AT NOON ON A BLUSTERY OCTOBER DAY IN BOULDER, COLORADO, IN A SMALL COFFEE SHOP NEAR THE PEARL STREET MALL, CHRIS MOCKO IS JUST TUCKING INTO HIS PUMPKINSPICE LATTE WHEN AN ATHLETIC YOUNG STRANGER APPROACHES. “YOU’RE MOCKO!” HE SAYS, GRINNING. “I LOVE YOUR SHOW!” Above his thick, dark brown beard, Mocko’s cheeks redden. He likely recognizes the irony, and a small but telling injustice.
Consider that Galen Rupp, Olympic medalist, Chicago Marathon champion, one of the foremost American distance runners of his generation, can sit through lunch in a busy restaurant in Portland, Oregon, where he has lived his entire life, and go unrecognized. Mocko, by contrast, a 2:22 marathoner who has never qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials and, at age 31, likely never will, and who only moved…
