World's Fastest Stoner
Anyone who watched the 2016 US Olympic marathon trials saw both the men's and women's races unfold pretty much as expected. Meb made the team as did Shalane and Desi. Amy Cragg and Galen Rupp were unexpected winners and both ran excellent races.
In the rest of the pack there were as many inspiring stories as there were runners. Some folks were coming back from injury, life changes or burnout. Some folks who only dreamed of making the Trials showed up and had big breakthroughs after years of effort. Others made this their farewell to elite marathon competition while still more had race-of-a-lifetime performances.
Then there was a guy who looked and performed like an everyday runner, albeit one who qualified with a 1:04:00 half-marathon. I noticed him in a brief camera shot and kind of laughed. He was wearing a regular t-shirt and “man skirt” basketball style shorts. I said out loud, “That guy looks like some dude just out running!” Maybe that was his lucky PR outfit, who could say.
Not just a dude out running
Turned out this guy has a fascinating story. His name is Chris Barnicle and he was the last finisher in the race. Before you pass judgment on that or try to figure out what went wrong in his race plan, hear this. He has a most impressive background as a college track athlete. After graduating he put his running career on hold for around three years because of injury, job changes and moving to a new city. You know, the same shit that gets in the way for all of us.
Barnicle qualified for the Trials in 2013, which as he said himself was a long time ago in running years. He signed up for the Trials because he was eligible and he didn’t want to miss the opportunity of a lifetime. If the chance to line up with Meb and company was only one registration form away who among us wouldn’t get our shoes out of the back of the closet and start building up mileage?
Only those of us scared of “defeat” or put off by perfectionism.
Two stories, one event
Back to Chris. There have been two storylines written about him since the event. The first was that he resorted to a run/walk/shuffle a medic on the course described as, “(he looked like he was) trying to catch the bus.” There’s a video of him doing it and he looks very, very much like back-of-the-packers laying it all out there. Except his split at the half was 1 hour 24 minutes and he finished in 3:45:30.
The other story was his job in the cannabis industry and his 420-friendly lifestyle. The moniker he’s given himself, “World’s Fastest Stoner,” seems to have stuck, though it hasn’t been verified to my knowledge. (For real, I know a lot of fast stoners; Barnicle may not actually hold that title.) That t-shirt he was wearing had the logo of his company Cannabis Cowboy which includes a visible leaf silhouette. He was asked if he had gotten high before the race and his response was “no comment.”
I find both of these narratives refreshing and motivating. I’m a back-of-the-pack marathoner who uses the chase-the-bus method to finish races just like Barnicle did. And, I’m an advocate for using cannabis as part of an athletic lifestyle.
No shame in these games
I also like these because both stories are based on a stigma. Some folks consider walking even a single step in a race to be quitting. If your stride ever slows down you’ve given up. Walking is for losers, out of shape people, blah blah. It’s all negative.
Then there’s the cannabis thing. This one is built around the played-out description of a stoner laying on the couch eating junk food, playing video games and talking nonsense. The condescension from the anti-weed crowd comes on thick: those people are wasters, they’re killing brain cells and they don’t care about their health or well-being.
World's Fastest Stoner in a good way
I applaud Chris Barnicle for debunking both of these opinions in one swoop. If someone thinks he’s some kind of no-hoper because he walked some in a race, they need to remember that the race was THE OLYMPIC TRIALS. Remember also that you have to QUALIFY for that race with times that make Boston look like a fun run. He stepped up, hung with the pack as long as he could, fought off tough conditions to keep going until the end. 59 other male competitors who started the race can’t say that. As for the stoner thing, it’s past time to let that go. Chris himself told the running Web site FloTrack:
"I think the thing with marijuana—at the time, I wasn’t smoking that much because I was maybe overly focused on running, which can create this OCD effect, in me at least. And I feel like cannabis gives me a balance in life, which is something that is necessary."
““I really don’t feel one way or another about what my race says about marijuana and running. The one thing that I can say for sure is that when I don’t have THC in my brain, I can get very anxious, and very worried.”
Doesn’t sound like a couch-locked teenager to me. Sounds like a man who knows his body and his optimal mental state for high-level competition.