a got around with will my name is jeff benjamin i write for the running network and i'm from staten island and i'm your host for today's segment we are really really lucky here today because we have a strong new york flavor in the studio as well as a flavor of the manhattan college jasper program joining me today is the two time olympian new york state high school mile record holder still to this day four minutes and two seconds from powell memorial his son who we're going to get into a little while the ch welcome coach thank you jeff good good good for our viewers matt sensuous who is with us today is the father of the olympic gold medalist matthew censure would so throughout the interview when we start discussing that i'm referring to our present guest and matthew who is the son the olympic champion the other thing is that matt has written a book which is done very very well in sales and the book is called like father like son and on the cover is matt with matthew and we're going to get into the book because a lot of it is matt sensuous is a life stories here which very riveting a lot of on real stuff and i think i speak on behalf of a lot of people when we import people to please consider buying this book is not just a book about running but it's a book about life as well and we're also going to discuss that this might be in the works for a movie production very soon which is really really great we're not going to reveal everything in the book we want to get people to buy the book so if we get some c hangers i guess that's pretty much what we want to do here so let's get into some background because both of you are new york city products for the most part right carrie is a brooklynite right and want to tell us what high school you ran for him share yeah i went to up in a very tough situation parents were pretty much separated you had with your father for a little bit with your brother which was not a happy situation you don't you want to put your mom your mom out on health problems i remember reading when you were in college she and doctors gave her like one percent chance of survival and lo and behold she survived thank god and you know running really was your salvation like for a lot of us and so when you got to andrew jackson which at that time period it was new york city schools that were out of control which is an understatement to tell some of the things that were going on back that there was a lot of things going on it was a turbulent time everywhere with the riots vietnam  going on but it will be a part of the team i focused on student athlete and stayed focus regardless what goes on around us and i was one of the benefits a huge benefit been a track cross country team and having teammates are reinforce attended a catholic institution in which you know just been there to go on from t shirts to sport coats and ties and college shirts i was just into a lot of new things and it was it was helpful but it was tough at the same time right right and you know for those who were not aware all in that era your address dictated what high school you went to unless you got accepted to a stuyvesant ory bronx high school of science or something like that so like if you lived in a certain street that's the school you're going to go to  as you mentioned when you went back to the bronx back that did leave the option where you did get to go to a catholic private school days world of a new york city bombing of education is totally different any kid can pretty much go to whatever school they want the address other runners as well as i had fun work hard it was a good combination that i learned from the older brothers and we carried on the tradition kept going right right right and to stand on things here because we're not going to get the forgotten borough in today's show number one i would have to think that maybe one of your greatest high school disappointments was losing a monsignor pharrell in the four by eight hundred coach by george kotchman so i have never seen video of the race but i believe that you want to try to catch the anchor  guy if i'm correct correct and would you remember who the guy was or have we put that to rest probably remember except from the studio very nervous remember his name but coach it'll probably be the most uncomfortable question you're going to get to so don't run every saturday morning three miles has a speed run that used to be run on wednesday night by kurt steiner when he was alive and joe klein a minute harry murphy when they were alive and now it's continued on thursday nights by tommy hart and one of things that was brought up was we're still trying to debate what was the fastest three mile ever ran there and just so you know your name has come up as well as tony cologne and the story is that you guys came back from the pan am games and came down there and we believe that both you broke some sometimes it is you know it's i guess it's a hit or miss now you know for a two mile when you ran that went once again we believe this is the oldest record in the state high school list was the track center no no no it's a junior nationals in florida ok right right right potential in everybody and and just wanted to get people loving the sport and running and just kind of challenging themselves and so it was a slow start for me but it was just a very organic start with a great group of girls and i just loved it so i went from not a state champion a thing like that really respectable enough enough to have some interest from some coaches coach matt here right and your for your st cross country race if you remember it well i remember not having a uniform yet so i was believe they had just come off their n c a a championship yes right so but then after a year you switched over to oregon and up going out there two i want to tell us about going out there and your interactions and especially the one going to be quite is quite a scene when it opens up but you know as i was looking for a new challenge i'm from a lived in that neighborhood and college and the kids the run is they were very friendly and help in my development so i have a lot of years spent for those guys are still my lifelong friends are alumni of the track team and stay in constant contact with them and appreciate everything they did but looking for a new challenge and that was even was in coed it was a lot is a different right and in your book which i don't want to reveal everything you had somewhat of a distant relationship with prefontaine but then it was starting to get closer to he died tragically in a car crash yeah i think part of the thing you know the track we got going i think he is it's not a good thing most of the time you're better off staying home working through your problems but for me i need a new environment and i responded very well to coach telling john and in seventy six make it work between yes you're in the six hundred and great teammates you also had a guy called dawn clary right who was a state to state worker by over fifty seconds in the two mile for the last go which is pretty amazing so everybody the team was different character from all different serious about the sport and get a taste you know a little taste of success and some taste of failure you know being i think my freshman year outdoors i was th in the eight hundred so eleven place at a scoring and that just didn't sit well and that kind of motivated me to come back sophomore year much more serious much more focused and so it was a pretty steady progression but i but i was a consistent score in baiji i was winning some conference events and then you know top three and others and by my senior year out and i had established myself as kind of leader in the middle distance events in the conference and had a lot of fun kind of defending you know those descending order lifts and runs right when it came to the championship so yeah i was fortunate to be around good teams and have opportunity to be a leader time and you know what you guys you know you both realize athletes whether you ran from manhattan as going or i consider yourself where you're at oregon to be your freshman year you know because i want to get to school environment same thing you know like you know what we have to develop over the long term and i know that that's the philosophy you guys are bringing back to manhattan the eighty one picks comes along and is the boycott and you actually wrote the book a little bit about the white house how did you guys then you know you're all given these medals and you did think was the greatest thing the greatest honor at the moment and so afterwards when you saw to give up a track meet or the olympics is still just a track meet if it's going to save lives over the war i was happy to do it at the time right respect a woman very happy then follow up on too many things but anyway that's just politics and unfortunately philips was designed to to make sure that it was stopped and we want to know what the games but that didn't happen that's correct that's correct yeah but after that though you started out there and when the run was all over my coach the time was our whole art took tony and i and brought him up to you and frank shorter and jeff smith and you were in a rush because you want to go somewhere like it like you have when you became a world class runner especially nearly eight you coached at st john's a bit right you're making some financial financial stuff from the sport yes unfortunately you've started having i believe hamstring issues leading all over the for you so i want you just tell us a little bit about that gourmet coffee right as a guy in oregon it was a runner and he was from coast to rica and he introduced me to he was making fresh roasted coffee  coaching job with coach what makes running different than other sports i think it's really an individual a lot of individuals would be on clay who got a time and right time at american university right down in d presented to me by john love it and i always wanted to run for matt he recruited me down to america and i wasn't ready to leave new york city yet but i always wanted to run for many of that so i guess that i mean that was dormant for four years   but it was it was a good move and i was i had run for about three weeks but then as soon as i made that decision matt called me pretty soon after to tell me to start running again so yeah it was only three weeks that i didn't run but it was i had a lifetime intention and said to get back into that mindset was kind of this thing and you've never left it at this and that and i went from you know competing right into coaching so fortunately that transition was very smooth right and i guess team and you know he's always been somebody who's really been into the sport and he gives a lot of credit to you whenever i see him so he goes well now that's awfully funny because one thing we're not going to mention in the book is that if you believe that matt sensuous was this parent who told his kids you're going to rot and that's it you're in for a surprise there's a lot of great anecdotes in the book about how matt the father here separate himself totally from the sport when it came to his kids and his two of his kids and i remember two thousand and twelve matthew walking through the opening ceremonies in london taking in the olympic experience and then in the final finishes th which is i think was point to from a medal  i remember showing up and tony is reading something about matthew saying hey you know matthew was even right down here yet he's not even looking at the opening ceremonies and i don't think with my running history that sebastian coe did the same thing as  didn't watch their opening ceremonies in the two olympics that they were in because the track stuff was always later on in the program so that st week gymnastics all that other stuff you could argue that coming down there too early could take your focus off of what you want to do he could do it blindfolded he seems to have the sun canny th sense to put himself in the proper position the right place at the right time is the standing to me as a fan to watch no matter what the pace yeah that what are you thinking with two left to meters and had a fight for that position back again going to last lap and it was just about holding him off at that point your thoughts right there as you cross the finish what it was disbelief to buy i mean it's a lifelong dream come true really and so to have my stadium quite openly in rio i stumbled upon matt with the whole crew there all going crazy and everything and we all ran to try to get into the front row area for the medal ceremony and you included me which i'm grateful for you  few weeks of usa nationals and the world championships are a little later this year in october but i also think the fact that he really hasn't raced with an easier has set up to be very fresh hopefully catapulting him into two thousand and twenty three starts what i  matthew's best buddy and chris ran like one in five and a half marathon if i'm correct yes the work the national championships and ten k i believe yeah yeah in college i was one we'll be back this year as well as my son will be attending camp we look at champion two time new york city marathon champ us and we passed away a few years ago my coach for twenty five years he told us a story how after he won the gold medal dave went to a camp with tom out in pennsylvania and won him at the kids and everything and then tom drove into the airport and about a month later thomas cleaned out the trunk of his coffee it in there was what was gold but a lot of the remember that he lost the gold medal so yes that's sort of the future of the manhattan college program because you know you guys were brought in and all of a sudden the program has really great so coach go want to tell us what's going on yeah you say there's a lot of excitement just coming into manhattan college cross country and track and field again got a great history of got coaches on the staff that have all been adamant that american  hand in somewhere and other and so there's a real connection to the school to the tradition from the staff and all the things that are coming in and can really sense that and they're excited to kind of make their mark and put their contribution now it takes time to  build a program and or rebuild a program so there's going to be growing pains and all of us have run our good races in our bad ones or in our bad ones are just as important towards that success so it's just an exciting time we're growing and there's a lot of enthusiasm