Alberto Salazar
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Alberto Salazar (born August 7, 1958 in Cuba) is an American marathon runner of the 1980s. Born in Cuba, Salazar emigrated to the United States with his family. They ultimately moved to Wayland, Massachusetts, where Salazar competed in track and field in high school. Salazar is best known for his performances in the New York City Marathons in the early 1980s and his American track records of 13:11.93 for 5,000 m (July 6, 1982 - Stockholm) and 27:25.61 for 10,000 m - (June 26, 1982 - Oslo)
From 1980 through 1982, Salazar won three consecutive New York City Marathons. His first-ever marathon, the 1980 New York City race, resulted in a 2:09:41 win, the fastest American debut and the second-fastest time ever recorded by a U.S. runner (behind Bill Rodgers' 2:09:27 at Boston in 1979). In 1981, Salazar set an apparent world record at the New York City Marathon of 2:08:13, surpassing the 12-year-old mark of 2:08:33 set by Australian Derek Clayton in 1969 in Antwerp, Belgium. However, the course was found on remeasurement to be about 148 meters, or about 27 seconds, short of the 26-mile, 385-yard (42.195 km) distance.
In 1982 he won his first and only Boston Marathon after the famous "Duel in the Sun" with Dick Beardsley. Salazar won the race in an exciting sprint finish and collapsed at the end before being taken to an emergency room and given 6 liters of water intraveneously because he had not drunk during the race. This and other noteworthy performances such as the 1978 Falmouth, Mass., road race, where after finishing 10th in 33:04, he collapsed at the finish with a temperature of 107 degrees Fahrenheit (41.7 °C) and was read his last rites prematurely, earned him the nickname Alberto "All that is Man" Salazar. (In college such tenacity earned him the nickname "The mule".) Salazar ended the year ranked #1 in the world in the marathon by Track & Field News magazine for his wins in Boston and New York, #1 in the their North American Road Rankings for his American 10K road record win of 28:04 at the Orange Bowl 10K and his course record of 31:36 at the highly competitive Falmouth 7.1 mile road race, #8 in the world (and #1 American with an AR of 13:11.93) in the 5,000 meters, and #2 in the world in the 10,000 meters (with an AR of 27:25.61).
Salazar enjoyed success in cross country competition, earning several All American honors in collegiate and postcollegiate national championships. He won the 1978 NCAA national cross country championship in cold, snowy conditions, handing Track & Field News Athlete of the Year Henry Rono one of his few losses of the year. He was also the U.S. national cross country champion in 1979 and fared well at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships, finishing second in 1982 and fourth in 1983.
In addition to a fourth place finish (only one second behind the top three placers) at the 1983 world cross country championships, Salazar twice broke the American 10K road record in 1983 with efforts of 28:02 and 28:01 at the Americas 10K and Cont H 10K respectively. He finished as the top ranker in Track & Field News magazine's North American Road Rankings for 1983. He was also the 10,000 meter national track champion in 1983, pulling away from Craig Virgin in the last straightaway at the U.S. championships in Indiana in June to win his second such title (the first coming in 1981). However, he finished last in the 10,000 meters at the World Track & Field Championships while suffering from bronchitis and was beaten for the first time in the marathon, finishing fifth at the Rotterdam marathon in April (2:10:08) and then fifth again at Fukuoka in December (2:09:21). (The latter time would have been the American Record for the next seventeen years except that there was a problem in filing the paperwork with the authorities.)
In 1984, Salazar was a member of the United States' Olympic Marathon Team, along with Pete Pfitzinger and John Tuttle, and was considered a favorite to win or medal, but finished a disappointing fifteenth in 2:14:19 under the hot Los Angeles sun. After several years of inactivity, in 1994 Salazar won the prestigious 90 km (56 mile) Comrades Marathon. Salazar stated that Fluoxetine (Prozac) played a role in motivating him to succeed in professional running again; the actual effect of the drug on his performance remains controversial.
Salazar's competitive decline is often attributed to a reported blow-out after the 1982 Boston Marathon (his famous "Duel in the Sun" with Dick Beardsley), after which his athletic performance gradually declined to the point at which he could barely jog. Salazar recounts falling into a "more-is-better" mindset which led him to reason that if 120 miles per week yielded a certain level of success, then 180 or even 200 miles would bring even better results. This intense and grueling regimen of such extremely high mileage ultimately led to a breakdown of his immune system, and he found himself frequently sick, injured, and otherwise unable to continue training. The downward spiral of his marathon career culminated in his disappointing fifteenth place at the 1984 Summer Olympics. The story of Salazar's 1982 win at the Boston Marathon and his subsequent competitive decline is told in Duel in the Sun, a book by John Brant.
Currently employed by Nike, Salazar has stayed connected with the sport as coach of the Nike Oregon Project. Aimed at producing Olympic-caliber athletes, project members who have trained under Salazar's tutelage include Galen Rupp, Joaquin Chapa (son of former teammate and NCAA 5,000 meter champion Rudy Chapa), brothers Alec and Scott Wall, Collin Stark-Benz, Stuart Eagon, brothers John and James Connelly, Richard Smith, Dave Davis, Adam Goucher and Dan Browne.
Salazar ran in the ING New York Marathon in 2006, at age 48, serving as a pacesetter for retired cyclist Lance Armstrong, the 7-time winner of the Tour de France, who was attempting his first marathon. Salazar was primarily responsible for guiding Armstrong for the first 10 miles of the race, while Joan Benoit Samuelson oversaw the next 10, and Hicham El Guerrouj the final 6.2. With their help, Armstrong met his goal of completing the race under three hours, finishing in 2:59:36.
