#12 Preview: Joe Eby's Six Degrees of Separation

Current Allegheny Assistant/Mount alum Joe Eby spilled his guts for well over an hour, covering everything from his experiences at Mount (Joe was a 4-time OAC Champion, 13-time All-OAC performer and All-American), a summer full of traveling (and running with the likes of Olympian Brian Sell, Ryan Bak, Josh Rohatinsky and others), building a premiere track & field meet from scratch (the new, very successful Allegheny Gator Invitational), how the current state of OAC distance running compares to his time at Mount way back at the turn of the century and so much more.

Expect Joe's complete interview (Talk Show #12) along with Ohio Northern's Senior Quintet (#11) to be posted within the next week.

For now, feast on some of the quotes from the interview. After you're done reading some of this stuff the title of this post might start to make a little more sense. Also notice the first Let's Run-style OAC Distance quote to grace the top of the front page taken from Joe's interview (they say imitation is the highest form of flattery...they can sue us if they don't like it).

On his experiences/travels this summer to the U.S. Olympic Trials, etc:

*When I knew the Trials were going to Eugene, He (Ryan Bak) lived in Eugene so I called him up and said, "Hey, I'm looking for a place to stay." I've hosted him a couple times for different meets and he always said, "if I can refurn the favor let me know," so he let Becky and I--my wife--stay with him out in Eugene for the Trials.

*I run for Brooks and we were hanging out at the Brooks house a lot and he came out for one of the morning runs and the end of the run came down to myself, Brian Sell's and my rep from Brooks and Zach Ross--it was just the four of us, and that was like the last 45 minutes, so we just got to run with him and talk with him which was a pretty cool experience...

*The Trials was an amazing time. I would compare it with being at Fantasy Camp. I mean everywhere you went, we went out to dinner and Jen Rhines is there with Terrance Mahon, and Adam Nelson's sitting a couple tables away from us. We'd go out on a run and see Amy Hastings or Anna Willard or, I saw Gabe Jennings, Leo Manzano...everywhere you went you're running into people.

*...then went to Portland to visit one of my friends from high school out there. I stayed with him and I got to go to the Adidas Headquarters because he works at Adidas and he knows Josh Rohatinsky real well so we went over to his house and played Wii with him and he was going for a run so I just jumped in with him and went for another easy run with him.

*...Bernard Lagat actually sat in front of my wife on our plane flight from Eugene to Seattle. When we were in Seattle we went and visited the Brooks Headquarters and kind of took in sights up there and then went to a wedding in San Antonio and I think last Saturday was the first time I'd slept in my own bed since January. So yeah, it was a lot of traveling, but it's been a lot of fun.

*I met Pat Tyson randomly just walking with my buddy. I was just trying to help him with some Adidas stuff, I was carrying some Adidas posters and stuff and I dropped something on the ground and Pat Tyson happened to be walking behind us and he was like, "oh here, let me help you carry that," so everywhere you go you're always running into someone who's done something or run really fast.

We're certainly going to have to call Joe in the future for a sequel interview. Stay tuned for Episodes 11 & 12, coming soon!