In my last post, I covered my high school running, or should I say lack thereof. Before getting into my college days, I would be remiss not to mention another “game changing moment” in terms of my running career, and that would be the 1990 Bank of Fincastle Fall Runs. Our coach had the entire cross-country team race the 5k as he thought it would be good hill training, so I found myself in my first ever road race. All I had ever seen in terms of running were small groups of high school students, all vastly undertrained, so this was an eye opening experience for me, especially thanks to the presence of one particular runner by the name of Steve Taylor.
When the gun sounded that day, we began the nearly mile-long climb that starts this race, and I quickly found myself in unfamiliar territory. I was accustomed to running near the front of every race I’d ever been in, and all of a sudden I had twenty or more people in front of me. “No big deal,” I thought, “They’re all out too fast and will pay later.” While many did die, others came past later in the race, and I found myself finishing well back and didn’t even place in my age group thanks to the fact that several local high schools also used the race as a training event. Now that was a rude awakening! Of course getting beaten by the women’s winner, who just happened to be Steve Taylor’s wife, Lori, was equally enlightening when it came to pointing out just how far down the totem pole I actually was in this sport. Looking back, this was probably the last time, including right up until this very day, that I thought I was a pretty good runner. From there on out, I realized I was pretty pathetic in the grand scheme of things. However, I was more taken back by the winner, the aforementioned Steve Taylor, who set the still standing course record of 14:40 that day.
My first sight of Taylor was a little over a mile into the race. There’s a long straight stretch where you can see far ahead, and I saw this guy running all by himself at what appeared to be a flat out sprint. My first thought was he was some clown who had jumped on the road off the sidewalk and was acting like he was leading the race. When I found out after the race that he was indeed the actual leader and I heard what his final time was, I was amazed. I then found out he was training for the Olympics, and since he was living in Fincastle at the time and getting some local media coverage, I began to follow some of his other results, including a year or so later when he finished sixth at the 1992 Olympic Marathon Trials.
Needless to say, all of a sudden I realized that running was more than something you did to stay in shape for other sports. It was a sport in and of itself and there were some amazing athletes who took part in it. In the years to come I would be fortunate enough to become friends with Steve Taylor and to this day still go to him for advice from time to time. I consider him to be my personal running hero, not only because he did some incredible things (US Championships, multiple US teams including the 1991 World Championships Marathon, 27:59 10k, 47:01 ten miler, 1:02 half marathon, 2:13 marathon) but also because he opened my eyes to what this sport was really about. I’ve learned many things from him over the years, from training techniques to the importance of dedication and sacrifice, and I’m sure I’m not done learning yet. He’s truly a great guy and a wealth of knowledge.
In any event, I felt it important to note this before moving on, simply because it was definitely an important day in my running career. Again, though, it took some time before I realized it. Next up, college!
No comments:
Post a Comment