Running: Part IX

(Next chapter. Preceded by parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8.)

I have very fond memories of the Shawnee Mission North Relays, despite what happened there in 1991. The meet is where I ran a 1600-meter PR and led my idol, Thad Sketers, for half the race as a sophomore in 1990. And it's where I would break the 1600 meet record as a senior in 1992.

The 1991 meet should've been a joyous thing, but turned out to be a terrible dissapointment that further solidified the chip on my running shoulder. It was my first 3200 since the season's opening meet and the plan was simple. I had rehearsed it in my head every day since November. I'd stay right with whoever happened to be leading, no matter how fast the pace, until 600 meters remained. Then I'd start kicking like crazy.

The leader turned out to be Carlos Paradelo of SM East, who went on to have a great college career and continues to compete professionally today. I waited for the pace to hurt, through a 4:47 first mile, but it never did. It took all the patience I had to wait for the prescribed moment when I went all out. A lap and a half later, I had won the race in 9 minutes, 36 seconds, a whopping 23-second personal best. I was elated. That is, until five minutes passed and Coaches Baxter and Wilson informed me I'd been disqualified.



Disqualified? My elation dissolved into a stunned anger. The officials insisted that, while passing someone on the inside, I had taken too many consecutive steps inside the line separating the track from the infield. Thing is, during that race (and in my entire career), I never passed anyone on the inside. Surely they'd confused me with someone else. My dad had videotaped the race and offered to show it as proof. The officials politely declined.

It still gets my blood boiling to think about it. But, the fact is that disqualification probably did a lot more good than harm. Because I was like a caged animal for the next week. If people hadn't figured out how good I was yet, they'd get a clear picture the next Friday at the Eastern Kansas League meet.

Until EKL, I'd never beaten BV North's Dan Wnorowski or Bishop Miege's Dan Decoursey, who represented the class of our league. Even so, there was absolutely no doubt in my mind that I was going to destroy the field in both the 1600 and 3200. The SM North debacle had flipped a switch in my brain. I'd gone from hoping I could beat the best runners to knowing I could beat them and wanting to beat them, by a lot.

I opened with the 1600, where Wnorowski led the first 800 meters in 2:07. We slowed during the third quarter, hitting 1200 meters in 3:16. Then, I unleashed everything I had, sprinting the final lap in 62 seconds and winning in a huge PR of 4:18.0. It was the best 1600 time in Kansas that year. The 3200 event, a few hours later, was not as impressive timewise, but I won again, this time in 9:54.

In two weeks, I'd gone from a sub-4:30, 9:50-ish guy to a sub-4:20, 9:30-ish guy. I was at the top of the Kansas City Star's All-Metro rankings. And, once again, I was the favorite to win a state title. Unlike the previous year, I welcomed the role of favorite and was anxious to avenge the "tripping." My journal entry from two days after the EKL meet reads, "Already getting focused on regionals. (Ryan) Johnson. 1600. Must waste him."