Head Case - by Olivia Wagner

This is a story done by Olivia Wagner, who is a Division-I soccer player at the University of Maryland studying journalism and Boulder, CO native. She asked to do an article and here's what she wrote. Enjoy!!

          Tony Stafford is a head case. But it’s what goes on in his head that is so critical for his success. At first glance, the vision of his ridiculously fit body would cause you to believe that that is where his success lies. However, it is his determined mind that drives his success in a field where trainers with aesthetically perfect bodies are commonplace. His body has not always been a temple, either. You would never know it, but at one point in Tony’s life he couldn’t even run the two-mile fitness test that his Masters Degree in Criminal Justice required. So it might surprise people that knew him back then to see him not only as an endurance athlete, who will be running 10 to 15 marathons before August of this year, but also training people in Boulder, Colorado who aspire to run marathons, triathlons, master their sport and just get more fit.

            But Tony isn’t only training these endurance athletes for their big race days, he is also running the big race with them as a marathon pacer. And this is his true passion. Now, not only does he have to focus on his own breathing, form, and mile times, but he is also responsible for all of these things and more for an entire group of runners. This is where Tony’s mental capabilities kick in.

            “The more and more races I do, I feel that not only do I get physically stronger, however, mentally I am tougher as I know what to expect from my body, my mind and my results; and how to handle those tough situations,” Tony explains.

 Whether the pace is 3:40, 3:20 or 3:10, Tony is out on the course sacrificing his own body so that others can feel the same joy he felt the first time he crossed the finish line after 26.2 miles of running. And you can tell by the way his eyes twitch back and forth when he talks and by the way he is always moving around that he can’t wait to be thrust into that kind of pressure situation. Every marathon he paces for a new group of runners is a new mountain, a new plan of attack, and a whole new opportunity for success.

            “I can remember back to my first marathon, there was a flood of different emotions that I can’t even put into words. It is cool to relive that with other runners. Whether they just qualified for Boston, which is a big deal, or just completed their first marathon,” Tony said.

            Does he feel responsible for these people trying to achieve their goals? You bet he does.

“Totally responsible,” said Tony, “As a pacer, you must hit every mile on time for the goal time you are trying to achieve. This means you must have a strategy for everything: water breaks, breathing, running form.” All for more than 26 miles. This kind of leadership position requires a set of skills including, but not limited to being a motivator, an educator and even a cheerleader. He’s the one still cheering you on at the finish line, jumping up and down and yelling with excitement. There is no end to his energy.

            Before he was a pacer, Tony said he had utilized one five or six times and only one of those times turned out to be a good experience. He said, “As a runner you want to make sure that if you rely on someone else you have a good experience.”

            But the leadership role Tony is thrust into on race day isn’t anything new for him. On the days when he isn’t helping other people reach their marathon goals, he is training his Boulder Sports Performance athletes to be the best at their chosen sport. But this isn’t your typical gym workout. It is an all-outdoor workout that on any given day could include hiking Mount Sanitas in Boulder, running around the track at Boulder High School and even doing shoulder presses with rocks they find where they are working out. You might carry pails full of sand one day and run Red Rocks Park in Morrison the next. It is all done with the intention of keeping a high heart rate of 70-75 percent over 60 minutes.

Tony clarifies, “It’s for people who want to work, and if you don’t want to be there then don’t be there.”

            I have seen this brutal reality first hand in one of Tony’s Athletic Conditioning classes at the gym he used to work at. In fact, he usually announces to the class his intentions to make you work, and if you aren’t prepared then you can leave. People always do. The brave souls who stay already feel a spike in their heart rate due to the thoughts they have of what Tony could have possibly planned for that day. It is bound to include pouring sweat, limbs shaking from fatigue and literally praying for 60 minutes to be up. And after 60 minutes of Tony-style intensity that will make you beg for wall sits and lunges (both of which he considers to be a ‘break’), you feel pretty good about what you have accomplished. Which is why he founded BSP.

            When asked about the type of mental toughness that is required for one of his BSP workouts, Tony said, "Mental toughness is something that people can develop. Just like a person works physically at their particular sport, they need to constantly be aware of pushing over those mental hurdles. It is one of the hardest things to achieve because the brain is such a powerful organ." 

For Tony, it seems the mental hurdles are shrinking more and more everyday. When he was running in an ultra marathon in Colorado, he explained that it wasn’t about how much he could mentally push through, it was about his body telling his mind that it had had enough.

 "After running more than 100 miles, my body just gave out on me. Mentally, I was prepared to keep going, however, physically I was unable to continue. If I had gone forward to complete the 200 miles, it would have caused more damage physically in the long term and I did not feel that pushing through the physical pain was the smartest idea.”

            Although BSP is all about the sweat and grit of training, it’s also about meeting people just like you who want to feel good about their training, and the sacrifices they make for it. Once a month, Tony’s athletes get together for “Happy Hours”, but these aren’t your typical happy hours, these are sans alcohol. Because as Tony puts it, “It sucks to go out on Saturday night and get up hungover and run.” It’s nice to know there are people with common goals in mind who you can be social with and still get your butt kicked the next day in one of his workouts.

            As Tony continues to push his athletes to the next level, he hasn’t forgotten about his own ambitions. In March he will attempt a Guinness World Record by running a full marathon with a 40-pound pack on his back. He will do this at the Bataan Death March Marathon in White Sands, New Mexico that honors the soldiers who defended the islands of the Philippines in World War II. This record, which hasn’t been broken for 20 years, will be at the mercy of a runner who knows how to push himself and believes he can do anything he trains for. Even run a marathon with 40 extra pounds on his back? “After a while you get used to it,” he says.

            Tony also wants to round out the year with a 100 mile race, the Leadville 50 and the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C. He hopes that these races will not only fulfill his desire to be a great endurance athlete, but also inspire others to get out and train to go further than they ever thought they could. At one time, Tony’s aspirations to be the greatest he can be may have been the only goal in sight, but now he holds the goals of all his athletes and runners in his vision. And what a strong and reliable vision that is to have.