Socialing The Distance, featuring Clayton Murphy - The Importance of Cross Country/Akron University Program, Clip 1

Clayton Murphy, 2018 USATF Champs, photo by Mike Deering / The Shoe Addicts

Clayton Murphy is beginning a trip today, going from Portland, Oregon to the state of Ohio, near the campus of the University of Akron. We did a 40 minute interview with Clayton Murphy, the 2016 Olympic bronze medalist at the 800 meters. Murphy’s stretch run, down the final 100m of the Engenhao Stadium track, gained him an Olympic medal with a gutty run to the finish.

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Now, Clayton Murphy and his fiance, Ariana Washington, will move to Ohio. Clayton will be coached by his college coach, Lee LaBadie. This was after 2 years under Coach Alberto Salazar at the Nike Oregon Distance Project. When Nike closed down the Nike Oregon Distance Project in 2019, Clayton had some decisions to make. He choose to move back to Ohio.

Clayton Murphy, 2018 USATF Champs, photo by Mike Deering / The Shoe Addicts

In this first clip from our new series, Socializing the Distance, we feature Clayton Murphy, on the importance of the of the Cross Country at the University of Akron. Clayton Murphy believes that cross country made a huge impact on his success in the Olympics. He is a big fan of the team and came back two days after Beijing 2015, and joined in the Akron cross country team time trials, to support the team.

We thank Clayton Murphy for his time, and his enthusiasm. We thank Mike Deering of The Shoe Addicts for managing the interviews and producing the series.

Clayton Murphy, 2016 US Olympic Trials, photo by Mike Deering / The Shoe Addicts

Author

Larry Eder
Larry Eder has had a 52-year involvement in the sport of athletics. Larry has experienced the sport as an athlete, coach, magazine publisher, and now, journalist and blogger. His first article, on Don Bowden, America's first sub-4 minute miler, was published in RW in 1983. Larry has published several magazines on athletics, from American Athletics to the U.S. version of Spikes magazine. He currently manages the content and marketing development of the RunningNetwork, The Shoe Addicts, and RunBlogRun. Of RunBlogRun, his daily pilgrimage with the sport, Larry says: "I have to admit, I love traveling to far away meets, writing about the sport I love, and the athletes I respect, for my readers at runblogrun.com, the most of anything I have ever done, except, maybe running itself." Also does some updates for BBC Sports at key events, which he truly enjoys. Theme song: Greg Allman, " I'm no Angel."
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