Ian Dobson on his rivalry with Ryan Hall

Ian Dobson races in Beijing and with Ryan Hall at Stanford. Contributed Photos.

After an illustrious career at Klamath Union High School in Oregon, Ian Dobson ran for the Stanford Cardinal where he was a 9-time All-American and NCAA runner-up (5000m) in track and field. In 2005, Ian was runner-up at the US Championships in the 5000 meters. This qualified him to compete for the United States at the 2005 World Championships. In 2008, Dobson finished 3rd at the US Olympic Trials in the 5000 meters earning a birth at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. While Ian never earned a world medal he had opportunities most of us can only dream of...competing in a national uniform. He ended his career training with the Oregon Track Club in 2012. From his days at Stanford to the end of his career Ian was a team player. In this edition of Pro-Tips Ian takes some time to chat with AZ Milesplit about his time at Stanford training with fellow Olympian Ryan Hall.

Arizona Milesplit: Tell us a little about your rivalry at Stanford with Ryan Hall, was it friendly or competitive? How did your encourage/motivate each other to do better?

Ian Dobson: Ryan and I had a very friendly relationship while we were teammates at Stanford. We were also very competitive and, maybe counter-intuitively, we worked best together when we were both really running well. I'm a year older than Ryan, so he was a freshman when I was a sophomore. For the first couple years, we were both a little inconsistent and I think the frustration from that kept us from being great training partners, but once we both started clicking, things went smoothly.

To be honest, I think I always got more out of training with Ryan than he did out training with me. He's so self-motivated that he doesn't need anyone to push him in workouts or anything like that. However, especially in our last year at Stanford, I think there was a camaraderie that was good for both of us.

AZ MS: How were you and Ryan Hall able to help each other in college during training?

Ian: After my third year at Stanford (Ryan's second) our coach, Vin Lananna, left the program. He was replaced by Andy Gerard and some of the guys on the team had a hard time with that transition. Andy was a great coach, but some of the older guys weren't excited about the change. I don't know if Ryan and I ever actually talked about it, but we both made the decision to buy in to Coach Gerard. We both ended up running well under Coach Gerard and I know that had a lot to do with simply making up our minds to commit to his program. That didn't mean just passively doing whatever he said (we were both proactive in making sure we had input in our training), but I think we really helped each other be confident through that transition.

AZ MS: You and Ryan certainly traded winning race, shoot I remember watching you two try and chase down Tim Broe in 2005. How did having a teammate in there help you race better? How did you work together to put away the competition in the 2005 NCAA 5K final?

Ian: Again, I think Ryan was a lot more help to me in those races than I was to him. Ryan was the guy with the confidence to make big moves and take chances. I felt that I was a fit as him at the time, so I was pretty much always up for following along, but he was usually the catalyst. In both the races you mention, NCAAs and US Nationals in 2005, we had agreed to help each other out if we were able to get away from the pack. As long ago as those races were, I still distinctly remember not wanting to help with the pace but forcing myself to lead for at least a couple of the tough laps just so that I wouldn't leave Ryan hanging. It actually worked great - Ryan or someone else would sort of get things going, I would take a few laps later in the race, and then Ryan would take over again at some point.

AZ MS: How were you able to be a good teammate to Ryan when he had a good race? How did he return the favor?

Ian: To be honest, I don't think we were always great teammates to each other. I hope Ryan doesn't mind me saying that I think we both lacked a little maturity early on. I think the turning point came when we started to see our success tied up with each other. Even though there's always a winner and a loser in our sport, competition withing a team doesn't have to be strictly a zero-sum situation. Later in college we were able to recognize each other as not only friends, but as assets. Especially for me, it was clear that if I attached myself to Ryan and worked to make things fun and cooperative, he was going to pull me along to some great things. I keep saying it, but Ryan is such an outlier in his independence and discipline that I don't think he got quite as much out of it. But I'd like to think that as we because better friends and really came to enjoy our time together, it might have helped Ryan a little bit too.

AZ MS: At 6'2" you were a little taller than the average distance runner, in what ways were you able to use your height to your advantage?

Ian: I don't think my height was ever really an asset; it probably helped some of my teammates during windy cross country races, but I always tried to ignore height, weight, etc. The truth is that most of the best distance runners are shorter and lighter than me. However, at a certain point we're all outliers and I always felt that despite being a few inches taller than average, I was built well for running and had the ability to compete with some of the best runners.

AZ MS: What other advice do you have for high school athletes?

Ian: My advice is to take your role on your team seriously. Good teammates are performance enhancing, but no one will put up with a one way street for very long. If you have a strong team culture, do everything you can to dive in to that. Be part of the social, academic and athletic support system for your teammates (and not just the fast ones!) Find a way to really genuinely care about how they do.

If you don't have a strong team culture, be the one who steps up and creates it. If you've read this far into this interview, you must be really in to running, so take that interest and enthusiasm and figure out how to create a team and teammates that care about each other. Your coach should support you, but ultimately it's up to the leaders on the team to define the culture.

I've been lucky enough to experience our sport at almost every level and I've never had more fun than I had with my high school cross country team.

Up Next: We will get to hear Ryan Hall's side of the story.