More to it than running

There’s running. Cross country athletes have been doing that together since the middle of August. But don’t confuse that with what happens today at Deer Park in the Class 3A Eastern Regional meet.

That, West Valley’s senior harriers insist, will be racing.

“Racing is different,” Garrett Hanson said. “Racing teaches you a lot about yourself, a lot about what you have inside you. Racing isn’t just about who runs the fastest. It’s about guts and desire and about how hard you’re willing to push yourself.”

Marc Smith agreed.

“Distance running really isn’t one of my favorite things to do,” he said. “I do it during the season, but I don’t do a lot of it the rest of the year. But I love to race. I love that adrenalin rush that you get during a race and the thrill you get when you beat an opponent.

“Nothing against guys who play football, but they have 10 teammates on the field with them. During a race, it’s just you against the field.”

Hanson and Smith offer the sixth-ranked Eagles a sense of determined leadership on a team led by a pair of talented sophomores: Richard Keroack and Josh Gardner. The youngsters have earned the admiration of their upperclassmen teammates.

“Those guys may be sophomores, but they’re more than sophomores,” Smith said. “They’ve been varsity runners now for two years, and they are pretty special. They’re going to accomplish an awful lot before they’re through here.”

Smith also is excited about two new faces on the West Valley varsity.

“Alex Hanson, Garrett’s brother, just came up to the varsity and I’m really excited to have him with us,” he said. “I think Alex has the same approach to a race as Garrett has, and I am anxious to see what he can do. And we have a freshman who will be running his first varsity race (today) – Justin Degenhardt.”

A year ago, West Valley ran with a goal of bunching their varsity times within a minute of each other.

“It was a struggle to be able to do that,” Garrett Hanson said. “It was hard for that team to accomplish.

“With this team, we’ve worked hard to be together, to bond together. But more than that, we naturally all run well together. We are all bunched less than a minute apart without even trying.”

Leadership isn’t necessarily something he aspires to, Hanson admitted, but he does hope to pass along a painfully learned lesson to his teammates.

“I’m the only one on the team who has run in a state meet, and that was when I was a sophomore,” he said. “I was sick that whole week, probably from my own stress levels, but I ran anyway. But by getting myself all stressed beforehand, I took myself out of the race.”

Instead, he hopes, his teammates will leave their all on the course this week and next.

“To me, it’s more important to look back and how we ran instead of what we ran,” Hanson said. “There’s a pretty subtle difference between the two, but it’s a big difference. The difference is about being able to look at yourself in the mirror afterward.”

Smith said he’s aiming for a top-10 finish today and will pick his spots during the race.

“What I like to do is to run with the guy I want to beat and then, hopefully, out-kick him at the finish,” he said. “It would be nice to be there at the finish with (East Valley’s No. 1 runner) Nick Atwood and dual with him to the finish line, but I’ll be satisfied with a top-10 finish.

“I missed a couple of meets during the season because of an injury to my (right) calf. I’m still not entirely sure where I am in terms of being at full strength. I guess I’ll find out.”

Like Hanson, Smith would prefer to be helped off the course after crossing the finish line.

“My goal is to collapse from exhaustion as soon as I cross the finish line,” he said. “I’ve come pretty close a few times. In fact, there were a couple times when the only thing that kept me upright was a fear of getting spiked by the guys behind me.”

Both Hanson and Smith are aware that they are facing the final two races of their high school careers.

Both are focused intently on making those final two races count.

“Our assistant coach, Gene Blankenship, talks a lot about how each race is a step,” Smith said. “Every week, every race we have is a step toward our ultimate goal, and that’s the state meet. We haven’t run our best race yet as a team. I’m confident that we can do that. I really believe that this team can place in the top four at state. “