Friday, December 5, 2008

Tough Running

This is tough stuff. A well written article that details a time trial last month by schoolboy Trevor Dunbar of Alaska. Think about this when you're on your 5th and 6th lap at USATFXC in February...

Gathering Storm
On November 8th, Trevor Dunbar ran a 9:01 3200 in a snowstorm which caught the attention of high school fans around the country. It only served to confirm something Alaskans have known for a while now: Dunbar is part of a renaissance in Alaskan prep distance running that the Lower 48 can no longer ignore.

The first thing you notice is the banality of the setting, the profound ordinariness of everything.A snow-dusted high school track on a frigid November day. A brushed-nickel sky that emanates light without providing warmth. An aging football scoreboard and a wind-whipped chainlink fence hard against a working class neighborhood. Bundled kids jogging around in mismatched outfits meant to keep the cold at bay. There is a siren wailing plaintively in the distance. An airplane humming on the horizon. This could be any athletic field at any high school in a thousand towns in America. It could be Shamokin, Pennsylvania or Goshen, Indiana or Ogden, Utah. It could be any number of places where high school runners routinely scratch out a few laps on half-frozen, 400-meter ovals in the interest of fitness. But it isn’t. This is an island 1500 miles northwest of Seattle, Washington.

The rest of the article (including pix and video) can be found here:
http://www.dyestat.com//?pg=dyestatnw-2008-XC-Trevor-Dunbar-Feature&PHPSESSID=21e2e537680dbd940605a804ced87c41

1 comment:

Dane said...

Ogden? Where did you pull that one out of?!