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| Kyle Heffner was a member of the 1980 United States Olympic team in the marathon which did not compete due to President Carter’s decision to boycott the Moscow Olympics. He finished third in the Olympic Trials Marathon behind Tony Sandoval and Benji Durden with a personal best time of 2:10:54, which remains as the fastest ever time for third place at the Trials. Kyle was selected to represent the United States in 1980 at the prestigious Fukuoka Marathon where he finished 11th overall in 2:12:35. He is a two-time winner of the Dallas White Rock Marathon (1979 – 2:14:30 and 1983 – 2:13:48). In his lone Boston Marathon appearance in 1981 he ran 2:12:31 to finish in ninth place. Kyle came out of retirement to place as the first American finisher in the Goodwill Games Marathon, held in Moscow, USSR, in 1986. He is a 1977 graduate of the Texas A and M University where he twice represented the Aggies at the NCAA Cross Country Championships. Kyle graduated from Richardson High School (Texas) in 1973, where highlights included a 4:27 mile and 9:42 2-mile. His personal best times include: 10k – 28:44; half marathon – 1:03:20 and marathon – 2:10:54. Kyle is a respected motivational and inspirational speaker. He is a nationally recognized clinical exercise physiologist, researcher and the founder and president of Lifeskills Consulting, LLC. He resides in McKinney, Texas with his wife, Mary, of 33 years. They have two adult children, Luke, age 30 and Sarah, age 23. Kyle was very kind to spend over two hours on the telephone for this interview. |
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| GCR: | In 1980 you finished in third place in the U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon. Describe the different emotions of qualifying to represent the U.S. in the Moscow Olympics but the disappointment in knowing you wouldn’t be going because of President Jimmy Carter’s decision to boycott the Olympics because of Russian involvement in Afghanistan? |
| KH | I had such mixed feelings about that. First of all I was an underdog and no one expected me to make the team. The only two people in the world that believed I would make the team were my wife and me. It was quite an ordeal to leave my work when I was working for Dr. Kenneth Cooper at the Aerobics Center in Dallas and to move to the mountains in Colorado to train for the Olympic Trials. It was the culmination of about a year and a half of focus. In April we found out we weren’t going to the Games. I was in my car when a radio announcer said that the U.S. Olympic Committee had voted unanimously to go along with the boycott. I had heard that the Committee was going to vote against the boycott and we were going to go to the Olympics, but apparently President Carter said they were running the risk of losing their tax exempt status so they went along with the boycott. |
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| GCR: | How ironic is this when presently the United States has been involved in military operations in Afghanistan for a decade? How unfair and disappointing was the 1980 boycott to you and other top American athletes? |
| KH | The motivations to be in Afghanistan are different as the Russians evidently wanted access to Afghanistan’s natural resources and they weren’t attacked like the United States was. The Russians were saying they were hosting the ‘peaceful Games,’ but they were invading Afghanistan. I think it was a legitimate reason to boycott the Games, but it turned it into a political thing and was very disappointing to many of us. It was bad timing as our distance team was strong, but it was how the world of politics works and then the Russians turned around four years later in 1984 and boycotted the Los Angeles Olympics for no good reason except vengefulness. |
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| GCR: | Was there some hope among the athletes that there could be a diplomatic solution that could possibly send an Olympic team to Moscow or was it a foregone conclusion that the top three would not be going? |
| KH | There was always hope, but it sure didn’t look that way. Most of us decided that it was a big enough honor to make the team and was a noteworthy goal. Instead of the Olympics, our focus was on the Olympic Trials. |
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| GCR: | Let’s talk about the 1980 Olympic Trials Marathon. First, what was your strategy coming into the race as far as tactics and realistically where you thought you could place if you ran a great race? |
| KH | I had watched Tony Sandoval and Jeff Wells at the Nike Marathon in September of 1979 where I was running. I had sort of a crazy strategy and thought I thought I was running conservatively. I was in front of Tony and Jeff for the first 10 kilometers. Then it hit me that I had out-paced myself when they went by comfortably and easily. I realized I blew the pace while they ran a great race, tied for first and ran around a 2:10:20. I struggled running 2:16, but did qualify for the Trials. But I was in 26th place and knew there were at least 24 guys in front of me that I had to beat from September of 1979 to May of 1980. I knew I had to run in the 2:10s to make the team. I had run a personal best and it was a real eye opener as I didn’t know how to pace a marathon. Tony and Jeff knew how to do it right as they were comfortable and ran even splits. It made me realize I didn’t run the race properly. Then I ran White Rock in December and cut another two minutes off of my time. That was my last marathon before the trials. I knew I had to improve a lot so that is why I moved up into the mountains. I did come down once a week to Boulder to run with guys like Frank Shorter, Herb Lindsay and Kirk Pfeffer. |
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| GCR: | How high of altitude was it where you were living and what kind of weekly mileage were you doing? |
| KH | I was living at Estes Park at the YMCA of The Rockies and the cabin we rented was exactly at 8,000 feet to the foot. I was doing ‘high-low’ mileage weeks with one of each as I found I needed a recovery week after a high mileage week. My low week was 105-110 miles and my high week was 140 miles. The highest one week I ever did was 145 miles. Once a week on Wednesday I would go to Frank Shorter’s store and run from there with the guys and we did either fartlek, intervals or a tempo run, though most of the time we did intervals. It was another eye opener to run with these guys. I wanted to be there, rub elbows with them and glean from their knowledge. I was 25 years old at the time and still learning a lot about running. I had good fitness but hadn’t done anything exceptional in terms of race performances and knew I had to keep gaining more fitness. I was about 10th or 15th place at the Midland 10k run which was my last race before the trials – it was a real good tune-up as there were some real horses in that race. |
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| GCR: | Early on Gary Fanelli went out into the lead which he held past 15 miles. Were you feeling comfortable and strong in the chase pack which included Jeff Wells, Tony Sandoval, Ron Tabb, Benji Durden, Randy Thomas and Terry Heath? |
| KH | It was kind of a ‘wait and see’ approach. I had good confidence at about 15 miles and felt like I could run with anyone on that day. I knew some of the guys and felt I just had to see what they did. My only plan was to hang with Tony and Jeff, stay relaxed, stay calm and, if we got to the 24 mile mark together, I was going to lower the hammer. I didn’t have an elaborate strategy except to hang on to the group. I was feeling quite good and thought, ‘I believe I can hang with these guys.’ |
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| GCR: | Benji Durden made a strong move just after 19 miles and built a 75 yard lead in the next three miles. Did you consider going with him or were you trying to figure out how to place in the top three at that point? |
| KH | I thought about it, but I noticed Tony didn’t go with him. I knew Benji was a good runner and it was very possible that he could win, but I didn’t believe he would as Tony wasn’t concerned about it and so I decided I wasn’t concerned either. Also, I had raced runners who made moves like that on me before and they had come back in the final few miles. I thought it wasn’t time for me to go yet. |
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| GCR: | What combination of attrition and moves left just you and Tony Sandoval alone and in pursuit of Benji Durden after 22 miles? |
| KH | I just hung with Tony and we ran side by side. Ron, Jeff, Randy and the others just fell off of the pace. I didn’t see or hear them fall back and there weren’t any moves. |
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| GCR: | Tony Sandoval really dropped the hammer with a sub-4:50 mile to catch Benji Durden in the next mile. What strategy were you implementing as you watched the two of them ahead of you? |
| KH | The race was going very well for met, but I had a crisis moment at about 22 miles. Benji Durden was leading the race and we had run five minute miles the entire way and I kind of got unnerved when he was about 80 yards in front of Tony Sandoval and me who were running side by side. I was pretty much keying off of Tony because I knew he would run a smart race. So when I saw the 22 mile mark it sort of psyched me out because I had run that pace and I still had four more miles to go. I think Tony sensed that and made his move at that point. He threw in at least a 4:45 mile and I could not stay with him. I couldn’t change gears like that and he pulled away from me. That was very difficult to handle but I determined that everything I had worked for was now on the line. I looked at my running as a ministry and I was mentally crying out, ‘Lord, help!’ I knew I was either going to fold and walk off the course or just keep on going. I knew I couldn’t live with myself if I stopped so I decided to just concentrate, stay relaxed and work to not tie up. The feeling that went through me was that I was losing the race as someone had left me behind so quickly. He pulled away immediately and within a mile had a lot of yardage on me. When he caught Benji Durden they continued to increase the gap and at one point someone said they had over a minute on me which was at about 24 miles. So, the big moment in the race happened for me at 22 miles and I had to struggle for two miles to get to the 24 mile mark. I knew psychologically that if I got there I could make it. So it seemed like those two miles took forever. But once I got to 24 miles I knew I could kick from there. |
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| GCR: | In the last two miles of the race what did you do to finish strong and when did you feel that you had a top three finish clinched? Were you also glancing back to see if anyone was gaining on you? |
| KH | Psychologically the 24 mile mark was my trigger point where I knew I could do it and pick up the pace to the finish. Now when I got to 24 miles it didn’t seem like I had anything left so I just leaned forward and tried to get my legs a change of stride. I began to feel a little better as I did that even though it was difficult. I kept feeling better and better the closer I got to the finish. I didn’t glance back. There weren’t many people along the course, but several were saying, ‘You’ve got third!’ Still I was wondering where the fourth guy was. Yet I refused to look back primarily because I didn’t want to give myself an out and to take the pressure off. I really thought Randy Thomas, Ron Tabb and Jeff Wells were on my heels. Toward the end I was less concerned with what was going on behind me as I was accelerating and gaining on Benji pretty fast. I thought, ‘I believe I can actually catch him if I really give it everything.’ Then I thought, ‘Wait a minute – if something fails on me and I don’t finish it will be a problem.’ And so I held back just a little bit. I could tell I kept gaining on Benji, but I didn’t want to lose it all. |
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| GCR: | Even though the runners knew the boycott meant no Olympic Games, how exciting was it to cross the finish line in third place in a personal best time? |
| KH | It was kind of a steep downhill finish right there beside the falls, I knew I had third and I came screaming fast into the finish. Apparently I was faster at the end than Tony or Benji. I saw 2:10 on the clock when I crossed the finish line, so I didn’t know my exact time, but knew it was in the 2:10s. I knew I had PRed. It was kind of a small finish chute and there weren’t that many people around and my wife was at the end of the chute. It was like one of those scenes in a commercial where two people are running in slow motion toward each other. Everything slowed way down and it was very surreal. I remember running and going into a walk toward my wife. I gave her a big hug and kiss. She was so excited and I was so excited. The only thing I could say was, ‘Praise God… Praise the Lord.’ |
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| GCR: | Was your wife able to be out at places along the course or did she know how you were doing during the race? |
| KH | She didn’t know exactly. She had been on the course and the last time was at about 16 miles. At that point I was just starting to feel like I was working. I hadn’t been putting in that much effort and it was just starting to dawn on me the effort I was now exerting. I recall my wife yelling to me, ‘Remember who your strength is!’ It was a saying she had yelled to me at a previous race a year earlier. It had boosted me then and it was really good encouragement again. |
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| GCR: | Despite the boycott, the Trials field was very strong with only Garry Bjorkland, Bill Rodgers and Don Kardong absent out of the top runners. Did their absence taint the top finishers’ placings at all? |
| KH | I didn’t feel like it did. Bill had financial incentives to be at Boston which was fine. As you noted, the field was very, very strong and many excellent runners like Ron Tabb and Jeff Wells didn’t make the team. |
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| GCR: | People can speculate all they want, but that 1980 Olympic Trials Marathon is the only one where the top three all broke 2:11. What does that say about your achievement and how it has stood the test of time? |
| KH | It was one of the fastest fields to ever run at the Trials and I do have the fastest time ever run for third place. It seems that we are in good standing in history. |
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| GCR: | In the more than three decades since that day, how much of a bond has there been between the three qualifiers, Tony Sandoval, Benji Durden and you?’ |
| KH | We weren’t friends before the Trials – we knew of each other, but weren’t friends, per se, though I had always admired their performances. Benji and I have been a bit closer since we ended up going to Moscow in 1986 for the Goodwill Games. Benji and I also hammered each other in races on the roads after the Trials, went on trips together when we were invited to the same races and we went to Japan for the Fukuoka Marathon and the Hochi Simba 25 kilometer road race around 1982. We haven’t had much contact since then, but we have connected periodically as we have been invited to some events and I have been happy to see them both. |
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| GCR: | As an alternative to the Olympics you represented the U.S. at the prestigious Fukuoka Marathon in Japan, finishing 11th in 2:12:35. What are some of your memories of how the race unfolded, how you raced and your experience in Japan? |
| KH | It was grueling race and a grueling schedule beforehand with many interviews. I couldn’t get adequate carbohydrates before the race and ended up crashing and really hitting the wall at 36 kilometers into the race. So I had to shut it down and jog in. We were on 2:09 pace and I couldn’t finish like that as I just ran out of juice. At that time there weren’t gels or other calorie and electrolyte sources along the course. Deke (Rob de Castella) had fallen off the pace and his coach gave him some sort of glucose tablet and it caused a stomach cramp, but once he got some water he felt a surge of energy and passed me to finish eighth or ninth. There was definitely an energy problem on the course. |
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| GCR: | Twice you won the Dallas White Rock Marathon, running 2:14:30 in 1979 and 2:13:48 in 1983. Describe the differences between the first time when you were fairly unknown and the second time when you were one of the top U.S. marathon runners. |
| KH | That’s an interesting point as I hadn’t thought of the comparison that way. In 1979 I was definitely an unknown and wasn’t expected to win. Stan Vernon was one of the key favorites even though he was more of a 10k runner. Steve Floto was also a pre-race favorite to possibly win. I was with the pack and there was a surge around 16 miles that broke it apart and I just couldn’t go with them. But I thought this was my race, to stick to my even pace and just to keep going. And sure enough I caught everyone. I didn’t catch Fred Tornedo until 25 miles which was the first time I had the lead. I put about 20 seconds on him in the last mile. I broke Jeff Wells’ course record and it was the last time the Dallas White Rock Marathon was actually two laps around White Rock Lake. In 1983 there were different circumstances and I suppose I was a favorite in the race. There was a good 10,000 meter runner from Sweden who went to the University of Oklahoma who was a factor. He had a college teammate who took off at five minute pace per mile and I tried to hang on to him. Somewhere between five and ten miles I thought it was just too much and I backed it off. He had a little distance on me and then I saw him along the side of the road where he had stopped past the halfway point. I thought it was weird until I realized that was all he was running. He had pulled me out and I was in front by myself after he dropped. I ran pretty much solo and the guy from Oklahoma finished second. He thought he had won the race as he never saw me. |
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| GCR: | Wasn’t there some controversy in the 1983 Dallas White Rock Marathon about your use of a ‘pacer’ in the second half of the race? And didn’t this influence your adding another marathon to your racing schedule to ensure you had a 1984 Olympic Trials qualifying time? |
| KH | Yes there was a slight controversy as the second place finisher put in a complaint that I had been paced by Ben Mature. I had called the race director the night before and asked permission to have Ben run along with me during the last half if I was out in front by myself. So I got permission and Ben met me at the halfway point and ran alongside of me. I thought it was ironic they were complaining a guy was illegally pacing me when he had his teammate hammer me the first half and give me the impression that he was running the whole way – he was softening me up. Their protestations never amounted to anything, though there was some discussion in the newspapers. That was my qualifying time to get into the 1984 Trials which took about a 2:19. If someone thought it wasn’t fair because of the pacing, it wasn’t like pacing could make that much of a difference between 2:19 and 2:13. The Olympic Committee ended up allowing me to use that time for the 1984 Trials though it made me nervous enough to do another race to get a time just in case. I went out to Los Angeles in January of 1984 and ran the Los Angeles Marathon as a training run. I ran easy and conservatively the first half and ran about 1:09. I thought I’d have to run strong to make the qualifier so I took off and ran pretty vigorous the second half and ended up in the high 2:19s, which technically didn’t make the standard but fortunately I didn’t have to use that time as a qualifier. I did find the Los Angeles Marathon course to be rather challenging and so when they ran the Olympic Games I was impressed by Carlos Lopes winning in such a fast time in the conditions – it was an amazing performance. |
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| GCR: | At the 1981 Boston Marathon you placed a strong ninth in 2:12:31. What was your pre-race strategy, how did that race develop and just how tough was the U.S. marathon scene then? |
| KH | That was the only time I raced at Boston and I didn’t have an idea of what to expect. I was in good shape as I had won a half marathon at altitude in Boulder, Colorado and set a new course record. I was still nursing a sore Achilles tendon a bit. I arrived in Boston four days after my son was born – imagine that – I just slept as I was exhausted from the delivery. I stayed at a hotel across the street from Wellesley College which is about the halfway point of the marathon so I did a training run from there toward the finish. But I had no idea about the first half of the race course. I did not realize there was so much downhill. I was focused on the uphill which was nothing since I was coming from Colorado. I was not impressed with the Newton hills or Heartbreak Hill and thought, ‘This isn’t anything.’ What caught me by surprise was all of the downhill. I rode to the starting line from the guest house with Allison Roe, but I didn’t know who she was. I introduced myself and she didn’t introduce herself so I kind of got the impression that she expected me to know who she was so it was kind of an awkward moment in the car. Eventually she introduced herself and she went on to have a great race. At the start I thought it was weird as we were looking down a hill. I took off and ran in the pack with Bill Rodgers, Ron Tabb, Malcolm East and Toshiheko Seko and we were running pretty conservatively. It felt easy as we came through halfway in 1:05 or 1:06. Of course Gary Fanelli was out in front and may have got a personal best half marathon before he faded and we went by him. Then at 16 miles Greg Meyer , who was running his first Boston Marathon, tried to steal the race and took off. It split the pack and it was a horse race after that. Right before the Newton Hills I couldn’t go with the surges as they were beyond my capabilities. Also, my legs were starting to bother me from the downhill, especially the long run before the Newton hills. My legs felt really bad as I hadn’t felt that before. When I got to the uphills my legs did feel better. Sure enough when I got to the other side of the hills and tried to run fast on the downhills into town my legs were trying to cramp up on me. No matter what I did I couldn’t run the downhills and runners went by me. A runner from Finland passed me and then my old high school teammate, John, Lodwick, went by. He patted me on the back as he went by to give me encouragement. I felt like I was jogging toward the finish but I still did end up passing Greg Meyer to end up ninth. My time was good, but I felt like I had crashed and burned. Greg learned a lot and came back to win two years later. |
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| GCR: | What were some of the main factors influencing your training as you got ready for the 1984 Olympic Trials Marathon? |
| KH | My main problem was that I came down with viral pneumonia after the January, 1984 Los Angeles Marathon. I may have caught it from my son who was three years old at the time. I just got weaker and weaker and weaker. I couldn’t run. I was trying to recover as the Trials were a bit later than usual. |
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| GCR: | Describe your race at the 1984 Olympic Trials which was obviously a tough effort due to your illness and inability to train at a high level. |
| KH | It was the same course I had run four years before and when I got into the race I felt okay and knew I had been in good shape because I had run the 2:13:48 at White Rock, but I just didn’t have my strength. It is a weird illness as they can’t do much – the docs did give me antibiotics, but that didn’t help me with the virus. I ended up running 2:18 something and finished about 22nd. I remember kicking in past Gary Fanelli and thinking there wasn’t any way he was going to beat me – so I was a bit competitive at the end and had a good kick left but couldn’t draw the effort out of myself during the bulk of the race. I started off easy and slowed down. I tried to focus on the Trials, but unfortunately I just couldn’t run the way I had hoped to. |
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| GCR: | Your last competitive marathon before you decided to retire was the 1984 New York City Marathon. It ended up not going too well though, didn’t it? |
| KH | Again I had taken a leave of absence from work to gear up for the Trials and so I thought maybe I could get ready to race well at New York City in the fall. I ended up with a terrible sinus infection at New York City and ran awful – about 2:40 and felt terrible as I was really sick. After that race I decided to retire. I had made a good run at the marathon and had illnesses that had knocked me down. I decided I was as it was putting too much stress on my family. |
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| GCR: | Speaking of stress, didn’t you incur some severe dehydration issues at the 1982 Bank One Marathon? |
| KH | The 1982 Bank One Marathon was about a month after I had torn a medial hamstring attachment in a workout on a football field. It got progressively worse and worse and I could only jog three or four miles before the pain was too much. I could do some cross country skiing for cross training but not much running. In the Bank One Marathon I was running along with Bill Rodgers in about sixth place and started getting tunnel vision late in the race because I was so dehydrated. At 22 miles I collapsed and the last thing I remember is looking down a tunnel on the street and giving everything I could. I recall Bill Rodgers’ face in my line of vision and him saying, ‘Take it easy Kyle – it’s just a race.’ I think he may have helped me, but the next thing I remember is waking up with paramedics all around me. One took my blood pressure and it was 80 over 60. I looked up while another paramedic was putting an I.V. in my other arm and I said, ‘Man, I’m hypotensive!’ The guy looked shocked as he was probably surprised at my correct description. They put me in the back of the ambulance and I felt really awful. We took off toward the E.R. with the siren going and I thought, ‘This must be the end!’ I really thought I was going to die. It was like I was on a television show with the lights as I was wheeled into the hospital. Then suddenly my wife appeared and said, ‘What did you do to yourself?’ I started feeling much better after the I.V. kicked in. I even wanted to get back out on the course and finish, but it was too late. Then I decided to run the NYC Marathon which was only three weeks later as I was starting to feel better and I planned to run very conservative at New York. I hadn’t run the New York City Marathon before and I ended up around 2:17 and finished around 25th or 30th place. I was passing people toward the end so I surprised myself that I had run so well. |
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| GCR: | You came out of retirement to place as the first American at the Goodwill Games Marathon in 1986 in Moscow. How did that come about and what are top memories of your trip to Russia and the race? |
| KH | In 1985 I wasn’t doing much running – just some maintenance running of around 25 miles per week. I got a call from Creed Kelly who was on the Long Distance Running Committee who told me about the Goodwill Games coming up in 1986 in Moscow. He mentioned that there wasn’t a process to select the marathon team and that they wanted to offer the team spots to the three of us who didn’t get to go to Moscow in 1980. Benji Durden and I took him up on it. Tony Sandoval was in med school and opted out. The next alternate was Ron Tabb who was fourth in the 1980 Trials and Ron went with us. It was an awesome trip and we were really pumped to go on the trip. I believe Ron was living in Eugene, Oregon and Benji was living in Boulder, Colorado so neither was heat acclimatized. I was still in Dallas, Texas where it was warm. I had a limited time to train as I was working full time at a hospital, I was a conditioning consultant with the Dallas Cowboys and my wife was on bed rest for nine weeks with premature labor in advance of our second child. I didn’t even do my last scheduled long run because we were concerned that my wife could go into labor while I was out for a lengthy time. This is well before today’s era of widespread cell phone use. I was hopeful that Sarah would be born before I left and she was about a week before I left for Moscow. When I made it to Moscow I was very tired due the many changes in time zones. It was hard to sleep as our bodies wanted to sleep during the day and be up at night. We did drag around Red Square and saw some sights. The Games were a bit disorganized as we couldn’t even tour the course before the race. We were sitting in a bus getting ready to drive the route and then the bus driver didn’t have authorization. I found out the night before the race that my new born daughter was at a children’s medical center for treatment of apnea as she had stopped breathing. Communication was definitely a problem as I couldn’t just pick up the phone and call my wife. When the Dallas newspaper staff helped me finally get in contact with my wife she just asked me to come home as soon as I could. That summer was also busy because we moved from one town to another. I remember thinking, ‘If I live through these months I can do anything.’ We started the race on August first at 5:00 in the afternoon right next to a river so it was hot and humid. I knew it would be grueling. I wore sunglasses and a hat to deal with the heat. I ran pretty conservative and runners were just dropping like flies. Benji dropped out after only about 16 kilometers and Ron dropped out a bit after that. I was the only American competitor to finish as I ran a 2:24 for 32nd place. An Ethiopian won in 2:14, so you know it was hot if an Ethiopian could only run that fast. It was the Olympic marathon course and ran through places like Gorky Park. It was a good course and a fast course. We finished in Lenin Stadium as it was getting dark. Apparently Ted Turner, who was hosting the Games, was in the stands and saw me coming in with my USA shirt and remarked, ‘There’s one hurting puppy!’ He was right as I spent the next two or three hours lying on my back in the medical area. I was totally dehydrated and out of it. Then ran EKGs on me and then I finally got back to the hotel and got in a warm bath to nurse my blisters. Now it was past midnight and I had to get up at 3:00 a.m. to catch a cab to get to the airport for my flight. So I only had a few hours of sleep before my long trip home. I really enjoyed the Russian people and getting exposed to their culture. I was impressed and mesmerized by their values and I came away with a lot of respect for them. It was a totally different world as some of the buildings were very old. |
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| GCR: | Isn’t there a funny story about your impromptu participation in a wreath-laying ceremony at Lenin’s tomb? |
| KH | I was standing in line with athletes and citizens to tour Lenin’s mausoleum where his body was on display under glass since the 1920s. They were having a wreath laying ceremony and wanted some athletes from Russia and the United States to participate. I was wearing my USA Goodwill Games warm-up top so they asked me to volunteer to join along with a fairly petite lady from Kansas who was a javelin thrower on our team who happened to also be in line. The two participating Russian athletes were weightlifters who were two of the biggest athletes I had ever seen. As we held this five foot diameter wreath, here was a scrawny distance runner and a small female from the U.S. opposite these two huge Russians. Laughter went through the press and the crowd as it must have looked like it was stacked against us in favor of the big, strapping Russian athletes. Our participation in the ceremony was spontaneous but it looked so staged. We all were laughing as it was funny. |
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| GCR: | Let’s go back to when you got started running in high school where your best times were a 4:27 mile and 9:42 2-mile. How did you get started and what was your training like in terms of mileage and intense training sessions? |
| KH | I started running when I was about six years old as my older brother, John Heffner, inspired me to run. He’s eight years older than me and when he was 17 years old he broke the national record for six miles on the track. I was tagging along with my older brother trying to do what he did. I ran around the neighborhood and continued off and on through elementary school and junior high. I tried to do some pole vaulting in junior high which was unsuccessful. In high school I got serious about cross country and led the Richardson High School team until John Lodwick showed up. He was a basketball player and was a year older than me. When he didn’t make the basketball cut he came out for cross country and immediately started leading the team as he was a naturally gifted runner. When he graduated I was a junior so I became the leader of the team. I liked cross country and was probably running around 45 to 50 miles a week as a high school sophomore and eventually got up closer to 80 or 90 miles a week my last year in high school. We did some hard track sessions like 440s and 220s – mainly quarters, rarely did we do 880s. |
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| GCR: | How did your high school coaches influence you during your early forays into training and competition? |
| KH | Our coach, James Blackwood, coached me my first three years. Coach Blackwood was inspirational, a good guy and entertaining. He encouraged me to keep it going. Then my senior year a football coach, Nolan Broly, took over and I didn’t agree with his training methods. So I tried to run a lot on my own. Coach Broly was saying things like, ‘That Heffner will never be a college runner.’ I decided to focus on my education and to go to Texas A and M, though I still wanted to get a scholarship. My senior year I ended up running well in cross country and not so well in track. They held the scholarship out in front of me as a carrot but it wasn’t awarded to me. |
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| GCR: | How did you decide to run your first marathon while still in high school and how did that race go? |
| KH | A friend of mine had said, ‘You should come and run a marathon,’ and I said, ‘What’s that?’ He said this Saturday they are having a race around White Rock Lake. It was in 1971 and was the first White Rock Marathon. I decided to go and run it and ended up running and walking and getting exhausted because I didn’t know how long it was and had never experienced running a distance that long. I ended up running three hours and 26 minutes which was in the middle of the pack. I thought I was in last place and was just moving along trying not to be last. The longest I had ever run before that was somewhere between 12 and 15 miles. |
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| GCR: | You went to Texas A and M where in cross country you had unimpressive places of 220th and 171st at NCAAs. Were you focusing to do your best in college and did your training increase much from high school? |
| KH | I was a recruited walk on runner. During my junior year I ran the Dallas White Rock Marathon and finished fourth in 2:23. The course record was 2:15:11 so I thought I could make the Olympic Trials qualifying standard if I trained for it since I ran that 2:23 off of cross country training. I kind of got the hint when I ran so well that if I really training for the marathon that I could do well. I didn’t really shine in track or cross country, though my senior year when I had a break through workout in the fall of 1976 that was an eye opener for the distance coach, Ted Nelson, and me. In track they stuck me in the three-mile and that is almost all that I ran. I ran the outdoor mile and steeplechase only one time each in my four years and ran around 4:21 and 9:17. In my only steeplechase I got second place. I think it was a little short-sighted of the coach to have me only racing one event basically for the entire four years. I did break the school 3-mle record with a 14:07 and a week later my teammate broke it so I had the school record for one whole week! My senior year I got knocked down in an indoor mile race and still finished with sore ribs in 4:26. So then I was injured and when I finally recovered it was close to our conference meet but our coach didn’t have me race at the Southwest Conference meet. We had a limited number of allowed entries and he thought a long jumper would place higher in his event than me in the 3-mile. It was discouraging and even more so when the long jumper ended up scratching so neither of us competed. That coach my senior year didn’t have much of a positive influence – it just made me angry and my brother was even angrier for me. But it made me want to run on my own in graduate school which I did. In grad school I also trained with the North Texas cross country team coached by John MacKenzie. |
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| GCR: | What changed in your training when you graduated from college that caused such a great improvement from 1977 to 1979 when you ran 2:14:30 to win the Dallas White Rock Marathon and then in the next half year before your 2:10:54 at the 1980 Olympic Trials? |
| KH | My senior year at Texas A and M I hit 100 miles some weeks in training which was a real struggle but I tolerated I but it felt awfully high,. In December of 1978 I was in graduate school and was burned out from schooling as I had pushed really hard. I got a job offer from the Aerobics Center in Dallas and I thought I really wanted to train to try and make the 1980 Olympic team. My wife and I agreed that I couldn’t train, go to school and work so I dropped my schooling and focused on training and working. I had done most of my class work and was working on my thesis. I started working for Kenneth Cooper and upping my mileage. I ran twice a day most of the time and was running 120 miles a week with a high of 130 miles in 1979. I was feeling well but wasn’t racing exceptional. I knew I was in pretty good shape and knew I had to run much better to run 2:10 and contend for the team. I focused on the Nike marathon in Eugene in September of 1979 and ran 2:18:16 for 26th place. I wasn’t at the performance level where I needed to be. I was concentrating on volume and decided ramping up the volume I got better. Then I set a goal that in the next two months I had to be ready to run a 2:16 at White Rock in December to be on track. I announced to Kenneth Cooper at the awards ceremony that I was moving to the mountains for training. Dr. Cooper had been introducing me as ‘an Olympic hopeful,’ when people toured his facility. My wife and I left our employment and moved to the Colorado mountains. Arrowhead Mills sponsored us with food as they had a warehouse in Denver where we got loaded up with natural foods. We rented a cabin at the YMCA of the Rockies for a couple of months. I ramped up my mileage even though I was running in the high country which wasn’t easy. I was coated in ice sometimes. I ran between Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park from 8,000 feet up to 10,000 feet as I put in more miles and more miles. I did 24 to 25 mile long runs on the weekends and was just grinding it out. I was feeling better but didn’t have a way to measure my improvement. I ran a few races and felt stronger. When I came down for the Trials the 4:55 to 5:00 pace I needed to run felt comfortable at sea level. |
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| GCR: | With your bachelor’s degree in kinesiology, master’s degree in exercise physiology and many years of experience, what would you do differently if you could go back in time to your prime racing years armed with this knowledge? |
| KH | It worked out well for me though there are a few training techniques and nutritional adjustments I would make that could have helped me perform better. If I had done more tempo runs that were geared specifically toward the marathon it would have helped my efficiency as I didn’t do the long tempo runs. Some more speed work could have helped. I was on a totally organic diet of about 3,500 calories per day but wasn’t taking any supplements. Antioxidants would have helped my body to deal with the stress of training. We didn’t have gels back then and I’m pretty big for a marathon runner at five feet ten and my racing weight of 147 pounds. Tony Sandoval was shorter and only weighed about 112 pounds. I looked like a football player next to him. |
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| GCR: | Let’s get your opinion on a number of training elements based on your academic expertise combined with your personal knowledge as an athlete and from coaching others. What range of mileage is typically appropriate for an average high school and college distance runner and most effective for a top professional runner when building his endurance? |
| KH | A high school runner should be careful because of orthopedic stress and shouldn’t think about running 100 miles weeks as bones are developing. Running too much, too hard and too fast all cause stress. Probably between 60 and 90 miles a week is the top end for an older high school runner. In college a distance runner can run 80 to 100 miles a week in the base period and for some 120 miles a week would be okay. Some people tolerate it better than others. |
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| GCR: | How important is running on soft surfaces and what mix of soft surface running and road running should be implemented for high school and college track and cross country runners and adults training for road races? |
| KH | The surface is important but is less important than the mechanics of how a runner actually runs. A heel striker can transfer a lot of force compared to a mid-foot runner like Bill Rodgers or Frank Shorter who were light on their feet and didn’t transfer a lot of force to their joints. I personally like soft surfaces and running on grass, trails or mulch – anything but pavement. I gravitate to soft surfaces. It is safer and I handle rough surfaces fine though some people have problems when it alters their mechanics. But I prefer it as it lessens the shock and the strain. |
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| GCR: | Many marathon runners tend to focus their intense days on endurance sessions such as lengthy tempo runs and long repeats on the track. What is their relative importance versus shorter intervals of 400 meters or less to maintain leg turnover? |
| KH | There is a place for both. One of the problems when I trained at altitude was that it slowed me down. So every morning I did ‘build ups’ on a slight downhill at the end of my four mile run to get some turnover as much of my running on up hills was at 9:00 mile pace versus 6:30 pace on the downhill side. |
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| GCR: | I know you are a proponent of many types of hill training. Can you discuss the uses of uphill, downhill and bounding and implementing them for maximum effect in one’s training regimen? |
| KH | I became a believer in mountain and hill running after living in Colorado and training there for a long time. There is a strength factor that affects your legs. There is a downside in that it slows your leg turnover and your speed. So if you can do it in a season where you don’t need speed and like in a Lydiard cycle where you are focusing on distance and hills it can be an important part of your training. I think it is helpful. In my case, since racing a marathon is at a slow enough pace, it helped me to gain strength for the marathon. I think the terrain of running on hills in the mountains benefitted me more than the altitude. Running drills are good as they round out the coordination process and rhythm. I believe rhythm is crucial in terms of that is where maintaining tempo comes in. Hill scan be overdone, but when you live in a hilly area like when I was in the Rocky Mountain National Park you don’t have a choice. You are running on slopes regardless of where you are so you get accustomed to them. It took me about a month to get used to the 8,000 foot altitude but maybe two months to get used to the terrain where I felt like I wasn’t just grinding up the mountain. Eventually I had the strength to tolerate long grades of uphill running that could last for ten miles. I’d run up the long mountain trail, turn around and run back down. |
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| GCR: | For much of the year endurance athletes face dehydration as ‘enemy number one.’ What do you suggest during training and racing as far as including water, electrolytes and carbohydrates to minimize the effects of dehydration? |
| KH | People do have to have a basic knowledge of the effects of dehydration and how it happens. One of the problems is that when people are acclimatizing to heat they are losing fluids much faster than they think they are. They run into trouble as they lose so much efficiency when they are dehydrated. Their VO2 maximum decreases, they overheat, they lose more fluids and it becomes a vicious cycle. I think a dilute electrolyte drink is good and that sweet drinks should be avoided. Drinks need to be isotonic and a bit cool so the body can absorb it. As an aside, one time I roomed with Bill Gookin, before the January, 1984 Los Angeles Marathon, who was the inventor of Gookinade. He told me the story of how he had formulated his own drink based on his own sweat since he was a chemist. He put the drink in bottles along the course and was running next to a guy who grabbed his fluid bottle. Bill asked what he was drinking and the reply was, ‘Gatorade.’ He asked what Bill was drinking and Bill said, ‘Gookinade.’ He hadn’t named it until that point. |
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| GCR: | I’m interested in the ‘Rule of 152’ that Dr. Robert Patton taught you in his graduate studies at North Texas State University which notes that when the air temperature and humidity added together top 152, athletes should be cautious. During my summer running in central Florida, for example, every morning the temperature is a minimum of 75 degrees with a relative humidity of 95% or more so we face at least a sum of 170 each day. What can we do when this is the case for five or six months straight? |
| KH | That was an interesting statement that my professor made and I don’t know how much data there was to back up his rule. It did stick in my mind though now I believe that following the dew point is a very good way to know if the heat stress will be high. Chronic dehydration is an issue people don’t address or talk about much. I work with patients that have a problem along that line who get blackouts. One of their problems is they repeatedly get dehydrated because they don’t have enough salt in their diet so they are not retaining fluids. We prescribe salt tablets to prevent these symptoms. We see this in people who have the combination of not drinking proper amounts of water or including appropriate salt in their diet. But back to the question, when the dew point is high, runners should slow down, hydrate often and run shorter distances. |
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| GCR: | You founded Lifeskills Consulting and provide services in areas including health coaching and corporate wellness. How rewarding is it to help many to be healthier and to feel better and is the demand growing for these type of services? |
| KH | There is a growing demand for these types of services. I’ve worked in cardiac rehabilitation for a number of years and it is very rewarding work. My patients have had either a heart attack or bypass surgery and they come in as outpatients needing education, encouragement and help with their fear of dying. They also need help with nutrition, stress management, exercise and someone to talk them and walk them through it. It is rewarding to see the dramatic changes in people. I’m doing more corporate wellness now which deals more with prevention as there is an increased interest by companies as they realize that healthy employees are less expensive as health care costs don’t get out of line. More companies are encouraging their employees to take initiative in taking care of themselves. Also we have an aging population that is more health conscious. |
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| GCR: | What is your current for health and fitness program and what are your future goals in this area? |
| KH | I found out that as a former Olympian I’m eligible this time to run in the 2012 Olympic Trials in Houston. I thought, ‘Hey, I’m 57 years old but maybe I can run an age best performance.’ The best for my age in the U.S. is 2:33 so if I could break that or even go under 2:40 that would be something. This summer I ran as much as 84 miles in a week before I came down with an inflamed S.I. joint. So I’ve been taking it a bit easy and taking some anti-inflammatory medicine. I was on track and feeling pretty good but the jury is still out on what kind of condition I can get into. I am entered in a 20-mile race so I’ll see what I can do in that. I was going to shoot for about six minutes a mile, but that may be unrealistic. I will go to the Trials even if I’m not in fast shape. |
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| GCR: | Is there any advice you would give to children and adults who wish to succeed in running or other sports? |
| KH | They have to make it fun and keep it fun. If it becomes a real drudgery they will stop doing it. Human nature will find a way to get out of it. Assuming parents aren’t pushing kids into running like the ‘Little League Syndrome’ where they are constantly on the kids’ backs about running - it has to come from within. A kid has to want to run and have that motivation from within. Running is a very individualized sport and they have to have that intrinsic motivation. Many people need to be inspired to run by someone they look up to or an athlete or in some way where there is a motivational person. We tend to move in a way where we are inspired and toward something where we can be successful. We also need to realize that we need to work on our weak points. Most of us don’t help our weaknesses; we tend to work on our strengths like the guy at the gym that is good at the bench press who works on it every day. |
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| GCR: | What excites you about the future in your career, personal life and the ‘golden years?’ |
| KH | Professionally I am excited about some opportunities working in the area of corporate wellness. Two days a week I work at the Heart Beat clinic doing some excellent patient care and some fascination research. I’ve always enjoyed research and am interested in learning more. If I had the opportunity to go to a natural medical school I would be interested. I have a bias toward natural medicine even though I work in conventional medicine. My wife is a heart patient and we’ve done some things outside of the usual in her treatment so it’s opened my eyes. I’m actively coaching two runners and I like to have a few runners to work with. |
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| GCR: | Are there any major lessons you have learned during your life from working to achieve academically and athletically, the discipline of running, your racing success, and coping with adversity that you would like to share with my readers? |
| KH | In my life I have learned that it is important to have faith, goals, health and passion. I’m a believer and a Christian with a strong faith so we depend on what the Lord does for us. We are active in our church and always turn to the Lord for help. At times when we don’t understand why certain circumstances occur, we need that encouragement. We also have many friends who we have fellowship with and we have found that we shouldn’t be afraid to ask others for help in understanding or getting encouragement. If people are discouraged, they won’t accomplish their goals. Setting goals is important, deciding what you want to work toward and then mapping out objectives to achieve those goals. For example, when I sit down and talk with runners whom I coach, the first topic we discuss is their goals and what they want to achieve. Then we map a path to it by working backwards on the calendar so we can get there. That is basically what I did to make the Olympic team. I mapped it all out on my calendar for each day the last year leading up to the Trials. I had the miles planned out and occasionally had to adjust but I followed the plan as there is no substitute for planning. If you really want to be successful you must write your goals down and figure out what you must do to achieve them. Health is very important as so many people neglect their health for various reasons and people don’t realize that life is a marathon – it’s not a sprint and we do need to manage ourselves for the long run so we can enjoy life and not burn out. Too many people are on burn out schedules. It is important to take time for your family and friends, to celebrate life and enjoy life. Our lives shouldn’t be all work, but the work we do should be enjoyable. We should follow our passion and focus on what we really like to do. When I was a sophomore in college I walked into the Human Performance Lab at Texas A and M and knew right away that was what I wanted to do. I was floundering at the time, volunteered to be in a study and found out that I wanted to be in exercise physiology. It became work that I am passionate about. |
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| | Inside Stuff |
| Hobbies/Interests | I like playing musical instruments like the piano or guitar, though I don’t play too often. I used to do some wood working. I live in a 100 year old house which needs periodic work so a hobby is doing whatever reconstruction is needed. The home is nonstandard so everything from electrical, to carpentry to plumbing keeps me busy refinishing this old house |
| Nicknames | There isn’t one widespread nickname of which I’m aware. I did have one nickname from a guy in high school because I always ate slowly at lunch. So he called me ‘slow eater’ all of the time. I had an uncle who passed away earlier this year who was a big track and field fan and he used to call me ‘Rusty.’ The reason was that when I was a young kid my dad, uncle and I used to watch my older brother race in track meets. There was a high school sprinter named Rusty who was pretty successful and he had an unusual running style where it looked like he was reaching out into the air and grabbing it. I used to imitate that style and show my uncle that I could so he started calling me ‘Rusty.’ For my uncle the name stuck and he called me ‘Rusty’ from then on |
| Favorite movies | I really like comedies. My wife and I like to sit back and watch slapstick comedies – everything from the old ‘Pink Panther’ series with Peter Sellers to ‘Galaxy Quest’ to spoofs on Sci-Fi movies. There are a couple of major movies like ‘Gladiator’ and ‘Chariots of Fire’ that are hugely inspirational to me – especially ‘Chariots of Fire’ as I was coming off of an injury and getting ready to compete in Japan when I first saw it |
| Favorite TV shows | As a child Walt Disney was inspirational to me and I relished watching Walt Disney as more of a family event on Sunday evening. As a kid growing up in the 1960s it was ‘Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color,’ but we didn’t have a color television so for us it was a monochromatic viewing |
| Favorite music | Classical music has always been important to me, but I have broad interest in music from Country to Rock to Pop. My primary category of music I listen to is Contemporary Christian |
| Favorite books | The Bible is my favorite book. After that, Bill Bryson is my favorite author as his books are entertaining and there is a comic side to them. Two I like are ‘In a Sunburned Country’ and ‘A Walk in the Woods’ |
| First cars | The first car I learned to drive was a 1967 Volkswagen which was my dad’s work car that I puttered around in a bit. My dad ended up giving me a 1963 Oldsmobile 88 when I went to college |
| Current car | Chevy Impala. I’m pretty conservative – no sports cars! |
| First Job | I remember applying for a bunch of jobs when I was in high school and not really landing any that come to mind. I did sell books with the Southwest Publishing Company when I was a sophomore in college. It was crazy – I ended up earning a net of $1,200 dollars that summer working 80 hours per week so it was about 50 cents an hour when you took out my gas and broke it all down. It was in Plant City, Florida working door-to-door. It was murder and is an experience I would never want to do again! My first professional job was when I worked for Kenneth Cooper at the Aerobics Center when I was in graduate school |
| Family | My wife, Mary, and I have been married for 33 years. I have a 30 year old son, Luke, and 23 year old daughter, Sarah. Luke is living at home after going through a divorce. He is an old fashioned blacksmith who makes knives, swords and all sorts of small tools. He has just enlisted in the army. My daughter is a licensed cosmetologist at an exclusive salon in Dallas. My older brother John still runs. My parents are both still living and doing well |
| Pets | We have two indoor cats and a collie |
| Favorite breakfast | Waffles |
| Favorite meal | A good quality steak |
| Favorite beverages | I like a good Shiraz wine. Occasionally I like to drink a good ale or honey brown beer as I tend to like a darker beer |
| First running memory | Waking my brother up on Saturday mornings when I was about six years old so he could time me in running around the block on our half mile loop. Often we would run two loops for a mile. I’d want to beat the neighborhood kids so at times we would organize a race |
| Running heroes | When I was younger it was only my brother. In 1972 Frank Shorter inspired me when he won the Gold Medal in the Olympic marathon. Jeff Wells inspired me with his great performances |
| Greatest running moment | It was coming in third place in my personal best marathon time at the 1980 Olympic Trials |
| Worst running moment | The Bank One Marathon where I got severely dehydrated, didn’t finish and ended up in the hospital emergency room |
| Childhood dreams | I always aspired to be an athlete of some kind |
| Funny memories | There were many when I was out running with my high school buddies in the woods and we would do crazy stuff. One time we found a rope swing in the woods across a creek. John Lodwick and a couple other teammates and I were taking turns running, jumping on to the rope and swinging across the creek. One of my friends decided that we should have a contest to see who could swing the farthest and he volunteered to hold the rope for John. Now John was such a humble and trusting soul that he believed the guy would actually hold the rope. My friend pulled the rope at the last moment and John ran into the creek. Another time I was running with a friend in college and we ran through a very muddy pasture where the cattle had been making a real mess. It was about 20 feet across and we had to sort of long jump the worst part of it. My friend, Richard, wasn’t too coordinated and he backed up, ran and ran and ran and kept on running without jumping. He lost both shoes in the mud. |
| Embarrassing moment | I was working for a medical center that had a women’s style fashion show in which I had to participate. So I had to dress up in makeup, a wig and a dress and go out on stage in a beauty pageant format |
| Favorite places to travel | I enjoy getting out into the mountains and experiencing the outdoors which I don’t get to do now too often. In terms of foreign travel I have enjoyed travelling to Europe, South America and Japan. I would like to visit Scotland and New Zealand |
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