June 2007: Interview with ... Eric Speakman
by Gerard van de Ven
This is the first one of what could become a series of interviews with members. If you know of a member that you think I should interview, let me know. Eric is probably one of our most promising members in the running arena. Not in the least of course because of his age.
Name: Eric Speakman
Age: 16 years old
School: Taradale High School
Eric started running at 7 years old. He was keen to start before that age actually, but was not allowed by mum and dad (sensible) to join the Harriers before that.
Eric has been running ever since, but was also heavy into soccer until 2005. But then two things came together: Firstly he missed out on playing federation soccer and secondly he came 2nd in the NZ National Road race for Junior Boys (Under 16) in the 4km race. This sealed his choice for running.
One of his last events was the North Island Cross Country championships in Taupo Saturday 30 June. Here he came 9th in the U19 age group on the 5km in a time of 17:24. And that was on a very muddy course. If you realise that Eric was competing with 17 and 18 year olds, then finishing 9th is a fantastic result. Eric is very happy with how things went over the weekend.
The National School Championships in Christchurch a few weeks ago did not go as well. But there the number of competitors in the race was a lot larger: 240, with 30 competing in Taupo, which made the race a whole different one.
Eric finds it hard to say how much progress he has made over the past year. The cross country races are not always easy to compare. And he has not had any road races yet this year. But to compare with the Christchurch event: this year he was 20 seconds faster on the 6km than last year, on what he things a similar terrain. His PB on a 5km Road Race is 16:24, last August.
Eric’s favourite distances are the 5 and 8km road race. He favours road races over cross country in general. But he also likes the longer distances more than the shorter ones. He is looking to become a 5 and 10km runner in the future.
All this of course does not come without a lot of training. Eric does about 6 cardio sessions a week, which include things like speed training. Then he does 2 weight sessions a week and also a flexibility session. He runs about 50kms a week, with once a week a long distance like 18 - 20km. All in all he estimates he trains for about 9 hours a week.
A lot of this training is individual. There is not “athletics academy” like there is for soccer. Eric explains that everybody trains differently and putting people in a group to train would only help some of them, depending on the training method used.
Events that are coming up for Eric are the Hawke’s Bay Gisborne cross country championships in the weekend of 14 and 15 July. There he hopes to do well enough to get selected for the national cross country (Dunedin, 28, 29 July) and national road (Auckland, 1st week September) championships.
Eric’s long term goals are to become a “professional” runner and become a member of the New Zealand team. And then there are the Commonwealth and Olympic games. He realises that this is not an easy goal, especially if you look at the number of NZ athletes at that level at the moment, but he says that there are a lot of younger people coming up at the moment. The competition is fierce and that is actually helping him to train hard and get better. There are also a number of scholarships available at the moment (for 7th formers) to go to the US after they finished school and get a lot better with superb training and coaching.
Going to all these events of course is not cheap, but luckily there is some support from the Harriers and the local Athletics Centre also often is able to arrange funding for travel and accommodation. But Eric also has a cleaning job to earn some extra money and help pay for the expenses.
Eric’s advise to other youngsters that would like to go into running and become good in this sport:
- Most important: Make sure you keep having fun.
- A good way to keep having fun while running is to run with your friends.
- Keep trying. It is not a problem if you do not win much in the beginning. That will come.
- Get serious when you get a bit older and are in High School. This is also the time to look for a good coach.
Thanks Eric and good luck in Gisborne!
