IU alum pursuing dream

Tom Brooks ran a personal best of 8 minutes, 36.3 seconds in the 3,000 meter steeplechase last week at the Cardinal Qualifier at Stanford University, allowing him to qualify for the U.S. Track & Field Olympic Trials. \nThe days before the race, his second to last chance to qualify, Brooks said he was optimistic.\n"I'm super confident," said Brooks, heading into the twilight meet. "I'm not concerned. My times are coming down." \nAnd down they've come. Just three weeks ago Brooks clocked 8:44.4 in the Victoria International Track Classic. After coming in more than five seconds under the qualifying time of 8:42.0, he will toe up with at least two dozen other hopefuls at the Trials July 9-18 in Sacramento, Calif.\nRanked fifth all-time in the steeplechase at IU, where his best effort was 8:57.65, Brooks has been preparing for more than a year for a shot at the upcoming quadrennial test. But only after embarking on a career did he acknowledge that he had Olympic reveries.\nWith a business degree boosted by high-octane majors in accounting, finance and computer information systems, Brooks began a promising career as an accounting programs expert in the Chicago office of Deloitte Consulting LLP.\nBut Brooks was uneasy. He had left Bloomington after graduation in 2001 with a lump in his throat, thinking his racing days were over, and the tug of feats unattained was drawing him to an athlete's confident expectation that he could perform better. \n"I can run much faster than I have," Brooks said he realized after a few months on the job. "I have unfinished business in running." \nBut the view on the running horizon was obstructed by living in Chicago and traveling full time to Deloitte client sites around the country to implement computer programs. \nBrooks was logging 55-60 miles a week but needed to increase the distance and intensity of his runs to become competitive. He needed to be in a climate not only more suitable to year-round training but also associated with other elite athletes so he could benefit from group training. \nThe young systems consultant approached his boss and proposed a relocation to Santa Monica, Calif., and a reduced workload. \n"I told my boss about my passion for running and my dream of making the Olympic team," Brooks said. "He then said to me, 'We can make this happen.'" \nSo in June 2003, Brooks moved to Southern California, where he was reassigned to a non-traveling, part-time position that let him work at home and, more importantly, train full time. \nBrooks had been communicating with other IU runners in the Midwest who also had Olympic hopes including John Teipen, Dan Billish, Chris Ekman and fellow steeplechaser Tom Charney, who will race in the Trials, accompanying Brooks on his move to California.\nBrooks wasted no time getting down to business, sandwiching about five hours of office work between morning and evening workouts. For several months he put in 100-135 miles a week, over 15-16 runs a week clocking about 6 minutes per mile. During this time, he also performed daily stretching routines, yoga exercises and technique drills, as well as push ups, pull ups and sit ups, all with a focus on core muscles. \n"I wanted to push the envelope and to reshape my thinking about what hard work was," Brooks said by phone from Eugene, Ore where he is being coached by Dick Brown, mentor to Olympic runners for two decades. "I wanted to take the risk, to see how I could hold up."\nMore recently, he tapered his weekly distance total to 60-80 miles. \nSuffering only a slight upper quad soft-tissue strain during the intense training, Brooks' time has dropped from a previous best of 8:57.65, set in his senior year at the 2001 Drake Relays.\nBrown points to several attributes that Brooks brings to the starting line. Among them are his intelligence and discipline in balancing training and recovery, as well as "an incredible sense of pace" that has translated into a potent finishing kick. \nThe steeplechase is not a high school event, so Brooks arrived at IU as a reputable cross-country runner, miler and two-miler. But at 6-foot-2 he was ideally built for the track event that requires strong and agile runners who must clear four hurdles and seven water jumps while completing the 3,000 meters. \n"If you would have asked me five years ago, I would have made the odds of him making the 2004 Olympic Trials at 10,000 to 1," commented IU track and field coach Dave Chapman. "Tom had a clear vision of what he wanted to accomplish and the patience and grinding nature to make it a reality."\n-- Contact staff writer Bill Meehan at wmeehan@indiana.edu.