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Dunn changes his opinion of 50K walk
COURAN COVE, Australia (AP) -- Philip Dunn called the 50-kilometer walk "the stupidest event in track and field." "Only brave people would risk training for a 31-mile walk," he said. Then, why is he a 50K walker and a member of the U.S. Olympic team? Those disparaging remarks were Dunn's thoughts in January 1997 when he switched from the 20K walk to the 50K. "A variety of circumstances pushed me into the 50K," he said. The major reason was getting a new coach, Bohdan Bulakowski, a 50K walker from Poland. "He encouraged me to try to the 50K," Dunn said. Bulakowski also convinced some other walkers at the U.S. Olympic Training center at Chula Vista, California, to try the longer distance. His advice helped. The United States will have three 50K walkers at Sydney -- Dunn, Curt Clausen and Andrew Hermann -- and only one 20K walker, Tim Seaman. The walkers also have a new coach, Enrique Pena, coach of 1996 Olympic 20K champion Jefferson Perez of Ecuador. It took a while for Dunn to convince himself that the 50K event was right for him. Injuries slowed his progress in 1997 and part of `98. Before the Pan Am Cup in October 1998 at Miami, the U.S. team needed a third member to fill out its 50K team. Dunn won a last-chance qualifying race, then wound up the top U.S. finisher at the Pan Am Cup, fourth overall. "Suddenly, I thought this 50K stuff is not so bad," he said. "It was a sick and demented thought. During the race, I threw up twice, and afterward, I was taken to a hospital and given four IV bags of fluids." Why keep doing the 50K if it was so tortuous? "I always like challenges," Dunn said. "I like to think I'm capable of doing what people think I can't do." Dunn had another major breakthrough at the 1999 World Cup race walk over a hilly course in France, cracking four hours -- the Olympic A standard -- for the first time with a time of 3 hours, 59 minutes, 53 seconds. He also was the bronze medalist at the 1999 Pan Am Games at Winnipeg and fourth at the 1999 U.S. championships. All that time, Dunn had a torn meniscus in his left knee. Finally, in August, he had surgery. His Olympic preparations until October, "I started my season last October in the hole," he said. "I was the slowest on the team with the worst level of fitness. Three other teammates had met the Olympic A standard." That meant Dunn would have to beat one of the other three at the 50K trials in February to make the team. At the trials, Dunn's race nearly ended after 37 kilometers. He was at the front in a pack of four when he experienced serious cramping in his right hamstring. "I stopped for a few seconds because the pain as so intense," he said. "What still amazes me is that I never considered stopping and going out of the race or sitting on the curb next to the course. There was no doubt I would finish, even though I thought I had a torn hamstring. Every step the rest of the race reminded me there was serious damage." Despite the pain on a cold, rainy and windy day in Sacramento, California, Dunn persevered and finished third, earning his place on the team. It turned out the hamstring was not torn but strained, forcing Dunn to miss another two weeks of training. Since his recovery, he has prepared for his first Olympics -- he first tried for the team in 1996 at 20K but finished sixth in the trials -- by training in Chula Vista and at altitude in Ecuador, and competing in a series of 20K races, mostly in Europe plus the U.S. trials where he was fifth, and in one 10K race in Italy. "I'm glad to be an Olympian and have made the sacrifices I did, the hours and hours of hard work with no salary. What kept me going, besides the desire to be here, was my friends who kept saying, `You have to be an Olympian." "As silly as that sounds, that's been my motivational tool." A silly motivational tool for a "stupid" race.
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