The Best Writing On MileSplit From 2021

"Ready... Set... Go!"

Head coach Jeff Krause clicked his stopwatch in the air, sending eight girls off the starting line. 

It was the Monday before the 2021 Garmin RunningLane Championships, and the ladies of Arapahoe were sharpening up on the track in Centennial, Colorado.

On the docket was a comfortable three mile warm-up, followed by some dynamic stretches and 4x400 meter repeats with a 200 meter jog in between.

It's the equivalent of pie after all that turkey and mashed potatoes. It's dessert. 

And it must be eaten.

This summer, college athletes have been released into a world where they can make money off their Name, Image and Likeness.

This new wrinkle in the NCAA, otherwise now known as NIL, creates a clear incentive for football and basketball signees -- who sometimes enter college as bonafide stars -- to stay in college rather than go pro. An incoming University of Alabama freshman quarterback, for instance, has already signed close to $1 million in NIL deals before even lining up for the Crimson Tide.

But what about non-revenue sports and its athletes? NIL also cracks a door open for Division I, Division II and Division III track and field athletes to earn some cash for their influence.

Ultimately, that change of heart set in motion all the parts that would come later - two more athletes, Sophia Gorriaran and Juliette Whittaker, added to the team with all-time marks in the 800m - which sparked an opportunity to go after a truly elusive mark.

A 30-year-old World U20 women's 4×800 record of 8:37.71, which was last accomplished by four Jamaican juniors in 1991 at the Penn Relays. Meanwhile, the indoor World U20 record stands at 8:53.67, which was last produced by Boys and Girls (NY) in 2002.

"I wasn't even aware of a U20 record," Willis said recently. "I just thought we were going after a national record. Now we're going after some World Record?"

Yes, indeed.

An estimated 2 million Americans live with celiac disease according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. Elyana Weaver, a freshman at Lexington High School who has celiac disease, recently became a state champion after helping her team take the Division 2 cross country title.

"Since I got diagnosed when I was little, we've had years since I started cross country to figure out how to deal with it the best," Weaver said.

A major team event for high school distance runners is the team dinner before meet day, where everyone gathers around to bond and carb-load prior to race day. For athletes with celiac disease this looks a little different as they have to be on the lookout for potential cross contamination.

Two coaches were awaiting the start of the girls 1600-meter championships in the 2019 CIF-State Track and Field Championships.

"That tall girl looked pretty good in the prelims," said one. "And she's only a freshman."

"She should," answered the other, "considering her bloodlines."

He then went on to explain that the 'tall girl' was Jacey Farmer, whose grandfather was Dixon Farmer, a three-time state champion for Miramonte High in Orinda and NCAA 400-meter hurdle champion at Occidental College.

She's the daughter of Matt Farmer, a 6-10 high jumper and fine all-around athlete at Monte Vista High (SD) who would later scale 7-feet at UC Irvine.

Her brother, Josh, is the San Diego Section record-holder in the decathlon, a third place finisher in the Pac-12 decathlon as a freshman and currently readying for the 2021 season after transferring to UC Irvine.

Just to make it even more obvious, Jacey's mom, formerly Kristin Harkins of La Quinta High (SS), was a three-time All-American at Cal Poly Pomona, clocking bests of 2:11.61 for 800 meters and 4:29.80 for 1500.

Bloodlines, indeed.

Katherine Jackson opened up the notes application on her iPhone in May and began typing. That's how her truth began to form.

It wasn't the perfect setting, at least the one she imagined. Years earlier, she had hoped to reveal her life's journey at her high school graduation. Then time passed, and that vision morphed. Maybe after an NCAA Championship. Maybe after a birthday. 

Now she had graduated college. Still no one knew. 

If she was being honest with herself in this moment, and she certainly was, this was the time. It felt like she could finally let the weight of her world off her shoulders. She started typing until she was finished.

When Christian Noble made Foot Locker Nationals in 2015 as a senior at Mt. Vernon (IN) High School, he truly thought that would be the pinnacle of his running career.

"Back in high school, I didn't think I'd get to this point," Noble said recently. "For me it was, 'Ah, I made Foot Locker. That's it. That's the top of it for running.' Like I didn't even know about anything past that. That's all I really looked at."

But Noble has redefined what he thought was possible in the past month as the now redshirt-senior at NCAA Division II Lee University has quickly vaulted himself up the ladder of the nation's best runners -- regardless of classification -- by setting two NCAA records and running a qualifying time in the 5,000 meters for the U.S. Olympic Trials.

All in a span of 15 days.

The times came sprinting off his tongue as if they had come blasting out of the starting blocks - 61, 2:02, 3:03, and finally, 4:06.6.

Forty-nine years after he watched Vince Cartier of Scotch Plains-Fanwood smash the national record in the mile, Ed Grant is doing what only he can do, reeling off splits and other in depth details about Cartier's gem, which took place at the 1972 New Jersey Indoor Meet of Champions in Princeton's Jadwin Gym.

Grant did this just the other day at the age of 94, while sitting in his room at the Center for Hope Hospice & Palliative Care in Scotch Plains, where he's been for the last couple weeks after suffering a fall and a heart attack earlier this month.

Each athlete's successes over the fall and winter seasons were products of their hard labor, the engineering of hundreds miles on the roads and meticulous care off of them. 

But what if I told you that all that success began somewhere very distinct, up in the mountains where time stood still for a few weeks, where this group of young men built that confidence between the cameraderie of one another. 

Sometimes, to explain one moment you have to go back to another. 

And for this group of nine who created a bond that they say will live on for years to come -- for these nine current- and future-NCAA Division I runners, eight of which will eventually become teammates between North Carolina, Stanford and Virginia -- you might point to that central moment in July when it all came together during a two-week training stint at altitude in Colorado.

Danny McCray knew the moment would be one he would remember for a long time, perhaps through a lifetime even, so he pulled out his iPhone and stood up among a sea of nearly 5,000 people. He thumbed the screen and then pinched in. He pressed record.

A few hundred feed away, Bryce McCray stepped down into his blocks in Lane 4, wiping away the small beads of sweat around his arms.

He, too, knew this tiny fraction of time would be stored away in his head, though a principle difference presided over his thoughts: The thousands of faces around him at the Texas State Track and Field Championships couldn't control the outcome.

Only he could.

Seconds ticked by.

There have been three generations of Golden boys and girls in track and field. No one has to look much farther than Seneca to find them. At the head of the table is former Seneca track and field coach Fred Golden.

If the last name sounds familiar, his brother is legendary high school basketball coach Louie Golden, who tallied 699 wins and six state titles at three different schools. Fred Golden coached at Seneca from 1974-85 and earned four state runner-up titles (1977, '81, 84-85). He was also named 3A Coach of the Year in 1978 and Region Coach of the Year seven times (1976, '77, '78, '80, '81, '83 and '85).

On Feb. 7, in Fayetteville, Arkansas, Shawnti Jackson, the breakout sprint star of the high school indoor season, was introduced to the heightened world of professional track and field.

It would be the meet that would come to define her virtuosic season.

LET'S REWIND IT FIVE YEARS. Udodi Onwuzurike was 13 years old when he predicted, to anyone that would listen, that he would break records. 

Picture a teenager short of stature, the son of two Nigerian parents, all arms and legs, the kind of kid who latches on to you and never lets go. Big smile. Loud voice.

On this particular day, the 13-year-old Udodi was following around his older brother Chiebuka on the Brother Rice High School track. Only, he was acting like he was the fastest guy on the track. Like he was the guy to beat. Telling anyone within an earshot just how good he was. 

Enter Deron Early, the longtime coach of Brother Rice High School and the Primetime Track Club program, a man who in his prime ran sub-21 seconds for 200 meters. The elder statesman. A man who wasn't about to listen to some kid blow smoke. 

"What's he saying?" Early asked. 

"He said he's going to break every record out there when he gets older," Chiebuka said.

Joel Gomez is a student of many talents 

A senior at Classical Academy in Escondido, Gomez carries a 3.97 GPA and plans to major in industrial engineering in college.

He has written two songs and plays four instruments.

In track, he's the San Diego Section leader over 1600 meters after running a 4:20.08 mile at the Arcadia Invitational, which converts to a 4:18.08 for 1600.

Joel Gomez is legally blind.

Every Sunday evening at around eight o'clock, after Paul Reilly puts his three-year-old son Luke to bed, he heads over to the kitchen countertop and finds a mug of handcrafted hot chocolate waiting for him.

It will be courtesy of his oldest son, Marcus.

"Of course we got a sweet tooth," Paul said. "We love doing something that is pleasurable and also gets us in a good frame of mind for the week."

The father-son pair begin these meetings often by discussing something topical, such as their newfound obsession of Formula One racing, which was inspired by a recent binge watch of the Netflix sports documentary series "Drive To Survive."

Ultimately, though, the conversation will shift to a different kind of racing, substituting humans in place of high-end race cars. 

College athletics is the constant chase of consistency and improvement.

With only four or five years to reach elite potential, the road to success is different for everyone. 

But for Louisiana State University's Damion Thomas, who won his first NCAA title this past indoor season, his journey has been particularly winding. 

The last four years has seen him struggle with season-ending injuries, endure career lows, and, like everyone else, survive a pandemic. But by not letting these experiences define him, the 2017 Oakland Park Northeast (FL) High School graduate has been able to succeed when it matters most. 

Now, he's on the path to making his first Jamaican Olympic team. 

Eastlake (WA) High School cross country coach Troy Anderson knew early on that Emily Van Valkenburg had the makings of an elite runner.

Anderson vividly remembers a moment when Van Valkenburg was a freshman, running in the junior varsity race at the league championships. Right from the gun she took off, leading the entire race and gapping the field by around 20 seconds to take the win.

The teenager pushed herself so hard, in fact, that just after the breakout performance she began vomiting just outside of the finishing chute.

The very first time Greg King saw Abby Steiner, he knew immediately that something special was in front of him.

King, the long-time coach of the girls track and field team at Dublin Coffman (OH) High School, had already had his fair share of talented athletes come through the program.

But Steiner was clearly different from the others.

"I knew she was a top-tier athlete the first time I saw her run a middle school track meet," King told MileSplit recently. "I looked around and was like, 'Woah. She's fast.'"

TJ Fakehinde gets messages all the time over Instagram. The reputable jumps coach, along with his partner Margaret Glover, have in recent years built up quite the pedigree training high school athletes in the Houston area. 

But this one was a little different. 

Never before had he been asked to train someone who was willing to drive from another state just to practice for a few hours a week.

But when the DM came in from David Pedigo, who was asking on behalf of his daughter, Ariel Pedigo, it was a particularly interesting question for the Jump Landers Track Club coach. 

Pedigo's request was simple: He was hoping that Ariel could learn from the best.

The towering stadium lights are beaming over Ed W. Monroe Memorial Stadium on a chilly Wednesday morning in September when Kevin Sanchez exits his SUV and begins the short walk down to the track. 

He's one of the first athletes to arrive in the dead of the early morning, high up in the Austin hill country, on one of the first cold spells of the Texas fall. 

But Sanchez, the Austin Vandegrift High School junior fresh off the biggest race of his career, doesn't take long before he tosses away his long tee and begins an early warm-up of two miles. 

Here is where elite runners like Sanchez find themselves, training well before the morning light, in the hours when most are only first rising for the day ahead.

While the vast majority of distance runners in the U.S. don't come from parents who experienced major success in their running careers, it's really interesting to hear the stories from the children of some of the America's most decorated distance runners. 

Enter Sophia Kennedy, a junior at Park Tudor School in Indianapolis, Indiana. She just finished up her cross country season with an incredible seventh-place finish at the Eastbay Cross Country Championships on Dec. 11 in San Diego, California

Clearly, it's the early part of the season and the fitness level will continue to evolve. There are things he knows will improve and he'll sharpen before the end of the season, "I didn't really have the kick I wanted today, but that'll come along with time; more strength work and I'll have a good kick by the end of the year."

Everybody knows early season success isn't what is remembered in the end. Fast early times are irrelevant when it all boils down. "The ultimate goal is state, then NXR, and some other post season races," Heikkinen said.

It's all a process and the goals the Plano West coaching staff has, the team, and even Heikkinen himself all have are centered around late October through December.

There was a pivotal moment in Will Pinson's cross country season that changed everything. 

It started in October, over in Room 290 at Huntsville High School. 

It's where Panthers head coach Blake Borden teaches during the day.

It's also where the varsity squad met following two straight losses to open up the season at the Southern Showcase in Alabama and the Wingfoot XC Classic in Georgia. Just a day after the team's first win at the Lake Guntersville Invitational on Oct. 2, the Panthers made a declarative statement.

"We talked to Coach Borden and said, 'We aren't accepting anything other than first place from this point forward," Pinson said. 

Perhaps he meant that for himself, too. 

Championship season doesn't always provide second chances.

But Hartland's (MI) Riley Hough was afforded one on Saturday at the Eastbay Cross Country Championships, and he wasn't going to let a little thing called 'pain' get in his way.

After a fifth-place finish at last week's Garmin RunningLane Championships -- his lone defeat of the season -- the former MileSplit50 No. 1 ranked Hough rebounded at Eastbay with a furious last quarter-mile at Balboa Park to win the national individual crown in a time of 15:11.40.

But while the Michigan State signee looked comfortable down the stretch, Hough said he was anything but as he fought through "immense pain" to take the title and give himself a happy ending to his senior cross country season.

Rain was in the forecast, but even as the lights illuminated the Hewlett Memorial Track for the Henderson Invitational's signature event -- the 3,200 meters -- no more than a drizzle broke through on an otherwise perfect evening in West Chester.

Like PennTrackXC founder Don Rich described the same event at the same meet almost 14 years to the day in the first sentence of his meet dispatch, "the weather was perfect."

It all lined up for another special boys' 3,200 meters at Henderson. Just like that 2007 meet, the race delivered on its promise.

And then some.

1:48.50.

That's the first sub-1:50 800 on Colorado soil by a high school athlete. 

And it's a new Colorado state record.

And it belongs to Mountain Vista senior Harrison Witt.

Witt captured his second Colorado state title of the 2021 season by smashing the six year-old 800 state record by over two seconds. The previous record of 1:50.59 was held by Blake Yount.

It may have taken an entire cross country season to come to this conclusion, a revealing of the nation's best girls distance runner, but perhaps on Saturday we finally saw that question get answered. 

Midway through the Garmin RunningLane Cross Country Championships at John Hunt Park, Flower Mound's Natalie Cook broke away from the pack and didn't look back. 

The MileSplit50 No. 3 ranked Texan utilized strong work on the hills and then ramped up her turnover on the flat and downhill sections as she ultimately pulled away from a contingent that included three nationally-ranked runners, winning the national championship in a new U.S. No. 1 time of 16:03.93, which also becomes the second-fastest individual performance ever recorded in high school girls cross country. 

No one could have known exactly what Ashton Schwartzman was feeling during the final four laps of the championship boys 4x800 on Saturday at adidas Indoor Nationals. 

In life, the expression of grief takes many forms. And everyone copes with tragedy in different ways. 

But if they had, if every single person inside the Virginia Beach Sports Center on Saturday was aware of just how important that race was to Ashton -- to his IMG Academy teammates who were behind his every step -- surely there would have been a lot more tears. 

For that moment was just so deeply incredible.

While the toughest hours of Ashton's life were passing him by, he had decided to race with all of his heart. Ultimately, that final anchor leg positioned IMG Academy for another win on Saturday, another U.S. No. 1 time of 7:51.92.

But of course, this was deeper than just a race. 

Zane Bergen ran into Penrose alone. 

There was no one in front of him, besides him, or behind him. 

Well, there were runners behind him. About 156 to be exact. But no one was near him. 

It was the only way the Niwot senior would've preferred it. 

Bergen took crisp, business-like strides while the crowd roared to life. There would be no crazy, close-finish like last year. No trip to the dirt. No waiting for an official results. 

This year, Bergen won the 4A Colorado State Championship state title out-right. 

Maplewood sophomore Caleigh Richards successfully executed the repeat on Saturday at the OHSAA State Cross Country Championships by winning the first race of the meet, the Division III contest. 

Richards didn't waste any time moving up to the front, as she led the field through 1 mile in 5:41 and at the 2 mile marker in 11:39. Her 18:16.2 official finishing time was good for a 6-second gap on runner-up Megan Adams.

Adams, a senior from West Liberty-Salem, solidified her second place standing with an 18:22.0 mark. 

Now two years into her high school career, Richards is a 2-time Ohio XC state champion. She earned her inaugural title last year at Fortress Obetz in 18:22.3. 

Believe. 

Believe that this is the best team we've ever seen. Believe that on this day, we saw something new and thrilling and unlike anything we've ever seen before in high school cross country. And believe that it didn't start with one moment, one specific thing that created this legacy, that it began the moment when the Newbury Park boys, the No. 1 team in the nation in 2021, started to realize their potential, when they chased it and lived every day like the next would bring even more. 

Believe. Even if you weren't there on Saturday at the Garmin RunningLane Cross Country Championships, believe that history can be made anytime and anywhere, by anyone willing enough to do all the little things necessary to achieve that mission. 

Newbury Park showed the nearly 5,000 or more spectators this weekend at John Hunt Park just what greatness looked like, and they did so in the form of three all-time records for 5K, ushering in a new way of history for any team looking to now chase after that same dream. 

The last name "Schweikert" has been all over the track for the first two days of competition at the AAU Junior Olympic Games in the racewalk.

The reason?

The fifth-oldest Schweikert sister began racewalking when she was 14-years-old and taught her other brothers how to excel in the event. Soon afterwards, it became a family tradition. 

Fast forward to 2021. Four Schweikert brothers racked up All-American honors and top finishes in the racewalk at this year's competition. 

Sydney McLaughlin and Athing Mu, New Jersey's dynamic and electrifying duo, put an exclamation point on one of the greatest weeks in New Jersey sports history by capturing their second gold medal when they each ran legs on the victorious women's 4x400 relay for the United States on Saturday at the Olympics in Tokyo.

McLaughlin, who graduated from Union Catholic in 2017, celebrated her 22nd birthday by splitting 50.21 on the opening leg to give the U.S. a commanding lead, which it never relinquished. Mu, the 19-year-old phenom from Trenton, closed out the resounding victory by blasting a blistering 48.32 as she stopped the clock at 3:16.85, the fifth fastest time ever run in the world. It's the seventh straight time the U.S. has won the women's 4x400 at the Olympics, and the 3:16.85 is the fastest run in the world since the U.S. ran 3:16.71 at the 1993 World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany.

On Friday, though, Willis left no doubt.

She finally had the breakthrough moment she's been striving for all year at the Trials of Miles NYC Qualifier, dropping a major personal best and winning time of 2:00.78.

That effort is fourth all-time in high school history, behind Mary Cain (1:59.51), Kim Gallagher (2:00.07) and Sammy Watson (2:00.65). It's tied for the fourth-fastest 800m performance all-time, too. 

Agur Dwol strolled down the red track between two white lines towards the pole vault pit. 

She stopped just short of the mat, and turned around to scan the terrain. On the other end of the stretch was a box of beige sand. 

This would be her airstrip. She'd have to lift off before reaching the other end, and fly.

Her lime green spikes shimmered under the burning sun while she leaned back and prepared for flight. She took one step, then two, then three. She accelerated with each stride like a plane roaring down the runway.

And when she got to the horizontal white line that stretched across the red track, she lifted off.

It was a very exciting night for Nico Young. 

Young broke the American Junior 5K record at Drake Relays Friday evening. The previous record of 13:25.46 by German Fernandez of Oklahoma State stood for almost 15 years. 

The freshman at Northern Arizona University ran in the middle of the pack for the first 1600m and split 4:17.38. The 18-year-old started moving up towards the front of the pack with about a mile left to go. 

He came down the final straightaway and finished third behind Under Armour's Morgan McDonald and Kieran Lumb in 13:24.26 to break the record.

Stevens, 18, isn't the same teenager that he was back then, not even close to it. He embraces his identity as a Native American, as a member of the Paiute Tribe in Yerington, where he is the single runner on his high school cross country team. 

But he's more than a runner, too. 

Over the last year, Stevens has found himself, and his personal history. In August, he held the Remembrance Run, a 50-mile journey set to imitate the road his great-grandfather Frank 'Togo' Quinn took escaping from the Stewart Boarding School as a Native American close to 100 years ago. A documentary crew from New York City followed him on his journey. 

This past summer taught Stevens what legacy truly means, how the suffering and pain of his great ancestors may have made him as strong as he is right now. 

February is American Heart Month and Coach Gibson wanted to hit all angles. She wanted to educate people on how to use AEDs and perform CPR at her son's memorial track meet starting at noon. 

According to the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation, there are more than 356,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCA) annually in the U.S. and nearly 90-percent of them are fatal. In a recent report from 2020, roughly 7,000 of those deaths impact children. By bringing awareness, having conversations and being open to receiving education information, as a community we can help save lives. 

At the meet, Coach Gibson will be joined by ten other parents who also had personal experience with losing a child and one survivor will be in attendance to speak with the teams, spectators and athletes about their journeys. 

Nash Mills had been there before. Headed down the stretch at a cross country meet, accompanied by cheers.

For Roisin Willis, Tuesday felt like it was just another typical day. One of her teammates asked Willis to do an interview with her to talk about her accomplishments this season.

There was one question that stood out the most from the rest. 

"You've won this Gatorade Player Of The Year award three times at the state level," her teammate said. "What would it be like to win it at the national level?"

Moments later, Willis turned and saw her mother holding the Gatorade Player Of The Year trophy. 

Her jaw dropped.

Saturday came, the race took place, and Willis came through the finish line in 2:04.64. It was an odd result, considering Willis seemed to be flying -- she was having the race of her life. 

But here's the thing. Here's the heartbreaking truth: 

An error was regrettably made by officials at the start line.

Willis may have actually ran her goal time. And because the error was noticed after the fact, and because the protest was made after USATF's in-place rule -- 30 minutes afte the publication of results -- the officials were in a bind:

To say that life is hitting Carmelita Jeter different these days would be a mild understatement.

Last week, the University of Alabama assistant coach and three-time Olympic medalist delayed a phone call in order to scurry home before a tornado struck in and around Tuscaloosa.

"I kept hearing this siren, and then it was, 'Whose car alarm keeps going off?' Jeter recounted. "I didn't know it was a doggone tornado watch. I don't play with that. So I said, 'Let's get my butt home.'"

Safe to say, Jeter avoided that mild heart attack.

But in other ways, the winds of change have been incredibly good for the 41-year-old, who is quickly becoming a force in coaching circles.

On a cold and rainy day in November of 2019, the BYU women tore through the grass loops of Terre Haute, powering their way past a field of elite distance talent. 

Ultimately, the Cougars would earn a second-place team finish behind Arkansas at the 2019 NCAA Cross Country Championships, a result which seemed to be the culmination of Coach Diljeet Taylor's long-term plan and The-Day 1-Buy-In of her respective student-athletes. Of course, the BYU women had accomplished more than just a runner-up finish at the national meet prior to 2019.

In the time that Taylor began to oversee the women's distance squad, BYU had been rocketing up the national ranks each and every year. In 2016, the women from Provo finished 10th at the NCAA Championships and nearly matched that performance in 2017 with an 11th place result. Then in 2018, the Cougars scored a seventh-place finish. 

All of this is to say that Coach Taylor has drastically altered the trajectory of this team for the better.

The job interview wasn't really a job interview. 

At least that's what Jeremy Wariner, the four-time Olympic gold medalist, remembers of the initial meeting he had with the Dallas Parish Episcopal High School athletic director four years ago, about an assistant track and field position at the program. 

"It was more, 'What are your thoughts, and would you be interested,'" he said. 

Makes sense. You wouldn't exactly ask what a four-time Olympic winner and five-time World champion's qualifications are, either. But for the record, Wariner was one of the fastest athletes in United States history, with a 400m best of 43.45 seconds and a career that spanned three Olympic cycles, eventually ending in 2017 via retirement. 

For the last four years, while he had settled down in McKinney, Texas, he had been operating a Jimmy John's franchise near Dallas with his wife. But in December, he said, he sold it. And with long-term aspirations to coach at the next level -- in particular the college ranks -- Wariner ultimately decided on accepting his first full-time position coaching track and field at the prep level. 

It may sound contradictory not to prioritize your sport.

But for someone like me, learning to do this has saved me from destruction in my sport. For a very long time, I was so invested in running that it was an obsession. My entire identity rested on how I did in running, how I ate, the little things I was doing outside of training to get better and the sacrifices I was making to set myself apart from others.

I was solely fueled by these things and I was happy with my life because running was going well. My sacrifices were worth it and I was convinced this was how I wanted to live my life. I was a runner ... and that's it. 

The sad truth is that living and thinking this way is not sustainable. I did not realize this until running was taken away from me due to injuries and my identity was crushed. Although I could still cross train, I no longer felt like I had a deep purpose anymore. Because my identity in running held so much power, I questioned everything about my life. The amount of self worth I put into what I DID rather than who I WAS, was destructive.

In a way, you remind me of a mosquito. Weird, I know. Mosquitos are pesky insects that come around in our backyards when it starts to get humid and thrive off of the blood from living organisms. They are pesky, bothersome, and can cause some painful bites.

Throughout my experience with you, if I am being honest, you have given me some pretty nasty bites: multiple days of laying on my coach due to dehydration, a fear that shakes me before every race that I won't perform to the best of my ability, a painful hamstring injury, and a trip to the ER after passing out in a race.

I'm not going to lie, there have been many times I have wanted to throw in the towel and quit; almost like taking a fly swatter and killing you like a mosquito.

However, I learned a very important lesson. In life, sometimes you have to experience the bad so that you can learn to appreciate the good things. After I researched mosquitos a little bit more, I learned that they aren't as bad as we characterize them to be.

Winfield, Alabama, is a town of about 4,500 people, three stop lights, one school system, southern hospitality, rich tradition, gossip, Mule Day, support, and quiet and simple living.

People find it interesting I come from such a small town. This new found information of where I grew up usually comes with two questions: What was it like growing up there? How did you live there?

The first is answered with a long or short response of Winfield being my reality. It was the place I called home and the only place I ever lived, so it was my life. The second question is answered with a stout defense because sometimes people give the rural south a bad name.

I don't stand for the bad mouthing unless they have lived it. 

I run alone in these moments, and yet I carry the spirits of thousands of Mountain Vista athletes that have come before me.

I run for the athletes that have paved the way for the path that I am on and who have laid the foundation for the training I log. These former runners are the talk of legend at practice -- their intensity, their integrity and their desire were brought up daily and idolized by our team. And so I race on behalf of these runners, the ones that spent four years of their lives dedicated to the goals I am chasing too.

Each time I lace up my spikes, I take a moment and remember the generations of runners who did the same before me.

I remember that Thursday being hot, and not only in the temperature sense. This was the first time I laced up my track spikes to hurdle in a month. June 24, 2021 was also the day before the first round of the 110 meter hurdles at the U.S. Olympic Trials. It would be my first real "practice" since I strained my hamstring 20 minutes to the gun at the NCAA East Regional meet. But I went through the warmup with no pain or regret in making the flight out to Eugene, even though I wasn't sure if I would run. Throughout the warmup my body felt ready to go, ready to perform its first explosive task since my hamstring went haywire a few weeks prior. My nerves were hot with the consistent thought of, "Can I do this? Will I make it over these literal hurdles?"

The protocol was a pitch count; keep it to the bare minimum needed to perform. Pre-meet consisted of two block starts, two times over two hurdles and one time over three hurdles. The goal was zero pain. Seven hurdles total is all I did before I would have to run a full set of 10 hurdles on one of the biggest stages in track and field. But this didn't daunt me.

It's been a little over a month since that phone call. 

Guy died Tuesday in that same hospital, presumably with family by his side. 

His death has impacted his community greatly. Those who knew him best were offering prayers and words of support on Facebook and Twitter. 

I did as well. 

But I also couldn't help but think of another story we collaborated on in July of 2018.

We chatted for over an hour on the tragic death of a former athlete of his, Te'Niya Jones, who died while being swept out into a riptide in Tel Aviv -- she was a young student at the University of Kentucky who had dreams of trying out for the track team. 

She had been in contact with Thomas on how to navigate that process. Thomas, like always, had encouraged her to dream and to work and to dedicate herself to that mission. He believed in her. 

That she met a tragic death was even all that more devastating, because she lived life the right way. 

So too had Guy. 

I'm honestly having trouble describing it any other way.

While most of my mentions since yesterday have been along the lines of "mEaSuRe ThE cOuRsE" let's just take a moment to examine all the factors that contributed to the outcome of yesterday's race.

Best runners and teams in the country, check.

Best running terrain in the country, check.

Best running weather conditions you could ask for, check.

Incredible crowd atmosphere, check.

All the elements for something incredible to occur were there. The starting stretch was half a mile long and at every point of it there was a spectator standing and as they all migrated from one check point of the race to the next you could feel something special was about to occur by the time the lead cart came into the view of the finish line.

Imagine that your training is going well until it is not. As an endurance athlete, you have listened to your coach and others about eating well, being healthy, and following the training program. Your diet has not changed but somehow your performance is constantly degrading when it should be getting better. Many coaches unknowingly will attribute the athlete's performance to just a "bad performance" or worse, a bad attitude.

Some coaches, (I was probably one of them at one point) are just not aware of the subtle signs. Some of these subtle signs include symptoms such as frequent infections, shortness of breath during exercise, respiratory illness, fatigue, weakness, pale appearance, lack of energy, depression, irritability, and unexplained poor performance are typical.

The United States Olympic Track and Fields Trials are an avenue for the best American athletes to make Olympic teams.

But they're also a place for hope, too. 

You could say it's a place for dreamers, believers and even for redeemers. 

Which brings us to someone like Kaylin Whitney, a 2016 graduate of East Ridge High School. On Sunday, after a few years of disappointments, the 23-year-old made her first Olympic relay team in the 4x400, finishing fifth-place overall in the women's final in a new career best of 50.29 seconds. 

This story is less about where she is now, though, than it is about her persistence and belief through years of challenges.