Fear Of Unknown Keeps Holland Running Scared

Sydney Morning Herald

Wednesday February 8, 1989

LOUISE EVANS

The 400m sprint is Maree Holland's best event. It also frightens the Olympic finalist more than a solo screening of The Exorcist in 3-D.

"I get really scared," the Penshurst runner said yesterday. "I know it's going to hurt and I get very nervous and worried, wondering how I'm going to get through it. The fear really hits you. It's a very intimidating experience

"I don't get as nervous for a 100m and 200m race. But the 400m is my event. I know I've got to go out fast and come home even faster, and it really hurts."

Tonight, at the Sydney Athletic Field, the slim 25-year-old will compete in a 300m race at the AIS Drug Offensive meeting. While not as forbidding as the dreaded 400m, tonight's race will serve as a preview for Sunday, which looms as her first individual 400m race since reaching the final at the Seoul Olympics last October. And yes, she'll be running scared.

Part of Holland's fear is that of the unknown. "I haven't run a 400m race in the last few months so I don't know how I'm going," she admitted. "That puts a lot of pressure on me."

Holland doesn't run 400m in training. Her coach, Mike Hurst, may get her to do a combination of 300m and 200m sprint sessions until "she is almost haemorrhaging" - but not a 400m. "I want her to be scared," Hurst said. "If the opposition can't scare her then the event has to. When she lines up for a 400m there is that unknown territory and, hopefully, that will be enough to get her adrenaline levels up to run a fast 400m."

The other part of Holland's fear is the pain. The 400m is not an easy event. It is a flat-out sprint for one lap of the track. "If you haven't got your leg speed up, it's like climbing a mountain," Hurst said. "Towards the end you have a huge lactic acid build-up in your muscles and you get screaming pains. Often you see athletes going around at three-quarter pace to protect themselves from the pain."

Carl Lewis can run 100m in under 10s but athletes like 400m world record-holder Butch Reynolds covers each of the 100m in his event in under 11s. The contorted look on his face in the home straight is a mirror of the pain being registered by his brain.

Athletes deal with that pain in different ways. Holland blanks it out. She does this so effectively, however, that around the 200m mark she completely switches off and it is becoming a problem.

"I go out quickly and then just go to sleep and let the rest of the field drag me along," she said. "I don't know whether it is nerves or what. It's definitely a psychological thing - my brain making sure I have something left for the home straight."

At the Seoul Olympics, Holland set a personal best time of 50.24s - an Australian 400m record. But with each race she was taking longer and longer to wake up. By the time the final came around she didn't wake up at all and came home last.

"I had put everything into the first three races and by the final I had nothing left," she said. "I was in limbo for the whole race. I lost it right from the start and just got further and further behind."

Seoul, however, saw the realisation of Holland's dream of reaching an Olympic final. But after coming back down to earth in Sydney she suffered the post-Olympic blues and was undecided about her future.

Her selection for the Budapest World Indoor Games next month has given her new enthusiasm. "I still have off days when I don't feel like training," she said. "The world indoor has given me a goal and I want to win a medal. I need short-term goals - to be competing, to be involved.

"I've never run indoors before. I've heard there is a lot of sharp corners and bounce on the wooden track. I'll be sharpening elbows to get around the bends."

Holland is using the 300m and Sunday's 400m race as the lead-up for the indoor games and hopes to run in the low 36s tonight.

"If I can't break 37s I will be very disappointed," she said.