Running: H.S. Senior Track (The end)

(The story of my running reaches the end of high school, preceded by parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14.)

I always ran well at Shawnee Mission North. I PR'd there in the 1600 as a sophomore, the 3200 as a junior and the 1600 as a senior. (Years later, I even won a couple Corporate Challenge races on that track.) As I've said before, I thrived on settling old scores. And I considered my junior year SM North Relays disqualification to be the biggest score of all.

The two weeks between the KU Relays and SM North were fairly uneventful. At Bonner Springs, I anchored our winning 3200 relay, won the open 800 and ran a 53-second leg on our champion 1600 relay. We raced twice the next week. On Tuesday, at Olathe North, I won the 1600 in 4:22 and the 800 in a PR of 1:57, before clocking another 53-second leg on the 1600 relay. I raced four times at our Saturday home meet, anchoring the winning 3200 relay, winning the 1600 and 800, then running another 53-second 1600 relay split.

As I mentioned in a previous entry, I had a terrible cold early in the season. Some shortness of breath bothered me in the ensuing weeks and I finally went to see a doctor in mid-April. He speculated that I had trained through walking pneumonia and prescribed an inhaler for bronchiospasms. It's a partial explanation for why the season wasn't going as well as I hoped.

That was the state of things going into my final SM North Relays. With league, regionals and state coming up, we knew this would be my last chance for a fast 1600. I desperately wanted to run 4:10, a somewhat foolish notion given I'd not eclipsed 4:22 all season, and my closest competitor couldn't break 4:20. Still, I gave it a whirl, running the first and second laps in 60 and 65 seconds. A 66-second third lap squelched my 4:10 hopes, but I managed to finish in a PR and meet record of 4:16.



Coach Wilson made me run the 800 later that night. I didn't want to, but I'm glad he forced the issue. It was one more chance to run against my old rival, DeSoto's Ryan Johnson. His school had dropped back to Class 4A, meaning we wouldn't have a regional or state rematch.

Anyone watching that 800 would have assumed I was out of it at the halfway mark. I'd have agreed. My legs, heavy from the 1600, could only muster a 59-second first lap. But something magical happened during the next 200 meters. I didn't feel I was running any faster, but I somehow glided past everyone. Everyone except Ryan. I settled behind him with 200 meters left, knowing I had, at best, 100 meters of gas in the tank. At the top of the homestraight, I moved alongside him as if to say, "Let's settle this thing." It was a dead sprint to the finish, with me inching just ahead for a 1:57 win.

As I tried to catch my breath, I felt an arm put me in a headlock, punctuated by, "You son of a….!" It was Ryan, good-natured as always. I can't express how fun it was to race against him.

There's not much to say about the rest of the season. The regional meet kind of said it all. I tried, again, to run a fast 1600. After a 2:04 first half, I slowed to a 4:17 finish. I ran a 9:36 3200 later that night. Pretty good double by most standards. It merited this journal entry: "Didn't feel very good in either race. Wasn't very loose. Didn't care too much about the 3200. Just didn't put enough mental energy in." It's hard to believe anyone could get bored with winning. But that's just what was happening. I knew no one could compete with me at state and I easily defended my 3200 (9:25) and 1600 (4:21) titles.

I know I should have enjoyed that season more than I did. The only race I lost was the mile at KU. (After I had won the two-mile a few hours earlier.) By any measure, that's a very good record. But I was bummed about not running faster. One could argue that it's hard to run a 4:10 1600 or 9:00 3200 when no one around you can run 4:20 or 9:30. But I still felt I should have found a way to get closer to those goals.

A change of scenery was long overdue.