Age and Distance Catch Up to Pappas

At the risk of careless understatement, the decathlon is a really tough event. It lasts for two days during which an athlete must mentally prepare for and then execute intense sprints, hurdles, jumps, and throws, and then, after seven events have been completed, tackle the pole vault (which can be a quick DNF for the unlucky). Even after that test has been passed, there is the final cruel 1500m. It seems so unfair to ask these big fast strong guys to endure a distance race, but it adds incalculable drama to the event.

One of the stories that fascinated me at the US Championships this last week was the performance of Tom Pappas, the 2003 world champion in the decathlon. Back in 2004, Pappas was favored to win the decathlon in the 2004 Olympics in Athens. This would have been a great story, an American of Greek heritage becoming the world's greatest athlete in the land that gave us the Olympic games. But like Achilles, Pappas had mortal feet, and a foot injury hampered him in competition, and he withdrew from the Olympic decathlon. In Athens and since then, Pappas has been eclipsed by other U.S. decathletes, first Bryan Clay the 2004 silver and 2008 gold medalist, and more recently by Ashton Eaton, the world record holder in the indoor heptathlon and the recent NCAA decathlon champion.

Although Pappas made a comeback in 2009, it was still something of a blast from the past to see the 34-year-old leading the U.S. Outdoors championships after nine events (with Clay and Eaton skipping the meet). Alas, the decathlon does not end with the Javelin, where Pappas is a beast, but with the cruel 1500 meters. For a man of Pappas' size (6-5 and 210 lbs.), the 1500 is torture.

Leading by 72 points over Jake Arnold, Pappas needed to finish no worse than 13 seconds behind Arnold. Alas, it wasn't even close. Arnold ran 4:40 (about a 5:01 mile) for 679 points, while Pappas could only manage 5:12 for 493 points.

There's something about the decathlon that humbles every athlete. Maybe it's that final race against the clock in which the winner of the event is usually somewhere back in the pack just trying to hang on. If you want to humble a strong man who can sprint and jump, make him run a race designed for the lean and the gaunt.