OF DREAMS & DESPAIR

special to Irish Runner.com by PJ Browne

Regina Jacobs may have set a world record in Boston last weekend, but the performance of merit must surely go to Alistair Cragg of Ireland. Yes, the junior from the University of Arkansas is now a fully- fledged Irish athlete, and he didn't have to close the deal with a pint of stout either. Cragg took on a field of seasoned international athletes and put them away with a decisive break two laps from home. The race was not seen on American television on ESPN2 - the scheduling may have worked against them - and that's a pity for several reasons.

Cragg's win was the stuff of boyhood dreams, achieved in a manner that set the pulse of wizened track fans racing. There isn't a college track athlete in America who doesn't have fantasies of taking on and stuffing the big boys. Save the highfalutin and obscure coach-speak. This was the essence of track as we used to know it, pure, uncomplicated, and exciting.

Jim Harvey [Mark Carroll's coach] understands this. He was one of the first to congratulate Cragg after the race. "I was very impressed," said Harvey. "He sent a message out on the circuit that there's a new arrival. He's the real deal." This was a typically class comment from Harvey who maintains a boyish enthusiasm for the sport. In a cynical and shameless era, he is a refreshing throwback to the days of innocence, honesty and dreams.

Inquiring hacks will have no trouble talking to Cragg, if they can find him. He was back on the Fayetteville campus on Monday, another ordinary college Monday, having completed an early morning 4-mile run, attending classes and studying, and preparing for the afternoon run. You can be a world- beater on the weekends, but in John McDonnell's programme, an Arkansas athlete is a student in every sense of the word.

Cragg may not be cognisant of the magnitude of his win. "Fortunately, there were a lot of excellent athletes in the field," he would say. This isn't false modesty. McDonnell and his athletes do not trade in that. The truth is McDonnell felt that Cragg could have run faster if the pacing had been up to par. He did have something in hand at the finish.

In any case, Cragg is given more to self-preservation than self-promotion, which is understandable when one considers the darkness from which he has emerged. If there is an air of detachment about this young man, it's because he has had to grapple with the complexities of real life to an extraordinary degree. Americans might say - inaccurately - that he had issues.

Cragg represents hope, expectation, and Irish athletics can certainly use him. He has big shoes to fill if he hopes to follow and surpass the lead set by Mark Carroll. That won't be easy. Harvey is quick to remind you how extremely tough it is to knock those vital seconds off when an athlete is running in the low 13's for 5,000 metres. If you are not convinced, ask Mark Carroll or Bob Kennedy.

ESPN2 did an admirable job of condensing a track meet into one hour of viewing time. The atmosphere inside the Reggie Lewis Center was brilliant. Track and field is alive and well in America, as this meet proved. You will see many of those same track fans at Millrose on Friday. They are easy to spot too. Many of them turn out faithfully year after year, a little older, a little grayer, sometimes with children and even grandchildren in tow.

I have only one quibble with the ESPN programme. There was an inordinate coverage devoted to Regina Jacobs - okay she set a world record - and the former bullrider, Stacy Dragila. Jacobs was essentially out on a time trial, and Dragila was playing against herself, which can only lead to boredom.

If Cragg's achievement is the stuff of dreams, then Jacobs win lists to unreality. Should Regina continue to improve, she will have to compete against the men when she enters the rank of the masters this year. How could any athlete in her right mind want to race against her? She might have lapped the field in Boston. Records are fine but when an athlete is this dominant, there is little hope or inspiration for up and coming girls.

It should be noted that Regina attributes her ongoing success to yoga. Yes, that's right, yoga. You could not make this stuff up. Maybe she is onto (ed. that's not a typo, the word is onto) something here. I thought I had tried everything down the years from, eat to win, eat to lose, hungry man diets, Pritikin's starvation, sawdust disguised as cereal, celibacy, sprouts, weeds, macromee, Bubble-Up and the Hula Hoop (don't ask). Somehow I overlooked yoga.

If yoga is the answer then I've been asking all the wrong questions. Maybe there is a chance to enter Boston at 50. I hate to admit it, but the marathon is the final refuge for those afflicted with nail pace virus. Evidently, it's still acceptable to shuffle around if you are "training" for a marathon. I feel like an impostor and go out after dark. My dog Diesel, quite sensibly, refuses to accompany me.

If Regina is right, vindication is mine, and I will get around Boston. If she is wrong I can turn to Patrick Kavanagh, poet and miler, for solace. "In the final simplicity," he wrote, "we don't care whether we appear foolish or not. We talk of things that earlier would embarrass. We are satisfied with being ourselves, however small." Regina, I'm sure, would understand.

PJ Browne is contributor to Irish Runner.com, Irish Runner magazine, Independent and has written "Ron Delany And The Villanova Irish," due for publication later this year