Community - And Not So

Farah (R) and Rupp

Browsing the Sunday morning Web-versions of the Washington Post, Gazette Times (Corvallis, Oregon) and Oregonian (Portland), I came on a sport editorial about the Great Britain-United States, 1-2 finish, Gold-Silver medals in the London Olympic 10,000 meter race yesterday. We didn't watch the television coverage of the games until last night, so missed the race and was unaware of the history that was made. It was the first time in 48 years that an American had won a medal in the 10-K race, and as it turned out, the first two finishers were products of the Nike-Alberto Salazar training program in Portland.

I watched the race over-and-over on the NBC Website, not only because of the exciting race, but after reading the editorial about how Mo Farah and Galen Rupp worked as team during the race, and seeing the genuine comradery of the two runners after the race at the track, and in a later news conference. In John Canzono's piece in the Oregonian, he pointed out how the runners were no more than five meters apart during the race - the African runners always work closely together. In the later interview, Rupp said in mid-race he saw the Kenyans  making a move, then Farah just tapped him on the shoulder and said, 'Just relax mate, everything's fine, they're going to come back. Play it cool right now and save everything to the finish.' They did, Farah taking the lead in the last lap, Rupp kicking at the end, history made - the Oregon way.

I have known of situations where team mates have worked together in running for good results. Our high school runner son was once carried along through most of the race by the team leader who held back to pace him until towards the end of the three-mile race - he got his best time-to-date with that help. Our youngest son when needing to qualify for a distance time in his Plebe Summer was paced in a similar way by a prior enlisted sailor who was given the opportunity to go Blue-to-Gold and become an officer - our son made the time, and was his friend's best man at the wedding the day after graduation. My running son liked the atmosphere of the distance runners - run for your personal best, it's all encouragement.

All of this is a contrast to the typical competitive atmosphere that seems to infuse most of life otherwise. Friday evening on NPR there was a news report about difficulty with harassment and abuse that occurs in on-line gaming. An article in the Washington Post yesterday highlighted how a former Facebook employee had cashed out some of her stock holding, quit the company, and moved to west Texas and abandoned her Facebook account to make real relationships. Maybe more folks should take up running - the example of Farah and Rupp is exemplary.
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Speaking of not-so-encouraging on-line banter, I came across some comments on a Somali news report about Mo Farah's running (he was born in Somalia, but raised in Britain). Some of this dialog seems like it is out of the movies. Notice how the conversation goes south pretty quickly - just like following blog post comments in the U.S. Regardless, there is great pride in Britain and the Horn of Africa with the success of Mo Farah.

Comments to: 'Kenenisa Bekele main threat to Mo Farah - Haile Gebrselassie' from the Somaliland Press:

Kayse · I am looking forward to this event. Mo Farah is an exciting athlete and a marathon machine. He should move to Australia instead of that freezing old ugly UK.

M. Ali · Now you must have realized that my prediction of Mo winning the 10,000M gold was true !!!!

abdi · Yes 5000m he will win i doubt 10,000m last time he lost to ethiopian.it's difficult to run both events and won The sometime in olympic stage.

M. Ali · Mo Farah will for sure win the Gold in both 5000M and 10,000 M races.


DAROODmadhane · lol you deluded haw!ye scumbag. is your mother high on habashi gus. he is a proud somalilander and was waving the flag arounf. but why do haw!ye want to show off their starving as* to the world. he wasnt born in sh!thole mogadizoo he was born in buro.


Truth · You retarded imbecile!! No wonder why no one likes Is@qs!! Mo Farah is been training for years while the other guys just trained for months! And the girl is a basketball players not a runner idiot!! And yeah Mo farah was Born in Mogadishu and he doesn't support your secession, how about that!!

Truth · No wonder why no one likes Is@qs, even Gadabursi don't want to be part of your secession because of your arrogance and back-stapping manners!