Back In Korea, Rick Lee Is Going For It

This is Rick Lee in Monmouth, New Jersey, on July 11 setting the world record in the 2000-meter steeplechase in 7:00.35. Rick is after more records next week at The World Masters Athletics Championships. Photo by Jason Timochko.

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By Ray Glier

For the first 14 years of his life growing up in Korea, Rick Lee’s family did not have electricity or running water. When he had to go somewhere, Rick walked. When he had to go, Rick used an outhouse. Lee grew up in rural SangJu (1961-1976) where many families were subsistence farmers, a type of agriculture where households are able to grow just enough crops and raise animals only to feed themselves. When he visited this week and talked with village elders who remembered him as a child, it was the same hardscrabble place, he said. 

His back story gives you an idea of the life force that will stir inside the 65-year old Lee these next 13 days. Rick is back in his birth country of Korea for the first time in 50 years participating in the World Masters Athletic Championships in Daegu. 

Starting today, which is actually tomorrow in Daegu, Rick is doing seven events, or nine races, including qualifiers. 

He is not saving his legs for glory in two or three events because he has a legitimate shot at seven individual medals. Halfway around the world from his home in Bayville, N.J., Lee could fly home not only with medals, but with multiple world records and American records.

That 65 years of accumulated life force Lee is toting around Korea extends to Lee’s ridiculous range as a runner at an elite level.

On the track, Rick is currently ranked No. 1 in the world in the 5000 meters, 2000-meter steeplechase, 3000 meters, mile, and 1500- meter run and third in the world in the 800 meters (M65-69). In road racing, Lee is No. 1 in the world in the mile and 5000 meters. 

Do not ask how Rick can make big things happen in Korea. Ask why. He has the why and that is always more important than the how.

“I love racing, it’s not too much,” Lee said by phone from Korea. “I love just the energy of competing and meeting wonderful people from all around the world.”

His schedule would be insanely ambitious for most, but Lee has a robust recovery mechanism built from eight years of running ultra marathons and marathons. More life force.

Rick is seeded in the top three in six events, which means he could actually be competitive for six gold medals. Lee could also medal in the 800 as he guns for the American record of 2:17.20 set in 2007 by Frank Condon.

Rick has skills that have nothing to do with his legs: competitiveness from owning his own engineering business for 33 years and poise to not get overwhelmed at the tasks at the WMA. 

“Not at all,” he said when I asked if he was heaping pressure on himself with so many events. “It's racing. I mean, I feel confident.”

Rick has reason to be confident. He owns four world records. One indoors (mile) and three outdoors (1500, 2000-meter steeplechase, 4x800 relay).

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Korea is a blank to him. When he landed in Seoul last week, Lee said he felt no emotional attachment, but he is leaving the door open for nostalgia to come rushing in. In a What's App message yesterday after visiting his birthplace, it seems some sentiment did return.

Rick is no longer fluent in Korean. He can mumble a few words so that “I won’t starve” when trying to order food. His niece, who was born in Korea, and her husband are traveling with Lee and his girlfriend, Kathy Huggins, a runner for Team USA (5000, 8 kilometer cross country, 10k, half marathon for W55).

Even with little connection remaining to Korea, Rick knows he owes some of his athletic prowess to SangJu. He walked everywhere as a youngster. Those legs were nurtured and toned on the dusty paths of the village.

Lee also knows how to pull through and persist when conditions are not ideal. Subsistence farming meant many families produced just enough food to survive on small plots of land and had no food to sell or trade. Surviving meant labor. Heat meant buring wood.

That is Rick in the middle with mother and siblings.

Here is what else his Asian heritage brings. Rick said he practiced martial arts and he has no doubt it contributed to developing his fast-twitch muscles. It is not a stereotype to link martial arts with Lee’s Asian roots because martial arts did not swell in popularity in the U.S. until the 1970s and 1980s.

His first few days back in Korea, Rick marveled over the characteristics of his birth country, especially the urban planning and cleanliness. He will do sightseeing when he can, not sit in ice baths to recover.

What makes his journey more inspiring is Lee is getting his money’s worth. The 2000-meter race, the 10k road race, the 800-meter qualifier, the 800 final, the 5000-meter race, the 1500 qualifier, the half marathon, the 1500 final, the 8k cross country. That’s a lot of running.

Is it over-reach? Will we see DNS (Did Not Start) next to his name for several events, which happens at nationals and WMA?

Well, in July, the first two days of the USATF Masters Outdoors Championships in Ohio were cancelled because of wildfire smoke, which meant Rick had to do three events on Saturday (800, 2000 steeplechase, and 4x800 relay). He won gold medals in each. On Sunday, Lee won gold in the 1500 and 5000. The M65 cohort is competitive, too.

This is a guy who ran the Boston Marathon on April 20 in three hours, three minutes—“My worst time in Boston”—drove home to New Jersey that night, got up after two hours sleep, drove to Philadelphia for a flight to Des Moines, Iowa and ran the Grand Blue Mile in 5 minutes, 28 seconds. Rick was second in the Men’s 65 age group…after two hours sleep.

Like I said, the guy has a life force driving him. Pretty cool for a 65-year old halfway across the world from his home.

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