My sophomore year brought about some solid improvement. It all started with Cross Country as it did every fall. Many of the runners on the team attended a week long running camp in upstate New York. Runners were assigned cabins based on recent times and would run together twice a day for a week. Such things were unthinkable to me back then. Regardless, I joined and all the running certainly helped.
I suffered from two problems though at all these camps. I never ran enough during the summer to really be prepared, and I never really built up good endurance to last much longer than 7 miles. Nonetheless, I plodded through the runs at camp as best I could. Interestingly, those running camp weeks pale in comparison to my 70, 80, and 90 mile weeks that I've done this year.
After getting through running camp largely in one piece, our week long practice before the beginning of school started. I was assuming that I would be allowed to run with the Varsity runners. I had put in the work at running camp, and my coaches knew that I was there. However, on the first day of practice, the varsity runners and a handful of others were taken out for a road run, while the freshmen and JV runners were left to do perimeters around the athletic fields.
I did not show it, but I was furious and decided to prove to everyone where I belonged. Though I was never a high level high school runner and probably could have run a lot more, especially in the offseason, I still took the sport seriously and always gave 100%. I really did not want to do the same run as the people who did not really care and were just there to stay in shape for something else.
I ran that workout as hard as I could; it was probably something around 3 or 4 perimeters, maybe a little over 3 miles total. I was so far ahead of everyone after the first lap that the coach took note. After I continued to pour it on he actually told me "Wow Dan, you want to run with the Varsity runners don't you?" He told me something similar each time I passed. I think by the time we finished, I had lapped everyone.
The next day, and for the remainder of my high school career, I never ran with the JV runners again. That was probably the first time I realized what motivation can do. These days, I am substantially more motivated than I ever was in High School, but I still take every little bit that I can thanks to this experience. Just ask the very few trash-talking local Baltimore runners how the view of my back shoulder looks; firing me up is a mistake.
During the season, I was able to crack 20 minutes for the 3 mile, attaining a new PR of 19:06. My 5K PR got down to 20:54. I never ran road races back then, so these cross country times are difficult to compare. Our team was never all that solid, the best we ever did was 500 (same number of wins and losses) and I was not some kind of all star. However, I did work hard to try and move up both on our team and in the division. I eventually broke into the "top-7." In our particular league, your first 5 runners scored while the 6th and 7th could displace other top 5 runners. Becoming a 6/7 was an awesome accomplishment for me, even if I was never fast enough to actually displace anyone.
Running for the team in divisions and counties was rather awesome too. I seem to vaguely remember extremely cold days, running in nothing more than short-shorts and a racing singlet. Old habits never die since I still wear next to nothing in races, even if it is bitterly cold. After cross country, winter track with all of its new experiences came along.
This time around, I actually participated in winter track fully. Though we did some running and training inside the school hallways, we were eventually forced outside for safety reasons. I always did take pride that we were the only sport that braved the cold and trained outside.
I thought I hated the 3200m race on an outdoor track. That was before I ran it indoors on a 200m track. It took 16 laps to finish the race. Though officials helped keep track of laps, if you were not a leader, it was ultimately up to you. I am still terrible at counting laps. Regardless, I knocked my 3200m time down to 11:43. My mile time stood at 5:32.
Almost all meets were held at Suffolk County Community College at their indoor track. The air quality was always suspect in there and we all seemed to developed the "S-west cough" as we liked to call it. The new experiences and different running environment all helped to toughen me up in different ways. With the shorter track, dealing with excessive monotony became a necessity. Training outside in the freezing cold also helps to build character. Both of those experiences certainly help with the year round marathon runner I have become today.
The spring track season brought about one of my top 3 most memorable races. Though some details elude me now, I ran my fastest mile to date in early May 2002, a 5:16. The track I did it on (St. Anthony's High School) would hold my mile PR each year until I graduated, and technically, until 2009. I never did get under 12 minutes for the 3200m outdoors that year. However, this is because I always had to run the 3200 about 20 minutes after the 1600 just my first year in High School. Long distance runners were the work horses of our track teams.
My junior year is next up.
Reflecting back on all this, I do wonder what I could have done with more mileage. Of course, I ran just as much for PRs as I did to run with my teammates. Almost all my friends were other runners on the team so it was not all just about times. However, I always wondered why some runners were just so good and others like me were so average (relatively speaking of course). I always thought it was just talent that separated the fast and slow. The real reason though, had to do with how many miles people put in. Though talent certainly plays its role, lots of mileage is what defines a runner.
In some ways I knew this because our coaches eluded to it, and it was talked about a lot at those running camps. People all over were saying that to get better at running, all you have to do is run more. Truthfully, I really did not have the drive I needed to put the high mileage in to become a successful high school runner. As these recollections near present day, it will become obvious that this whole time, I have had at least some talent (I was always convinced I had none), and eventually, I came to the realization that high mileage is what I've needed all along.
Of course this realization is what kicked off my current running era. We just haven't quite arrived at that important moment yet.
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