The Marathoner Speaks to His God

“Geraldi’s,” Alberto Salazar said. The pain — a blade turning in the middle of his back — was in abeyance. “They have the best subs in town, and it’s only a 10-minute drive.”

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Brent Humphreys

 

Brent Humphreys/Redux, For The New York Times

THE ONCE AND FUTURE ALBERTO Salazar (left) and Galen Rupp, the coach’s best prospect in his quest to produce the next great American runner.

Salazar, Galen Rupp and the Rohatinsky brothers, Josh and Jared, were walking from the parking lot toward the central lawn at Nike corporate headquarters in Oregon on the final day of June this year. “I know this place over in southeast Portland,” Rupp said. “A little mom-and-pop deli. You wouldn’t believe how high they stack their turkey.” It was a short walk — only a few hundred yards.

“If this were a weekday, we’d eat lunch here on campus,” Salazar told the brothers. Josh Rohatinsky, a promising young marathoner from Utah, had recently joined Salazar’s stable of runners, and Jared was in town for a brief visit. “But the cafe at the Mia Hamm building is closed on Saturday.”