Jacob Crowe is a 4:08 miler who runs for Central Michigan University. Jeff Crowe is a 4:39 miler who runs for Lansing Community College. They have competed against each other in several collegiate meets, including indoor meets at Eastern Michigan and Central, and Jeff has yet to beat his relative.

Jeff isn't Jacob's younger brother. He's his 45-year-old father, and he was also his coach at Grand Ledge High School.

"I like it when meets have two heats, so I can run in the slower one, then watch Jacob run his heat," the proud dad says. "I'm there to run, too, but the No. 1 thing is being dad and watching him run.

"But in the other meets," Jeff adds, "it's a neat perspective to see Jacob running from behind.

"Some of my friends ask, `Why are you doing this?' Jeff continues. "The answer is `No. 1, because I can; and No. 2, because it is fun. I love it.'"

The elder Crowe also ran track at Grand Ledge, specializing in the 400 and 800 before he graduated in 1976. He then embarked on a career at General Motors, working in Lansing as a test technician in experimental engineering. He also began coaching cross-country and track.

In the fall he coaches Fowler High harriers, and in the spring he coaches girls and boys track at his alma mater. The current LCC squad has one girl and three boys who Jeff coached in high school.

Jacob tried soccer and baseball when he was little, but standing out in left field watching kids flail away at a ball far away had little appeal. It was downright boring.

Not so running. When Jacob was six, Jeff took him to a session of the popular local summer track program in Grand Ledge. Jacob and running hit it off.

"By middle school, I could see Jacob had ability," says his father. "I told him he could take it somewhere if he did all the things right that I hadn't."

By his senior year, Jacob was being recruited by Division I universities and chose CMU. In 2001, as part of a GM-sponsored program, Jeff enrolled at LCC in industrial technology. "Jacob said, `Dad, you're going to school full-time; you might as well run track and cross-country," Jeff recalls.

Then-LCC coach Denny Meyers, who had run with Jeff at Grand Ledge, gave his approval. In his first year, the elder Crowe finished 28th at the national junior college cross-country meet.

A broken ankle sidelined Jeff from competitive running the next two years. This season he is finishing out his two years of JC eligibility. Indoors, despite being 45, he ran his best mile ever, a 4:39.

His outdoor debut this spring had to be postponed. LCC - now coached by Chuck Block, who operates the Michigan Running Foundation that raises money to provide scholarships for kids not quite good enough to catch the eye of Division I coaches - opened its season April 3 in Vincennes, Ind., but Jeff had to miss it because the Grand Ledge team had its own meet, and his coaching comes first.

Jeff will compete outdoors in the 1,500 and 800; he hopes to break two minutes in the latter. Jacob is red-shirting this year, training and getting stronger in hopes of breaking 4 minutes in the mile next spring, in his senior season.

"One of the reasons I run," says Jeff, "is to help me spend quality time with Jacob. When he comes home from college, we can go together for two-hour runs."

~~~

Can the comeback kid of all time make another comeback?

At press time, Paul McMullen was lopping pounds off his huge frame - among fellow world-class milers, he's a behemoth - and lopping off seconds from his 1,500 time, furiously taking aim at the 3:43 he will need to make the B standard for the U.S. Olympic Trials in July.

Back in 1997, Paul did some other lopping - slashing off the big toe on his right foot and parts of two other toes in a lawnmower accident that threatened to cut short his promising career.

He was an All-American at Eastern Michigan, where he finished runner- up to Michigan's Kevin Sullivan for the NCAA 1,500 championship in 1995. The next year, McMullen made it to the 1,500 semis at the Olympics. Big things were surely ahead. But just before the 1997 national track and field championships, he slid under a mower while tending a neighbor's lawn.

His career was over. Or was it?

By fall, Paul was running again. That next winter - shortly after a profile I wrote about him appeared in Runner's World magazine - he won the national indoor mile championship with a stunning PR of 3:55.81.

Comeback No. 2? Paul had a miserable 2000 Olympic Trials, finishing 10th in his heat, and decided to retire. In 2001, tired of being a couch potato and weighing well over 200 pounds - he started training with legendary University of Michigan coach Ron Warhurst.

The pounds and the seconds came off in dramatic fashion. In June, Paul's miraculous closing rush gave him third place, just millimeters ahead of Gabe Jennings, at the U.S. outdoor 1,500 championships. This earned him a spot at the world championships, where Paul reached the finals and finished 10th. He was named the top U.S. performer by Runner's World.

(Paul's daughter, Olivia, was born while Paul took part in the U.S. championships. Some people criticized him for leaving his wife to run, but Jill was wholeheartedly behind him. Not only did Paul make the national team, but in doing so he regained a remunerative sponsorship contract, which, says Jill, "allowed me to stay home with Olivia for 15 months. She's been the best thing that ever happened to us.")

In March of 2002 I started hanging around the U-M outdoor track to do a story on Warhurst for Michigan Runner magazine. After all, he was training America's best miler, McMullen; Canada's best miler, Sullivan; and the world's best prodigy, Alan Webb, who before enrolling at Michigan had broken Jim Ryun's record for the fastest mile by a high schooler.

There was just one problem: I never saw McMullen. Warhurst said Paul had a minor nagging back injury, for one thing, but, well, you know Paul, he's got his own internal drummer and his own beat and he's off doing his own thing for a while.

"I told him the door's open, but don't let it close on your ass," joked Warhurst.

Last year, word filtered down that Paul had joined the Coast Guard and was stationed in Grand Haven, occasionally running local races. His career as a miler again seemed over.

But this winter, when I went online to see how the Hansons guys did at the national outdoor cross-country championships, lo and behold, there was Paul's name, back in the middle of the pack.

Paul didn't much like cross-country when he was in college. What was he doing at a mid-winter meet if he was in the Coast Guard and retired?

Becoming unretired. He'd started running again in November and gotten serious in January. Joining him on the comeback trail was his wife, Jill, herself an 800-meter star while at Western Michigan University some time back.

Paul couldn't do a formal interview for MR - he had to send me up the Coast Guard chain of command for approval, which hadn't arrived by deadline - but he did say the Coast Guard had big plans for his running career.

Jill and Paul competed at a Notre Dame meet in February, Paul running a 4:07 mile and Jill 2:08 for 800. His time left him well short of the 3:43 pace he'll need for the 1,500; but Jill's effort was just 3.1 seconds slower than the 2:04.9 she'd need to qualify for the Trials.

"It's a start," said Jill, an assistant coach at Grand Valley State University. "We are both building for outdoor and will be ready to run fast in May and June. We both have a LONG way to go."

On March 20, McMullen, still working on strength, ran the Spectrum Health Irish Jig 5K in a downpour. He ran with Joel Klooster, a recent star at Calvin College, for three miles, then kicked away to win handily in 14:41.

Afterwards, Paul told MR's Scott Sullivan that he still had eight or nine pounds to lose. Can he lose them? Can he hit his 3:43?

Here are two predictions: Yes. And yes. MR