 2008 Trials. This time the win-or-stay-home stakes were sky-high.

Win it with a performance of four hours and nine minutes — the Olympic “B” standard — or better, and it meant a virtually automatic ticket to the London Games. However, since the Olympic “A” automatic qualifying time of 3:59 or better was simply out of reach of everyone this early in the competitive year, only the winner would get to London. (A nation is allowed up to three athletes in an Olympic event if they all hit “A” marks, but just a single entry with a “B” performance.)

The stage was thus set for high drama.

Twelve athletes had started the race at 7:45 am, long hard months and years of training behind them for this 31.1-mile test that is the longest foot-racing event on the Olympic program — nearly five miles further than the marathon.

Step by step, in the race that meant 40 loops of 1.25k apiece up, down and around a pebbly, rough-grained Mast Avenue loop course, the field whittled itself down to a precious few.

Through some 30k (18.6 miles), there was former Cuban star Erich Cordero, now a proud American citizen; 2011 USA indoor 3,000-meter champion Patrick Stroupe, a dairy farmer out of Armstrong, Mo., and defending National 50k champion Ben Shorey, formerly of Maine, now a Kenosha, Wis. resident, keeping close company with Nunn and Seaman.

But soon it dissolved. First Cordero lost touch, then Stroupe, then Shorey.

And now it was simply mano-a-mano, Nunn and Seaman, Midwest and Northeast products, who’ve both been living and training in the San Diego area for years and years — left to duel it out on virtually home turf.

Nunn surged to his first breakaway around 38k, built a gap of some 75 meters within two laps, only to see Seaman rally right back and build a short-lived lead of his own.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is as good as it gets; it's anybody's race, let's just see who wants it more," announcer — and 50k organizer — Tracy Sundlun said, revving up the spectators, among them USATF Interim Director Mike McNees; last weekend's Olympic Trials marathon winner, Meb Keflezighi; former world triple jump record-holder Willie Banks, and 2004 Olympian Dan Browne, the former West Point star.

Members of the Cuyamaca Community College track and cross country teams Seaman now coaches, too.

And, just as prompted, the gathering lining the finish area — with the help of Santana High School cheerleaders — "put their hands together" and gave these two all the encouragement they needed.

Finally, after over 48k, Nunn dug down into his deepest reserves, somehow found the energy to post a 4:41 final loop — his 40th and fastest of all those circuits —  to win the race in 4:04.38.

"I was dumbfounded the way this race was working out," said Nunn, as the battle raged. "We were like boxers going 12 rounds and exchanging punches. I had no idea how this one was going to turn out.

"It was exciting as it looked. If they're not talking about this race in the next 20 years, something's wrong."

Seaman crossed the line in 4:05:50.

"Very few people believed in me (despite his 43 previous U.S. titles at an array of distances," said Seaman. "But the boys from Cuyamaca were out here today and they really motivated me. I couldn't have done it without them."

These were all-time PR clockings for both Nunn, the 33-year-old U.S. Army World Class Athletes Program staff sergeant originally from Evansville, Ind., and  Seaman, the 39-year-old Wisconsin-Parkside grad and NYAC representative whose Long Island roots stretch all the way back to North Babylon.

Shorey hung on for third in 4:17:40, Stroupe nabbed fourth in 4:19:43, and Cordero claimed fifth in 4:28:04. While just the winner notched the Olympic berth, the top five all qualified for the USA team bound for the IAAF World Cup event in Saransk, Russia, May 11-12.

These top five will also earn respective paychecks of $6,000, $4,000, $3,000, $2,000 and $1,000.

While Nunn and Seaman were duking it out at the front of the pack, sixth-place finisher Erin Taylor-Talcott was earning equally loud rounds of applause.

While Nunn and Seaman were nowhere near either the American 50k record (3:48.04) or the Olympic Trials record (3:56.16), both owned by now-New York lawyer Curt Clausen, Taylor-Talcott was on a record-crushing tear.

After setting USA records at 25k and 35k, the 33-year-old Rutgers grad, who resides in Owego, N.Y., crossed the line in 4:33.22, thus demolishing the American women’s 50k record of 4:39:39 set by Susan Amenta in 2002.

The 50k racewalk remains the only men’s Olympic event without a women’s equivalent, and Taylor-Talcott dreams of that situation changing.

"Sure, it would be wonderful (to see a women’s Olympic 50k), but I don’t really see it happening anytime soon," she said.

Tentative plans for a women's World Championship 50K in 2014 may represent an important first step.  But the 20k racewalk is on the women's Olympic and World Cup schedules and Taylor-Talcott will now shift her focus to that shorter distance.

Four more completed the 31.1-mile challenge: two-time (1992-96) Olympic vet Allen James of Sanborn, N.Y. (4:39:24); Houghton, Mich.'s Ray Sharp (4:41:45); Boardman, Ohio's Michael Mannozzi (4:48.19) and Locust Valley, N.Y.'s Dave McGovern (5:24:18).

For McGovern, who will serve as USA World Cup coach, this was a battle to finish — he had endured major back problems for the past year and a half.  But he still counted it as a win — he's now just one of two men ever to reach seven Olympic Trials finals — hammer thrower Ed Burke is the other.

The race had just two DNFs — both with leg injuries — Shore AC teammates Randy Alvarez and Dave Talcott (Erin's husband). But with three finishers — Shorey, Cordero and Taylor-Talcott, Shore AC was able to claim the unofficial coed team championship.