WITHOUT COACH OR SPONSOR, WIECZOREK MAKES USA 800M FINAL
By David Monti
(c) 2011 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved (Used by permission)

EUGENE, Oregon -- Mark Wieczorek took to the track at Hayward Field on Friday for the second heat of the 800m semi-finals of the USA Outdoor Championships here wearing a tattered light blue singlet with the words "Playin' in Dirt" stenciled on the front.  Lacking a regular shoe-company sponsorship, Wieczorek and training partners Tim Ramirez and Matt Scherer invented the name for their ragtag group because they thought it best described their situation.

"We didn't have a coach and kind of me, Matt and Tim just bounced ideas off of each other, kind of built our workout regimen off of that," said the blue-eyed athlete with floppy light brown hair on Friday.  He continued: "The three of us were going to start a blog, and we didn't know what to call it.  And right across the street from us, it's all concrete there.  So, we found a dirt track, and dirt hills and were doing a lot of workouts there... So, we called it "Playin' in the Dirt."

Wieczorek, 26, was formerly attached to the Oregon Track Club Elite program here, but was let go.  He now lives in Canoga Park, Calif., just north of Los Angeles where he trains, coaches a high school team in Newbury Park part-time, works at a running store, and helps the website RunnerSpace.com when they need him (as does Scherer).

But this weekend, Wieczorek is a serious runner, and a good one.  In Thursday's preliminary round, he ran the fastest qualifying time of any of the 26 athletes who competed: 1:46.82.  In Friday's semi-finals, he ran more patiently and took second in heat 2 to Khadevis Robinson in 1:49.22.  Could an athlete outside of the mainstream coaching and sponsorship system with a 1:46.46 career best make the national team by finishing in the top-3 in today's final?

"I'm hoping," said Wieczorek, flashing a boyish grin.  "That was one of the big goals, to get a shoe contract going into the Trials here. (I've got) nothing to lose."

In college, Wieczorek ran for MidAmerica Nazarene University in Olathe, Ks., a school within the NAIA system, the much smaller of the two USA collegiate athletic systems.  As a senior in 2007, he finished third in the NAIA Indoor Championships, and fourth at the Outdoor Championships.  At the USA Outdoor Championships the same year, he finished last in his semi-final, and at the 2008 Olympic Trials, he finished seventh in his heat.  His personal best was a middling 1:47.14.

In 2009 he managed to get accepted to the Oregon Track Club, first under coach Frank Gagliano and then his successor, Mark Rowland (Scherer was also in the program).  Both athletes learned a lot about training in the Eugene group, and apply those principles now.  He ran his 1:46.46 personal best in May of this year, winning the Ponce Grand Prix in Puerto Rico in a meet record.

"A lot of the stuff we've been basing off of what we learned from Gags and coach Rowland the last year, especially," Wieczorek said.  "We really learned a lot."

A podium finish for Wieczorek here today is an admitted long shot.  The loaded field includes three-time defending champion Nick Symmonds, four-time national champion Khadevis Robinson, NCAA champion Robby Andrews, and NCAA runner-up Charles Jock.  But for Wieczorek, just being in the final is already a big reward.

"Today was my final; Sunday is just a bonus," he said on Friday, smile intact.  "I'm going to go out there, run with everything, and I hope it's enough."