Interview with Mercer County Legend Royce Flippin.  Royce graduated from Princeton High School in the Spring of 1976 a few months before Coach Wayton was born. Nonetheless his 2 mile record (indoor and outdoor) stood unchallenged until Brian Leung broke it this past season.  In this exclusive WW-PXC interview Mr. Flippin explains his incredible success. Mr. Flippin went on to compete at Princeton University and today is a successful editor in New York City.

 

KW- Did you ever think your record would be around as long as it did?

 

RF-I never dreamed any of my records would last as long as 30 years. I knew I’d put up some pretty fast times, so I figured they might last a few years—maybe a decade if I was lucky. And in fact my Mercer County indoor (4:18.5) and outdoor (4:16.1) mile marks were both broken a few years later. (The competitor in me is forced to note that my 4:16, run at the 1976 Mercer County championships, is still the fastest mile/1600 run ever run at that meet, although for some reason it’s no longer listed as the meet record—Coach Wayton and the other county coaches, help me out here!). But my two mile records of 9:10.7 indoors and 9:05.2 outdoors just seemed to last and last. I guess they were waiting for a true superstar in the form of Brian Leung to come along and break them. One more competitor’s note, though: While Brian has run faster indoors than my fastest two-mile outdoors, he still technically hasn’t broken the outdoor record yet! I’m sure he’ll probably get it in his first big race of the spring.

 

 

KW- What do you think are the major factors surrounding WHY your record was able to stick around so long?

 

 

RF-I think the biggest reason I ran so fast was that everyone around me was running fast. As a sophomore at Princeton High I was a member of a fantastic group of distance runners, including four of us who ran down in the 9:30-9:40 range for two miles. Our cross country team that year went 16-0 in dual meets, most of them shutouts, and set a record for low score at the county meet that wasn’t broken until a couple of years ago. We lost some great runners to graduation that year, including John Woodside, the current PHS track-XC coach, but were still able to win the Group II XC championship the following (my junior) year.

      At the same time, there was also a slew of great distance runners in New Jersey. In my class alone there was Chris Hallinan (who ran 9:09 as a sophomore), Bob Amitrani (who won the MOC two-mile in around 9:01 my senior year), my good friend and college roommate Steve O’Connell (who ran ten mile races of 4:10 or better in the spring of 1976, winning the Penn Relays and MOC and finishing second at Golden West), and sub-9:10 two-milers Ed Taylor and Brian Penn. Running as juniors that year were Bob Siehl (who beat me by two seconds at the Glen Loucks meet when I ran my 9:05.2!) and of course the legendary Kevin Byrne, whose indoor state mark was just broken by Brian. And there were a dozen runners right behind them. So running 9:05 didn’t seem like that big a deal. In fact, when I ran 9:05.8 at the 1976 MOC, I finished fourth!

 

KW- Give us some idea of what it was like to run in the 70's, the training- the ridiculous times, comp. etc.

 

RF-As my previous answer suggested, there was just always fast competition waiting at every meet, so you got used to racing against the best, and often losing to them—but hopefully also doing your best to hang in there and run fast in the process. In my previous list, I didn’t mention the best Northeastern runner of my class, Alberto Salazar. When I ran 9:10.7 to place third at the 1976 Eastern Indoor championships, he won in 9:01. Believe it or not, my primary concern in that race was not to let Salazar lap me!

      I do think one reason for all of the great times being run was that no one was afraid to train hard. In those days, there was a certain emphasis on mileage—running 70 miles a week, even 100 during the summer—which probably both helped (in terms of laying down an aerobic base) and sometimes hurt (when it was overdone). While I and the runners I knew well got into this a bit, we also placed a lot of emphasis on running FAST over relatively short distances, and I think that was what really brought our times down. At Princeton High, we used to do a five mile course for time, and the top runners would really fly over it, competing with each other all the way. My senior year, I took one of our traditional courses, a short 1.5 mile loop near the high school, and made it my special training run. I’d always start my workout each afternoon by running that course as fast as I possibly could. You can’t run fast in races without running fast in practice—it’s that simple. Having talked to you about this, Coach Wayton, I know you agree with this philosophy as well.

 

KW- Themes, physical, mental, etc on what it takes to get to the top in high school and beyond.

 

RF-I’m not sure what the top is—it always seemed to me there was someone faster (like Salazar) lurking out there. But I think you need to begin with a certain amount of natural talent, which means picking a sport you can do well at. I was a very so-so soccer player in junior high before I discovered I had a gift for distance running! Than, I guess you just have to be ready to give it all you’ve got—make running the center of your life, train hard, hang out with good running partners, and (knock wood) avoid injury. Then, shape your workouts intelligently when the competitive seasons arrive, and try to pick races that give you the best chance of doing well.

 

KW- How did running prepare you for life in the real world.

 

RF-I’m actually not sure how well running prepares you for life in the real world, for the reason that running, while requiring a lot of sacrifice and drive, is actually a very straightforward and somewhat self-centered endeavor—you get out of it what you put into it, and it’s all about the performance of yourself and your team. From what I’ve seen of the real world as an adult, achieving success in a career and relationships and raising a family is all somewhat more complicated than running a fast time on the track, and requires thinking about others as much or more than thinking about your own goals. On the other hand, life, like running, is all about trying hard and persevering--so I guess in that sense, learning to stick to your guns as a runner DOES help. Still, running a fast time is a lot simpler than being a good father, for example (as I’m finding out with my two-year-old daughter!).

 

KW- What are a few pieces of advice you 'd offer kids today in re: the distance running?

 

RF-For high school runners, I would say give it everything you’ve got every day, and savor every moment. Because while high school can seem endless, it really goes by very quickly—you’ve got just a handful of cross-country and indoor and outdoor track seasons, and what you do in these few short weeks will stay with you for a lifetime. So don’t leave any room for regrets—no “I wish I’d done x, instead of y.” Keep centered, hang with other centered runners, communicate and work constructively with your coach, and go for your goals one hundred percent.

 

KW Feelings on burnout?

 

RF-When I was a kid, I could never understand why the Beatles ever broke up. Now, as a world-weary grownup, I look back and marvel that they stayed together as long as they did. Running is a very intense sport, and anyone who runs at a high level for more than a few years has to absolutely love it beyond anything. I don’t think most talented track runners burn out—they just reach a point where it’s time to try a different approach to their sport and life. Also, even the best high school runners find that college running is a different animal—more challenging in many ways, and a bit more of a job. Then there’s post-college running, which really is a job, and one that can only support the very best of the best. I was fortunate enough to know Craig Masback, who was a national star at Princeton University as a senior when I was a freshman there. He went on to have a fine post-college track career, but I can tell you that he did so because he was supremely talented—when he ran with the rest of our college team, which had a lot of great runners, he was head and shoulders above everyone,.

 

KW- Tell your most inspirational running story.

 

RF-There were a lot of great moments, but one that stands out as my greatest competitive moment was the outdoor Mercer County Meet my sophomore year. I was running the two-mile with my senior teammate, Pete Nichols, who had run 9:40, and Trenton’s Walt Holloway, who had run around the same time, and had beaten both of us in a dual meet a week or so earlier. Pete set a tough pace from the start and Walt—who had a great kick—stayed right on his shoulder. I hung on for dear life behind the two of them. Then, without about 600 yards left, something clicked in me and I just said “I’ve got to go,” and I bolted for the lead and ran the last lap in sheer terror, convinced they would run me down. They never did. I ended up running a 65 second last quarter and won in 9:36, which was a new meet and county record. I couldn’t stand up for an hour, I was so exhausted, but I knew that I’d tapped something in myself that was pretty profound.

 

KW- Describe the relationship you had with your coach.

 

 

RF-I had a number of coaches who were important to me. I lived in White Plains, New York as a freshman in high school, and had a dynamic young cross-country coach who really taught me what a tough workout was. My track coach that year was a larger-than-life Greek guy who taught me what it was to compete hard, and wasn’t afraid to toss a mid-race curse or two my way to help motivate me. At Princeton High, my cross-country coach, Larry Ivan, brought a great mix of humor and solid training to the table. He made running fun, even as we were running hard, which is a great gift. My track coach, Marc Anderson, was and is extremely knowledgeable about running. He was an excellent 400 meter runner himself in college, and looking back now I realize that he was really almost a kid himself when I first met him. Marc gave our entire team a great training platform, including good form drills and a very intelligent interval training program. He was also quite flexible, willing to listen to our concerns and suggestions—as was Mr. Ivan. I think we all appreciated this flexibility, especially since we were all sort of students of training, and had our own input to offer. But as I went on to run in college and watch other coaches in action, I came to realize that this flexibility and receptiveness is actually not all that common. Mr. Anderson and I became particularly close my senior year, when the two of us traveled together to meets like the Philadelphia Track Classic and the Millrose Games, where I ran the invitational high school mile. While he was a good coach then, he really hit the big time a few years later when his 1981 teams won the indoor and outdoor Group II championships and he was named New Jersey coach of the year. Today, of course, he’s coaching with Fred Samara at my college alma mater, Princeton.

 

KW- If you could go back in time what would you change? --if anything?


RF-The only thing I’d change would be to focus more on the mile in college, rather than the 5,000. I never liked that distance very much—but we had five or six guys running close to four minutes at Princeton, so I got stuck with the longer distance. C’est la vie.


KW- What mindset best benefits success in distance.


RF-Learning to stay physically smooth and relaxed and mentally confident and optimistic while running at paces that seem impossibly fast.


KW- Please add anything else I may not have covered that you feel could benefit young guys n gals down the line.


RF-I would just return to an earlier point that you and I discussed over the phone: Training at the pace you want to run your races at is the key. All other training you do should be in support of this goal. I’d also like to add my congratulations to you, coach Wayton, on the fine program you’ve built at West Windsor, and also to the great Brian Leung, who is fast turning my Mercer County achievements into a distant memory!