Rainy day tales: Galen Rupp, Alan Webb and the second floor ‘runway’ in the Mia Hamm Building

The ghostly images speeding by are Alan Webb, left, and Galen Rupp, running 200-meter intervals at the Mia Hamm Building on the campus of Nike in Beaverton, Ore., Dec. 28, 2010. This was taken with the camera in my phone, which partly explains the lack of photo quality. (Photo: Doug Binder)

There have been days in western Oregon his month when the rain seems to have no beginning or end. It just keeps coming, morning til night.

Tuesday, the sky was the color of ash and the precipitation was incessant.

At Nike, the parking lots were empty. Employees are still on break for the holiday.

On days like this, when Alberto Salazar needs a place for his athletes to work out, he brings them to the second floor of the Mia Hamm Building. There is a long, interrupted corridor here — long enough to run 200-meter intervals on carpet while staying dry.

Galen Rupp has run here since he was in high school. On Tuesday, he was joined by Alan Webb. And later, sprinter Ryan Bailey appeared with his coach, John Parks, and workout partners Jordan Boase and DeEric Crockett.

Rupp is just 11 days out from a cross country meet in Edinburgh, Scotland. Webb is putting together an indoor season that begins in less than a month.

While the two of them jog up and down the long corridor — if the Mia Hamm building were turned up onto its side it’d be 65 floors tall — Salazar takes his wheel and begins measuring out 195 meters. He places small orange cones on the marks at either end of the hallway, designating them as the places to start and finish the intervals. He leaves some space for the runners to slow down without running out of room.

Today’s workout will be moderate. Twelve 200s at 28.5-second pace with a short 45-second recovery. Because the hallway is so long, Webb and Rupp will run hard both ways and take their rest at either ends. Salazar sets ups “start” cones and “finish cones” for each direction.

As they warm up, the banter is light. Salazar says he has been to see “True Grit,” but then quickly turns the discussion to the Rocky franchise.

“Who can name all of Rocky’s opponents, in order?”

Between the two of them, Rupp and Webb make their way from Apollo Creed to Tommy Gunn.

Finally, the runners are ready to go. Salazar positions himself near the midpoint of the long runway and uses binoculars to watch for Rupp to drop his arm and signal for the stopwatch to start.

Rupp and Webb zip back and forth, from the interior of an office at one end — past displays of T-shirts, shoes, graphic art and random furniture — to the other.

Twelve trips. Add six-tenths of a second to make up for the missing five meters. Webb consults his watch. Rupp looks at his. They come to a rough consensus. Average: 28.1 seconds.

Webb and Rupp towel off a bit, change shoes, and go down the stairs and out the door into the rain. It is a short walk to the entrance of the Lance Armstrong Building, where they hop onto treadmills for the next phase of their workout. They warm up again. The treadmills hum at a maxed-out five-minute mile pace and Rupp and Webb run on them side by side — with a three percent incline — and simulate hill intervals.

After that, it’s back to Mia Hamm for some more jogging and a series of 60s.

It’s warm and dry, and the work gets done. That’s the point.

The downside, if there is one, is that there’s no where to spit. On a day like this one, it’s a small sacrifice worth making.

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