Over a cup of coffee in Hanover, New Hampshire, we visited with Ben True, America’s fastest-ever 5k road runner. Fresh off his Diamond League New York City 5k win and World Championships qualifying at the 5k and 10k, he explained why he once left running behind to pursue Nordic skiing, his take on Alan Webb’s transition to triathlon, and his views about the recent drug allegations and cloud hanging over the sport of running. True also doubles up as triathlon star Sarah True’s husband.
Slowtwitch: Tell us about your background as an endurance athlete.
Ben True: I grew up 15 minutes outside of Portland, Maine where the Nordic ski team was where all the cool kids wanted to be. I ran and had success but it was something I did because people said I was good, but I really enjoyed cross country skiing.
ST: Why Dartmouth?
Ben: If a college recruiter called me I had three requirements: it couldn’t be in the city, it had to be Division 1, and they had to allow me to do both skiing and running. Dartmouth was the only school to tick all the boxes.
ST: Did either of the Dartmouth teams want you to stick with one?
Ben: After my freshman year both coaches realized I could handle both. (True finished his college career as a 6-time All-American in Cross Country, 3- time AA in Nordic Skiing and 1 time AA in Track and Field).
ST: What were the challenges competing at both sports?
Ben: Aerobically I could get very fit but it was very different physically. Skiing is very muscular and requires tremendous upper body strength. In the ski season I would get out of the sauna and weigh 180 lbs. During the cross country running season I would be 165 lbs., then bulk up to 185 lbs. through the winter. Then in track season I would drop down to 180 lbs. and continue losing all of the muscle mass through the summer up to the fall cross country.
ST: Did you stop skiing after college?
Ben: My junior year I didn’t want to run anymore. I had one thing I still wanted to accomplish as a runner before hanging up the shoes - break four minutes in the mile. I told myself if I did it my junior year I would be done. There was a 1500 meter race at MIT where I and a guy from Georgetown asked if they could make it a mile instead - and I made it in 3:59:99.
After my junior year I took a semester off and moved out to Sun Valley, Idaho and joined a professional ski club. A teammate of mine who had won NCAAs asked me to move out there and train with him and I proceeded to burn myself out from skiing. By the end of the winter my coach was having me do 15 minute jogs just to get the blood flowing. I came to the realization that running was innately natural to me. Then and there I decided to go back completely to running. After finishing my senior year at Dartmouth I moved out to Oregon and joined the Oregon Track Club.
ST: Does your background in skiing help your running?
Ben: I think so. Running is such an impact sport that breaks your legs down. With skiing I was able to grow my aerobic engine without any impact on my legs. Now I’m 29 but in running years I feel much younger because I have really only had 6 years of training with significant mileage (100 miles a week). Impact wise I am much younger so that will extend my career.
ST: As a top U.S. 5000 meter runner, can you do well in a Worlds or Olympic final?
Ben: There was a long time where Americans weren’t running fast. We ran fast in the 70’s and 80’s then we forgot how to train or something.
Now we’re back running well again and it’s cool to be a part of that. Now I know if I do well here in the U.S. I have a chance to do well globally too. It is also sadly based on the simple fact that Kenyans and Ethiopians aren’t racing the crazy times they used to. A lot of that has to do with increased drug testing.
ST: In light of recent allegations leveled against Alberto Salazar and his Nike Oregon Project runners, what is it like to be an elite runner during this time of increased scrutiny?
Ben: I think doping coming into the public eye is a good thing. The more cleansed it is, the better for the future of the sport. I think it’s good that allegations against the Nike Olympic Project have to come to light. I don’t see anything illegal in what they’ve done but there are things that are crossing the line and violating the spirit of the sport. So far, it looks like they have operated in a way that fits WADA’s rules of the game.
ST: What is to be done?
Ben: WADA needs to reevaluate their doping bans. Guys like Justin Gatlin who have served doping suspensions are back and running even faster now. Studies have shown the body can benefit for decades after the doping occurred. But, by the laws in the book, he served his penalty and is eligible to compete. The bigger aspect is WADA needs to rewrite their code, make lifetime bans, treat offenses more aggressively so athletes aren’t as willing to dope.
I read a study that said with randomized testing, if you take a drug that has a 48 hour window where it can be tested in your system, which most drugs nowadays with micro dosing, it will take nine years for randomized testing for you to be caught for taking that drug. Even if you get caught you can serve your suspension and come back and you’re running the fastest times in the world.
ST: Some examples?
Ben: There is a 1500m runner from Qatar who got busted for EPO as a 20-year old. He served a four-year ban and now he’s back and he has improved. If you look at the biological passport, the parameters they use are so loose because they are fearful of having a clean athlete mistakenly trigger a positive so they’d rather have hundreds of dirties get through.
There was a U.S. athlete born in Morocco, Mo Trafeh, who stuck mostly to road races which have a lesser likelihood of doping control and he cleaned up the prize money. Two years ago he was finally caught as TSA found vials of EPO in his backpack traveling through an airport. He claimed he had never used it. He was given a two year suspension. There needs to be stricter punishment. If you are doping, you are stealing money from other people, and that is a crime. In two years of racing Mo Trafeh, I tallied up I would have earned an additional $40,000 had he not been in the race.
ST: Aren’t there more drug positives?
Ben: WADA just made most suspensions four years versus two years which is a good step but still not enough. The saddest part of the WADA code is they retain the right to negotiate a suspension down to nothing. There is a clause if you provide sufficient information you can have your positive test disappear. That is scary. You could run a world record and keep it because in their code they could negotiate a deal behind the scenes.
ST: Does this all bother you when you are racing?
Ben: You have to forget about all that and focus on the 15 other guys on the line with me and I have to beat them. Otherwise you can psyche yourself out and won’t do well. You have to do what you can to clean up the sport, stay clean myself and campaign USADA and WADA to get the rules changed.
ST: What’s your confidence in testing?
Ben: I don’t have a lot of faith in it. The reality now is sadly, the ones who get caught now are the ones who don’t know what they’re doing, and the ones who have a more sophisticated system will likely never test positive.
ST: Is it hard to give a whereabouts of where you’ll be?
Ben: I don’t think it’s that hard. It’s my job. I know people who are space cadets and for them it’s challenging.
ST: Any extra motivation toeing the line with an athlete with a doping cloud hanging over his head?
Ben: You get a cringe when you toe the line against people who have allegations and huge rumors hanging over them. It is that much sweeter when you beat them.
ST: What is your take on Alan Webb and giving triathlon a go?
Ben: I just saw Alan in Eugene a few weekends ago and he said he thinks he is done with triathlon now. I felt bad for him. His main problem was that everybody saw him as the Alan Webb that could run 3:46 in the mile, 13:10 in the 5k, 27:20 in the 10k. The problem was that wasn’t the Alan who became a triathlete. That Alan was very tired and rundown. I hate to say it but he couldn’t run those times any longer. He was running with the Bowerman Track Club and he was trying for years to get back to the Alan he was, but he couldn’t. The sad thing was he was being held to a standard that was impossible for him when he went to triathlon. The Alan who went into that world was a 13:30 5k guy, 28:30 10k and so I feel bad that he had so much pressure put on him. I don’t think he ever could get back to that. He was able to train well but he was never that super high end athlete he was before.
ST: Is Gwen Jorgensen missing an opportunity by not pursuing a career as an elite runner?
Ben: No. She could be a pro runner but she wouldn’t be world dominant despite currently having the fastest American women’s 10k road time of the year. She is obviously showing she is the world’s best Olympic distance triathlete at the moment. She is playing a perfect hand for the sport she chose. Obviously being the best at something, financially at least, is better than being decent at another sport.
ST: Do you provide input into Sarah’s plan?
Ben: I do when she asks, especially with her run training. The biggest thing is looking at her race tactics. Gwen runs a 10k to close out a triathlon as someone who came from a run background. She runs a fairly even split and gradually accelerates. Most triathletes, including all the males, go insanely fast out of transition and then they burn out. That’s something I’ve been trying to tell Sarah. It’s a 10k. You don’t have to do the first kilometer in 3:15 ‘cause you can’t hold that for 10k. Go out and run a more steady effort the whole way through. That’s a lot smarter and you’ll have something left for a kick. Sarah still likes to go to the front versus tactically sitting in and conserving a bit of energy for late in the race.
ST: Will you do triathlon once your running days are over?
Ben: I’ve never done one. Maybe a super sprint. I could do a duathlon. I am a terrible swimmer but love cycling. Had I known about cycling earlier I could see myself having gone that route. But, at this point, I wouldn’t try a new sport.
ST: Do you enjoy watching triathlon?
Ben: I find the shorter racing more exciting. TV tends to focus on what is more exciting to watch which is why you see ITU being covered. It would help getting America more behind the sport.
