Rupp manages allergies in try for Olympics
Galen Rupp might be the only Olympic hopeful who's looking forward to a drop of rain or even some fog in London.
The American 10 000 metre record-holder has exercise-induced asthma, along with severe allergies to pollen and other airborne particles that can make it difficult for him to breathe. Although his training and competition schedules can be captive to pollen counts, he isn't concerned about the Olympics because they will be held in an urban area with a wet climate.
"I don't think London should be very bad," Rupp said on Friday as he prepared for the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Boston. "The rain and stuff knocks everything out of the air."
Rupp has had asthma since he was nine yeas old, and on top of that he is susceptible to most of the common allergens - he tested positive for 28 of the 30 in a common prick test, he said. It doesn't help that he lives and trains in "the grass seed capital of the world," an Oregon valley where pollen gets trapped between the mountains and hang there like a choking fog.
"His No 1 allergy is grass pollen," said his coach, 1982 Boston Marathon winner Alberto Salazar.
So, in addition to monitoring things like stride length and split times, Salazar always visits a pollen-monitoring websites to check the forecasts for sites where Rupp will be training and competing. Salazar always travels with an epipen in case of a severe attack; one time he nearly called 911.
Rupp, who was the first NCAA athlete to win six distance championships in one academic year, won the 10 000 at nationals last year for the third time in a row. In September, he broke the American record in the 10 000, finishing in 26 minutes, 48 seconds, at the Van Damme Memorial in Brussels.
He is in Boston this weekend to run the indoor mile along with training partner Mo Farah of Great Britain. Also featured at the meet are 400 metre world champion Kirani James of Grenada and US Olympic hopefuls Matthew Centrowitz (1 500 metres) and Jenny Simpson (1 500 metres).
Rupp's allergies aren't a problem indoors, but the Willamette Valley where he trains grows as much as two-thirds of the nation's cool-season grasses - not exactly a selling point for an athlete who suffers from allergies. When the pollen blooms in the spring, Rupp needs to find somewhere else to work out until things settle down after a month or two.
"It's really bad back in Oregon," Rupp said. "In between those mountain ranges, there's nowhere for it to go."
Last June, he was forced to withdraw from the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon, when his allergist told him there was a better than 50 per cent chance of a severe attack.
But he couldn't avoid the US Championships when they were held there later in the month. So he stayed on the coast, driving inland to Eugene the morning of the race; he ran with a black, cloth mask, attached in the back with velcro; when he felt comfortable enough during the race, he tore it off and discarded it.
Rupp said the mask did not bother him at all. Perhaps most importantly, it helped him avoid the kind of asthma attack that would have taken him up to a month to recover - without competing or training.
"I'm not scared to try something if it's going to help me out," he said.
But he won't need it in Boston.
Or London.