Symposium Compares Brains and Brawn

Author: David Barker

When Gary Margolis '67 was a three-sport athlete at Middlebury College, his coach put it bluntly - "You're either a student or an athlete." Tackling this delicate and sometimes confused balance between athletics and academics provided the theme for the inaugural "Inspiration and Perspiration" symposium last Thursday.

Margolis, now an associate professor of English and director of the Center for Counseling and Human Relations, was joined by Jay Parini, D.E. Axinn Professor of Creative Writing, retired UVM Professor of Biology Bernd Heinrich and Scholar-in-Residence and symposium organizer Bill McKibben. The four men discussed "endurance" in the classroom as well as on the athletic fields.

Award-winning dancer Paul Matteson '00 and members of the College Dance Company performed short pieces to represent the night's theme. Given that there was no music, the stamina required to pull off the dramatic and graceful pieces was communicated to the audience in Dana Auditorium by the dancers' heavy breathing.

"You really knew what hard physical work it was," said McKibben.

Parini stood in contrast to the lithe, swan-like dancers, as he ambled to the podium with the grace of someone getting out of bed.

He began,"I don't look like an athlete and there's a reason for that."

Although he's a regular at noon hoops at Pepin Gym, Parini explained that his endurance is best witnessed at Steve's Park Diner just off Main Street, where he writes poetry every morning.

"I've always admired the steady writer," he commented while discussing the feats of endurance scribes like Balzac and Anthony Trollope. Commenting on the ostensibly maniacal training of Middlebury athletes, Parini said, "Endurance requires love - not just hard work."

Like Parini, Margolis drew on his experience as a writer to talk about endurance.

His sports poetry has been collected in "American Sports Poems," including a piece on Michael Jordan, which was praised by the retired basketball legend. His reading of poems like "Slow Words for Shoreham and the Apple Blossom Derby" underscored the endurance needed to run the long-standing Shoreham road race.

Practically bounding on stage like an antelope was Heinrich, who has combined his passions for ultra-distance running with writing about endurance physiology and the hunter-gatherer lifestyles of early humans.

"We are descendants of endurance predators," he said. "Before the bow and the spear, our weapon was running." Because of our ability to get rid of heat through sweat glands, Heinrich thinks humans "are made to run."

The audience shifted restlessly in their seats when Heinrich related his jaw-dropping records in the 100-kilometer, 100-mile and 24-hour run. In the span of 24 hours, Heinrich ran 157 miles on a quarter-mile track. "I've always admired him both as a writer and an endurance athlete," said McKibben of Heinrich.

The 50 who remained for the screening of "Endurance" were treated to the story of Haile Gebrselassie, the famed Ethiopian distance runner who went from the impoverished Ethiopian grasslands to the medal stand at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

Since President John McCardell has been a leader in the effort to define the changing role of Division III athletics, McKibben hopes to have a symposium next year to further the discussion about academics and athletics.

Reflecting on the outcome of last week's symposium, McKibben said, "It was great fun watching people connect."