Chapter 2 – Flipping the Switch

There is a moment for every runner when you figure out what running is all about. It’s that switch that flips on and you just get it.

My moment came on a Monday afternoon in October of 1977 during my sophomore year. I had shin splints for the first half of the season and could not race. I did finish the season as the third man on the sophomore team. We had a 3-mile time trial to decide the runners that would run at districts and also the alternate runners that would accompany the team to the state meet. I ran a personal best of 16:11. It was more than a minute better than what I ran the year before. In the last 100 meters, I was passed by Dave Garcia and Rob Ragusin. I found out afterwards that I was the 13^th man. Mr. Newton only took 12 runners to state during my time at York.

I went down with my parents. I watched the team warm-up. I watched Tom Graves hold on for dear life as Jim Spivey tried to run him down the final straight. In 1977, you were either a Spivey fan if you lived in the west suburbs or you cheered for the “Gravy-Train” in you lived in the south suburbs. I snuck into the Glenbard East track my freshman season for the DuPage County Meet to cheer on my teammates. I also wanted to see Spivey who ran 9:03 for 2-miles in that meet.

After the state race was over, I watched from the upper part of the bleachers at Peoria High School, where the award ceremony was, and watched as the York team in their tuxedos accepted the second-place trophy.

All I could remember thinking was that I went through a season where I was injured, and I just missed being down there. If I had trained through that, I could have been down there. I corrected my thoughts. I SHOULD be down there.

I decided then and there that's where I wanted to be in one year.

I put in some hard miles during that track season. My times started to drop. The main thing I was not all over the place performance wise. Mr. Newton would give out an AAU patch that we could put on our uniform if we broke 10:00 for 2 miles. It was a big thing to do that back then. At my indoor conference meet, I finished second. My time was 10:00.01. It was hand timed so that .01 became 10:00.1. I was hoping that he would give me the patch because I got so close to that time barrier.

Nope. I had to go under 10:00. It did not happen which meant I had to make it happen outdoors. My times were close outdoors but not under.

At a sophomore meet at Evanston the week before conference, I ran 9:15.3 for 3000 meters tying with Crazy Horse for the win. I converted that it came up 9:59.6 for 2 miles. I thought I had my patch. It had to be for 2 miles I thought. I was not going to ask Mr. Newton if there was some metric clause to all of this. The varsity ran horrible that weekend and we had a two-hour meeting in our pit of an indoor track. 13 laps to the mile and we sat there on the concrete track that was underneath our gym.  It is one of those character defining meetings. That is what I liked to call it.

It finally happened at our conference meet the following Friday where I ran 9:58.9 to get fourth in the race. All I remember after that race was how blistered my feet were to the point where I could not walk. My spikes of choice back then were a pair of adidas Avantis. No padding but for a beginning runner, they worked. My parents saw my feet after that race. They decided it was time to invest in new spikes.

After conference meet, I thought my season was over. My mind moved to cross country. That week I put in extra miles, more than I usually did thinking that I would not be racing for a while so why not get a head start.

The Friday before the IHSA State Qualifying District Meet, Mr. Newton called me into his office. The day before a meet it was tradition (and a team rule) that the entire team wears a nice shirt and tie to school. Horse did not wear a tie on that day and he was supposed to run in the 2-mile.

Getting called in to Newton’s office was a novelty for me at that stage of my high school career. I did not know what to think. He explained what the situation was and told me that I was running tomorrow. I nodded and thanked him for letting me run. I did not want to tell him that my legs were so tired from the extra miles that I put in. I just went into the race with the idea of doing the best I could. I went down to the locker room and found Dave. He would be running in the 1-Mile Run the next day. “Guess what? I’m running tomorrow.”

It was my first real varsity race either in track or cross-country. I was nervous. It was intimidating as we got off the bus. Dave and I followd the rest of the varsity to our team area. I went to the school at Lyons Township to use the bathroom. I felt like I was goiing to throw up. I got so nervous. It was something that would effect me before some races. "Not today," I thought.

I warmed up with Curt Hoffman before that 2-mile. Curt was all-state the previous fall finishing sixth. I sat at the top of the fieldhouse watching him going up to get his all-state medal. He looked at the crowd and smiled. I kept that in my mind. I wanted to be in that position that one day. We did not say anything during the warm-up. We watched the 4x880 Meter Relay. York had a big lead. Then came along Jim Spivey running a 1:50 anchor leg to give his school Fenton the win.

I was in the same meet as Spivey. Wow.

The race started and my legs said no. I was dead last at the mile of the 2-mile fast heat. 5:08 and Newton was not saying a thing to me. There were three things that could happen in a race. He could yell at you telling you that you were doing great. He could yell at me telling me to pick it up. Or … he could say nothing. He did the third thing. Oh crap.

The first mile of the race I did not feel like my legs were moving. All that extra mileage from the past week was the cause of that. My legs felt better in the last mile and I started to move up through the pack.

Boy did I move.

The last mile was 4:51. I finished in 9:59 and was seventh beating some varsity runners I had no business finishing ahead of.

Afterwards, Mr. Newton called me over and asked what had happened. He told me I looked great the last mile but wanted to know about the first mile. I explained to him about the miles. He looked at me for a second and then shook my hand. “Good moose,” he said.

That was a good thing. It was the first of many times that he would do that. That race gave me the confidence that I could compete at the next level.

Some moments in your life define who you will be. This was the one for me. It showed if I put in the work required to succeed, I could achieve getting the most out of my ability.

The pre-season letter with the workouts was handed out the following day. He would always list the runners that he thought would be towards the front. My name was there. I had made the list, but I still had work to do. Everyone else on the team felt the same way as we transitioned from track to summer workouts that would take us to what we were dreaming of.