D8
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RUNNING
KLMNO
FRIDAY’S LATE GAME
Pierce and Celtics finish off the Magic
by Michael Lee
PIERRE VERDY/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE VIA GETTY IMAGES
Not satisfied by a typical 26.2-mile race, Michael Wardian participates in the six-stage, 151-mile Marathon des Sables in the Sahara Desert.
Wardian is a ‘normal person’ by day, world-class marathoner on the side
wardian from D1
“The most remarkable thing about Michael is he is, from all casual observation, a perfectly normal guy; he’s got a job, a cou- ple of kids,” said Keith Powell, Wardian’s boss at Potomac Mari- time LLC in Georgetown. “But he’s anything but a normal per- son.”
On a typical weekday, Wardian
rises at 4:45 a.m. and pushes one or both of his early-rising boys, ages 4 years and 18 months, in a jog stroller for his day’s first training run (usually 7 to 15 miles), or watches over them in the basement as he pounds out miles on the treadmill. Then he heads to his job as an interna- tional shipping broker at Poto- mac Maritime, taking a midday break for a second training run (another 7 to 15 miles) through Rock Creek Park, followed by lunch at his desk. Upon arriving home, he dives into the evening’s child-care chal- lenges: diaper-changing, book- reading and bath-administering. “When I get home, I’m a dad,” Wardian said. “That’s how I make it work.” On Thursday afternoon, after spending the morning trying to meet a work deadline, he caught
a flight to Durban. “I guess there are times that
I’m tired, but for the most part, I’m just excited to be able to do all of these things,’ Wardian said, standing outside the Kinhaven School after Tuesday’s preschool presentation. “I enjoy being pro- ductive, I guess.”
‘I love racing’
Ultra runners may be some of the world’s most indefatigable athletes, and Wardian stands near the top of the unfathomably pain-resistant group. His resting heart rate is 31 beats per minute. He looks like a javelin with long, bushy hair; he stands 6 feet tall and his weight hovers between 138 and 142 pounds. He destroys two or three pairs of running shoes each month and strives to run 100 miles a week, though he would log 160 if he had more time. He is a vegetarian. He says he almost never gets sick and, other than possessing gro- tesquely messed-up feet, he has no health problems and does not struggle to get out of bed in the morning. He hasn’t gone more than two
days without running in about a decade.
On some work days, he runs the 5.3 miles to and from work —
it’s much more pleasant, he said, than driving in rush-hour traffic — in addition to his two daily training runs. “A couple years after we met,
he started doing 100-mile races, and I was like, ‘This is not nor- mal,’ ” said his wife, Jennifer War- dian, whom he started dating in 1999. “He likes to race a lot. His philosophy is, ‘Why do a long run if there is a marathon within driving distance?’ ” Few people would do mara- thons in back-to-back months; Wardian has done them on con- secutive days. In March of last year, he finished third in Virginia Beach’s Shamrock Sportsfest Marathon in 2:35.13, less than 24 hours after finishing second in Washington’s National Marathon (2:22.15). On five consecutive weekends
in March and April, he ran a 50- kilometer race, three marathons, a half-marathon and began the 151-mile race through the Sahara. One of those was his fourth win at the National Marathon (2:21.58). “I love racing,” he said. “I love
that feeling of stepping up to the line. You have to perform. There’s no hiding — whatever your time is, your time is. No one cares whether you ran 100 [kilometers] the day before.” Wardian wore a 15-pound backpack during the Lower Poto- mac River Marathon in Piney Point, Md., on March 14, a choice of attire that left him with raw shoulder blades, a blood-stained shirt and his worst marathon time of the year (2:48.48). But it provided him with exactly the sort of experience he sought be- fore he tackled the Sahara Desert in Morocco’s Marathon des Sa- bles in early April. That race required running 20 to 50 miles per day for six days in 100-degree-plus heat, while car- rying food, gear and the snake- bite kit required by organizers, in a backpack. The racing was no problem, other than Wardian’s vomiting a few times at the end of the third stage. But sleeping com- fortably was not easy. Wardian was unnerved when one of his tent-mates was stung by a scorpi- on that crawled into her sleeping bag. She got blood poisoning and had to withdraw from the compe- tition.
During the race, Wardian cov- ered his head with a rag to pro- tect his eyes from the swirling sand gusts and passed the time by pondering race strategy, ana- lyzing his water, salt and food in- take and gauging the distance be- tween himself and his rivals. Wardian’s third-place finish in 23 hours 1 minute 3 seconds, was the best ever by an American. His pace: just over a nine-minute mile.
JAMES A. PARCELL FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
Though running takes him as far as Africa, Michael Wardian trains before working in D.C., often with sons Grant and Pierce by his side.
“I feel like I’m still on the up- swing of my career,” Wardian said. “I’m getting better and bet- ter at various distances I’m trying to focus on.” Wardian says his unusual gifts are completely natural, that he’s never taken any performance- enhancing drugs. He has been
tested once.
‘Still fires me up’
An Oakton High graduate and lacrosse player at Michigan State University, Wardian always ran circles around his peers during the team’s dreaded three-mile training runs, but he had no for- mal running experience. When he graduated from college and landed a job with Potomac Mari- time, he decided to enter the 1996 Marine Corps Marathon on a lark. He ran about five miles a day to prepare for that event. He wore a pair of long, baggy lacrosse shorts and ran without a race plan. Despite his inexperi- ence, he had a blast and finished in the enviable time of 3:08, qual- ifying for the esteemed Boston Marathon on his first attempt. “At first I was just happy to be
beating guys who wore running shorts,” Wardian said. “I was run- ning 30 miles a week. I thought, ‘This is awesome, why do I need to train more?’ ” Yet he couldn’t resist the temp-
tation to keep moving up. The more he learned about what the fast guys were doing, the more he became determined to match their training and beat them. If he could run this fast with no ex- perience and light training, how fast would he go if he ran 50 miles a week? Or 80?
By 2008, he had become the
U.S. champion in the 50- and 100- kilometer, feats that helped him attract sponsorships from Mara-
thonGuide.com, The North Face and Power Bar. He’s not ready to give up his day job, but those deals have helped defray the cost of competing in races around the world and bringing his family along on many occasions. Jennifer Wardian said despite her husband’s grueling training schedule, he hasn’t cut corners with his family responsibilities. She flatly states that she has no intention of giving up her per- sonal time in the mornings. “He does the morning shift,” she said. “I don’t clock in until 7 or 7:30 a.m.” Wardian, who competed at the 2004 and 2008 Olympic mara- thon trials, expects to qualify for the 2012 trials, but making the Olympic marathon team seems out of reach with his current pro- pensity to do it all, frequently. He often gets asked: Why not con- centrate on running regular mar- athons — and reasonable num- bers of them? Couldn’t you be among the best in the world if you narrowed your focus? Wardian isn’t sure he wants to choose. He’d love to be an Olym- pian, but he also wants to win his first world titles at the upcoming 50- and 100-kilometer champi- onships. “What’s most fulfilling to me is showing people you can do . . . a lot more than you think you can do,” he said. “It’s not always easy, it’s not always fun, but that feel- ing of crossing the finish line, that still fires me up, whether it’s a one-mile race or a 100-mile race.”
shipleya@washpost.com
boston — They were too con- cerned about their legacy to be worried about ending up on the wrong side of history. With talk running rampant that the Bos- ton Celtics could become the first NBA team to lose a playoff series after winning the first three games, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett were focused on making sure they have an opportunity to win more than one championship together. The determination was easy to spot Friday night as Pierce stepped back to knock down slingshot jumpers, as Allen came around screens to bury three-pointers, when Garnett slapped a Vince Carter layup at- tempt hard against the back- board. They weren’t going to let the Celtics lose in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals, be- cause there is so much more they want to win. And with a 96-84 victory over the defending conference champion Orlando Magic, that trio remains unbeaten in seven playoff series together and reached the NBA Finals for the second time in three seasons. Pierce scored a game-high 31 points with 13 rebounds and five assists, Allen added 20 points and Garnett had 10 as Boston beat Orlando four games to two. The Celtics need four more wins to claim an NBA-best 18th championship banner. The NBA Finals start on
Thursday and the Celtics will find out where the series begins as soon as the Los Angeles Lak- ers and Phoenix Suns complete the Western Conference finals. The Lakers lead that best-of- seven series 3-2 and Celtics fans were already overlooking the Suns as they chanted through- out the fourth quarter and after the game: “Beat L.A.! Beat L.A.!”
Dwight Howard led the Mag- ic with 28 points and 12 re- bounds and Carter added 17 points for Orlando, which was ill-equipped to complete an in- credible comeback — especially with Rashard Lewis again un- able to help the team offensive- ly and Jameer Nelson limited with foul trouble. The level of panic and fear
among Boston sports fans had reached extreme levels as the Celtics arrived at TD Garden for Game 6. After taking a com- manding 3-0 lead over Orlando in this best-of-seven series, the Celtics had suffered back-to- back losses and were suddenly wobbling and wounded; they collectively resembled reserve Glen “Big Baby” Davis’s woozy stumble after absorbing a How- ard elbow two nights before in Game 5. Heading into Friday night,
Davis and Marquis Daniels were recovering from concus- sions; Rasheed Wallace had a bad back; starting center Ken- drick Perkins was only allowed to play after the league re- scinded one of the two tech- nical fouls given to him in Game 5; and Rajon Rondo, lacking the energy and explo- siveness he displayed earlier in the series, was outplayed by the opposing point guard, Nelson. The Celtics also had to deal with reminders of historic col- lapses. Fans, talk-radio pundits and local commentators brought up how hockey’s Bos- ton Bruins blew a 3-0 series lead against Philadelphia Fly- ers earlier this month and won- dered if they were being pun- ished for the Red Sox’ epic comeback from an 0-3 deficit against the New York Yankees in the 2004 American League Championship Series. But what was lost on those observers was that the Celtics only needed to win one more game to advance to the franchise’s 21st appear- ance in the NBA Finals.
leem@washpost.com
SUNDAY, MAY 30, 2010
PRO BASKETBALL
BRIAN SNYDER/REUTERS
The Celtics’ Paul Pierce runs back up the court after hitting a three-pointer in the fourth quarter of Game 6.
After trip mars strong start, the Mystics return home
by Katie Carrera
The Washington Mystics em-
barked on their three-game trip tied for the best start to a sea- son in franchise history. A week and three losses later, they re- turn to Verizon Center with a .500 record still searching for a complete effort when they host the Connecticut Sun at 4 p.m. Sunday. The Sun (3-1) thoroughly drubbed the Mystics (3-3) a week ago, 80-65, in the Mystics’ most out-of-sync performance this season. “We definitely had an off day up in Connecticut,” said small forward Monique Currie, who is averaging a team-high 18.2 points per game. “We have the pieces in place to beat anyone, including Connecticut, and all of us want to get the chance to play them again.” Suffering from a combina- tion of late-game miscues and slow starts, the Mystics watched games slip through their fingers, such as against Se- attle, an 82-76 loss on Tuesday when their scoring went cold and defense foundered down the stretch, and they saw that they can’t continue to create large first-half deficits, such as the 14-point hole they had to climb from Friday night in an
Mystics vs. Sun
When: 4 p.m. Where: Verizon Center.
81-75 loss at Los Angeles. It’s a fine mix of timing, focus and chemistry that Washington admits it hasn’t found yet, al- though many players are famil- iar with Coach Julie Plank’s sys- tem. “Even though we have great
relationships as a team, we didn’t have a feel for who would be here until a day before the opener. We’re still trying to get all of our timing down” said point guard Lindsey Harding, who averages 11.3 points per game. “While people under- stand the system, many of our roles are different and we’re all still trying to figure out how everyone’s role fits together.” A welcome antidote may be a
return to the District. The Mys- tics play seven of their next nine games at Verizon Center, where they were 11-6 in 2009. The Mystics have never had a win- ning road record; their best performance away from Chi- natown was 8-8 in 2002. “We’re all ready to come
home,” forward Crystal Lang- horne said. “Hopefully we can get everything on track during that long stretch at home.”
carrerak@washpost.com
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