Melaleuca Champion Bernard Lagat Sets Another American Record

AFTER CRUSHING THE LAST TWO LAPS at the Millrose Games men’s 2-mile race, Bernard Lagat crumpled to the track just as the announcer told the crowd Bernard had set a new American Record by a quarter of a second.

Just two months after turning 38—which might as well be 100 in track and field years—Bernard started his 2013 season off with a pair of wins at the Millrose Games and at an international meet in Karlsruhe, Germany. In both races, Bernard finished the last 400 meters looking like a sprinter as younger athletes melted behind him.

“I knew that if it came down to the last 400 meters, I was going to hold off anybody who came up on me,” he said after the race. “I saw 7:37, and I thought, ‘If I run a 32 [for the last lap] I’m going to get [the record].’”

At half the length of the outdoor tracks you’d see at the World Championships or the Prefontaine Classic, indoor tracks tend to favor younger, springier and quicker athletes. But Bernard proved—and then proved again—that older legs are not necessarily weaker legs.

“The old man is not going to say, ‘I’m done now’—not yet,” Bernard says. “I’m training really well right now and enjoying it.”

When it came time to cool down, you can bet Bernard recovered with his favorite electrolyte drink: Melaleuca’s Sustain® Sport.

“For me, Sustain Sport is a really important product,” Bernard says. “I have to replenish a lot of electrolytes with the intense workouts I’m doing.”

And Bernard, whose winter training plan included a trip to Hawaii with Melaleuca’s Standing Executive Leadership Council, knew he had cheers coming from Melaleuca customers all across North America.

“I feel like my career’s been easier,” he says, “because I have good people and companies who support me.”

In a world where people are questioning the wisdom of looking to athletes for heroism, Bernard is proving that nice guys really can finish first.