By Bill Kipouras
Staff writer
May 13, 2008 06:00 am Bill Kipouras He originally thought the Madrid Marathon was in the fall, like October. So Nate Gravel of Peabody headed for Madrid with a mindset that he was to train for just the month of September, then give the marathon a whirl. Then he found out the race was actually in April. "I had just finished my collegiate career in May '08 (at Trinity College) and had not run all summer while I was studying at Middlebury College, which has an option to complete an M.A. in Spanish studies in Madrid," the 22-year-old Gravel said in an e-mail exchange, explaining his year-long presence in Spain. Last month, the race finally arrived — and Gravel was more than ready for it. He ran a superb time of 2:29.58 on an urban course. In doing so, he was the first American finisher (17th overall) and the youngest among the Top 40 finishers. The field included 7,800 runners, including all but 550 of them male. Gravel originally set his goal as a finishing time of 2:40. Then, as his preparation improved, he readjusted his ambition to a daring 2:30. Whoever thought he'd clock an elite time on international terrain? "The training itself was a slow, gradual build," he admitted. "After taking over four months off from running (his longest break in 8 years), I knew I'd have to take it slow. "My first week of training was nine miles — a laughable statistic, looking back. I dedicated my first semester to getting back core strength and distance base. In other words, I didn't do any workouts until I returned to Madrid after my winter break, spent at home." All of a sudden, Gravel was up to 70-80 miles a week. Some of those were done in five days so that he was free to travel without worrying about running weekends. "When I started to hit higher mileage (90-100 a week) I didn't have that luxury," he pointed out. "Now I can say I've done runs in Seville, Barcelona, Santiago de Compostela, Vigo, La Coruna, Caldas da Rahina, Obidos (Portugal), and Fisterra, translation: Land's End, the most western point in Spain that the Romans believed to be the end of the earth." Before going to Spain, Gravel had never run a marathon before. But he caught the bug when he and sister Katrina paced their father Dave in the last 10 miles of the 2007 Boston Marathon. It was a charity endeavor in which the Peabody City Councillor-at-Large raised funds for the Peabody YMCA. Katrina, a Colby College sophomore who just earned All-New England 10K honors, took her dad four miles into the Newton Hills and Nate picked it up from there. "Finishing with my dad and sharing that experience of crossing the finish line with him and knowing what it meant to him made up my mind to try it," Gravel said. "I also figured a marathon would be a great way to experience the city which I was about to spend the next nine months of my life." When he signed up for the Madrid Marathon in February, Gravel "invented" a seeded time to try and get an elite number. "If I was going to run a marathon, I was going to compete," he said. "Luckily the officials in Madrid didn't do their research and approved my bogus time. I wore No. 75, and lined up amongst the fastest 200 runners at the front pack of 13,000," he said. He started conservatively on the uphill 5K, realized the pack he wanted to be part of was about 20 seconds ahead after the 5K, so he used the second 5K to catch the group. His half-marathon time was 73:30. He felt fine, but didn't want to make a drastic move, Gravel said. "I knew the course ahead was hilly with a 1,200 meter hill at the 39-mark mile, and the forecasts called for temperatures in the 75-80s by noon," Gravel said. He never felt tired cardiovascular-wise, but his legs started to give in the last six miles. "It's a shame they didn't have the bulls running behind us for some added inspiration," Gravel joked. He did attend two bull fights in Madrid and told his mother Cathy, "They weren't pretty." Gravel, who has played the acoustic guitar since age 9, ran for four years at Trinity, accumulating 12 varsity letters. He was named All-New England six times, garnered five All-NESCAC All-Academic selections and two All-Academic (Academic All-American) awards. He earned his double M.A.'s in Hispanic Studies and English. Peabody Athletic Director Phil Sheridan was his gym teacher at the South Memorial and the cross country coach at PHS when he reached high school in 1999, and that was the reason Gravel chose cross country instead of trying soccer. He gave up boys' hockey after one season to train for indoor and outdoor track and cross country. Coaches Fred Braz and Joe Rocha had much to do with that decision. "Outside of being my coaches, they were my mentors and friends," he said. It remains to be seen if Gravel will continue as a marathoner, as promising as his career may seen. "He never does anything halfway," his mother, Mary, said. "A lot will depend on his job. If he's in an office, that will limit him." Said Braz, "It didn't surprise me he'd run an elite time. The thing that did surprise me is that he achieved what he did while training alone. But that's his great focus." Dave Gravel, his father, said, "Once he gets involved in something, he usually doesn't want out of it." It may be construed from those opinions that Nate Gravel is not ready for an early marathon retirement. Bill Kipouras is a staff writer at The Salem News. He can be reached at 978-338-2615 or by e-mail: bkipouras@salemnews.com.
—
Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.