Eritrean-Canadian Badger runner junior Simon Bairu is a waif. There is no other way to describe his physique. Watching him run is almost funny. He does not have the most graceful stride; his arms often cross his chest and he is slightly duck-footed. Put simply, he does not necessarily look like an elite runner. He's not all sharp angles and tendons. Rather, as fellow teammate junior Bobby Lockhart often says, Bairu looks \soft."" But these impressions beg the question: Just how in the hell did Bairu win the NCAA national title at muddy Terre Haute, Ind., last week?
Part of the answer lies in the realm of the physical. In terms of heart and lungs, Bairu may as well have an extra set. He has a pump in his chest that could service a full city block. As far as the pulmonary system, Bairu is not soft at all.
Moreover, Bairu is not soft when it comes injuries. He is rarely hurt by the stresses of distance training that claim so many other runners. When a chance injury occurs, Bairu says he misses ""one or two days at [most]-then I'm [back to] 100 percent."" In the injury-filled universe of running, that fact means Bairu is bionic. Where other runners' bones might literally break after months of running 100 miles per week, Bairu is not fazed.
Because Bairu has a powerful set of lungs and a bionic (if still slight) frame, he can train at a level that many might find ridiculous. Because he can consistently train at such a level, 130 lb. Simon Bairu is strong as an ox.
That might sound odd to those accustomed to imagining strength in terms of biceps and lifting. And it might even sound ironic given that Bairu's father was an accomplished body-builder in Eritrea. But strength comes in other forms-such as the ability to run six miles through the Indiana mud, grass and hills at four minutes and 50 seconds (or better) per mile.
Strength can be mental. Ask any of the runners on the team, which finished a frustrating second to the University of Colorado last week, and they will tell you that racing is 50 percent mental or more.
Mental strength is what makes racing possible. In some regards, running is like any sport-brutal. Watch the Arturo Gatti vs. Mickey Ward boxing fights, or glimpse Lance Armstrong's face as he grinds up the Pyrenees, and you will have an idea of the worst. The NCAA cross country championship race is all about pain as well. What gets any boxer, cyclist or runner through the pain is concentration-mental strength, in other words.
As evidence, look at a picture of Bairu coming down the home stretch in the NCAA race at Terre Haute, and ignore the victorious raised fist. You'll notice he is not smiling even though he won. No smile, because he's concentrating.
That ability to concentrate is born of a competitive spirit. Bairu guesses that he may have inherited such spirit and will power from his parents. He is probably right. Bairu's mother and father escaped the Eritrean-Ethiopian civil war and certain prejudices of nationalism (his mother is Ethiopian, and his father is Eritrean) to marry and raise a family. First traveling to Saudi Arabia and Greece, Bairu's parents finally settled in Regina, Saskatchewan, to raise their family.
Growing up in Regina, Bairu says his father ""made me try out for the [running] team ... he gave me five bucks."" According to Simon, his father planted the mantra ""never think that someone is better than you"" in his young head and the words have stuck ever since. Simon's high school coach, a dentist from New York with a taste for underground hip-hop, also helped teach Bairu the value of mental strength. In all likelihood, the challenges of that first-generation immigrants' life in Saskatchewan may have given Bairu some of the will power to succeed last week.
Simon Bairu won the NCAA Championship because of heart-physical and mental. As Head Coach Coach Jerry Schumacher stated, ""winning that race is pretty special."" Because Bairu won the race as a junior, he has set himself up to win two championships in a row, which is usually reserved for distance running freaks such as Steve Prefontaine. If Bairu wins again next year-and he's gotten better every year so far-the only explanation will be that he is a freak.
