German’s efforts and career is a profound example of what running is not. Raw physical talent alone is not solely responsible for producing amazing outcomes. Running is 50% circumstantial and given that fact, often talent is at the mercy of the environment in which one operates. Optimizing your training and eliminating your distractions is as important as integrating your diet and sacrificing your social life. Even when everything seems to be lining up perfectly, you still can be sidetracked by happenstance. Watching German in high school was simply jaw dropping, he was capable of running at a whole other competitive level that the rest of us could just dream of. If things had gone his way, he should have easily been where Grant Fisher is now, but it wasn’t in the cards, although honestly we know he was more than capable. The fact that he worked a lot of hours during his senior year didn’t seem to slow him down, although he clearly demonstrated his humility after his Cal State Victories. There’s not a kid out there running cross country or distance track today who wouldn’t be impressed by German’s races and true gravitas with which he executed them. On paper, the Young’s and Salaman seem to have an advantage, but their whole training context has been entirely different and much more clinically approached. Nothing in German’s world was pampered - NOTHING! And I think ultimately, that held him back in that he almost seem to believe that he didn’t deserve to be there at the top. I remember seeing him rabbit out a race very hard and then pulling over watching the others go by and you could just see the look in his face that said “I could have easily continued that with no problem, why didn’t I?”
