The pain thriller

Eight women lined up near the staggered starting line to run the 400m, known as the “long sprint” in track circles, an event whose distance is too punishing for many sprinters and whose pace is too swift for many middle-distance runners.

Eight women lined up near the staggered starting line to run the 400m, known as the “long sprint” in track circles, an event whose distance is too punishing for many sprinters and whose pace is too swift for many middle-distance runners. They stretched and shook their limbs behind the starting blocks, the relaxing shimmy before the 50-second explosion. Among them: Sanya Richards-Ross of USA, the 2008 Olympic bronze-medallist; Novlene Williams-Mills of Jamaica, a top talent from a country that produces world-class runners the way Stanford produces computer programmers; and Amantle Montsho, the reigning world champion.

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Montsho, 29, is from a rural village in Botswana, an African country not known for elite athletes. She trains in near isolation in Dakar, Senegal, working to refine her technique in the name of winning races, most important the one at this summer’s Olympics. She is the first female professional athlete in the country, which has not won an Olympic medal in any sport. All the Queen's women

SECRET BEHIND EXCELLENCE
What, exactly, is it that makes a runner like Montsho excel at the 400?

Montsho and her peers come from starkly different backgrounds representing a variety of cultures, personal experiences and training regimens. But once the starting gun was fired at the Prefontaine Classic here in June, they remained in near lock step over 400 metres, separated at the finish line by fractions of a second.

The 400 is “the most unique race,” said Thomas Best, co-director of sports medicine at Ohio State University. “The reason is that you are activating all the energy systems and pathways known to man. Therein lies the real challenge.”

When a runner like Montsho settles into the starting blocks, she looks “like a quadrupedal animal,” said Stephen Simons, director of sports medicine at St Joseph Regional Medical Centre in South Bend, Indiana. “They’re leaned over, hands on the track, butt up in the air,” he said. “The shoulders are over the hands, the elbows aren’t locked. The back is flat, and the lower leg is at a 45° angle.”

With the bang of the gun, the eight women were off. The start is considered a transition, with runners not yet reaching their full speeds until their torsos rise to become perpendicular with the track. Montsho considers herself a slow starter and a strong finisher. That runs counter to many of her competitors, who may have more experience running the 100 and the 200 and struggle for the extra push toward the finish line of the 400.

For months at a training facility in Dakar, Montsho’s coach, Anthony Koffi, had her run starting drills, aimed at shortening her response time.

During one practice, Koffi had his runners line up behind the starting line. He held two pens behind his back. If he held up the yellow one, the runners were to start. If he held up a blue pen and they started, they had to do 20 push-ups.

He held up his hand — with no pens — and a few runners, but not Montsho, jolted forward. She laughed. He held up the yellow pen and she triggered forward. Then he held up both pens at the same time. All the runners sprang forward. “No!” Koffi said. Just the yellow! They all laughed, then retreated to their starting positions. “You must concentrate!” he yelled. “The games help us,” Montsho said.

The Heart of the Race
By the middle 200 metres of the race, runners are upright, their arms and legs churning to propel them. This is usually the part of the race when runners reach their peak speed. Montsho and Richards-Ross appeared to be in the lead.

“You don’t want to feel like you’re working the second 200 metres,” said Ralph Mann, a silver-medallist in the 1972 Munich Games in the 400m hurdles who works as director of USA Track & Field elite sprints and hurdles.

Most runners begin to break down around the 250- to 300-metre mark. Tapping the body’s anaerobic system, which provides power and strength in short bursts, for an extended period causes the release of lactic acid — and an intense feeling of fatigue.

Still, 100 metres remain. By now, some 30 to 45 seconds have passed and many runners feel excruciating pain. The quadriceps are usually the muscles that fail the most during the last 100 metres, but all muscles may feel like they’re failing, too.

“It’s such a crazy race,” said LaShawn Merritt, the reigning Olympic champion in the men’s race.

“A lot of people can’t handle that lactic acid,” Merritt said. “When that lactic acid hits, naturally, your body wants to do something. Naturally, your body wants to rock back, your legs want to flare up, your arms, your body is just in this shock mode and you really have to get in the mental zone and focus.”

Proper fuel can help here. Female sprinters at this level commonly consume 3,000 calories or more on training days, with about 60 per cent coming from carbohydrates, said Liz Applegate, the director of sports nutrition at University of California at Davis.

Montsho says she does not care for the food she is served in Senegal — mostly meats and vegetables over rice. She longs for the sorghum (a grain called jwaar in Hindi) porridge of her home country. “I think I would run better if I ate food from Botswana.”

To overcome the fatigue in the final stretch, some coaches and doctors, instruct runners to let their eyes droop, hoping that if they relax their face, the rest of the body will follow.

“If you look at her face when she finishes, her face is super relaxed,” says Michael Joyner, a physiologist at the Mayo Clinic about Montsho.

Koffi, Montsho’s coach, believes in using humour during practice, often yelping as he cheers runners up the stadium staircases. “They need to laugh,” he said. “They need to relax.”

As for Montsho, she only says, “You have to run with your whole body.”

New York times