Adam Green brings back memories
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Franklin Central long distance runner Adam Green, to someone like yours truly who has no real knowledge of proper running form or technique, appears to have a very easy running style. While many participants labor rather noticeably while touring the 5,000 meters required for completing a high school boys' cross country race, the Flashes' junior seems to glide along in a somewhat effortless, enjoyable manner.
Rest assured, Green's rise to his current status as one of the top schoolboy long distance runners in Indiana has been strenuous. He's put in the effort; he's endured the pain. He's legged out hundreds upon hundreds of miles in preparation for competing with the state's elite runners.
It takes a special athlete to want to participate in long distance running. Consider, for example, what kind of training is required to prepare for running 5,000 meters. For those who haven't bought into the metric system, the race itself is just a little over 3.1 miles, or more than 12 laps around the track at the Franklin Township Athletic Center. High school girls run 4,000 meters, or just a little under 2.5 miles.
Cross country races can be grueling; the finishes can be, for some, almost gruesome. Determined runners have been seen stumbling into the finishing chute, falling to the ground, left with no legs under them, gasping for air. At the 2004 IHSAA State Finals, runners were collapsing well ahead of the finish line, some literally crawling to the end with their fingernails filled with dirt and their grimacing faces covered with mud from the soggy course. If you have a weak stomach, you may want to stay away from the finish line - there's spitting, coughing, outright puking. There are lots and lots of moaning. And survival! And runners left with an extreme sense of well-earned pride!
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Watching Green the past several weeks reap the rewards of the training, dedication and self-discipline that earned him a place in the IHSAA Cross Country State Finals at Terre Haute takes me back only about five decades - to when I was growing up out in West Central Kansas. The Sunflower State, for as long as I can remember, has been known for its distance runners, particularly those who excelled in the mile run.
As a somewhat short, frail ninth-grader - perhaps 75-80 pounds at best and even then dripping wet - I had the opportunity to experience the physical and mental anguish that goes into running a mile. I remember that totally spent feeling at the end of four laps around an oval when legs are cramping, sides are aching and each time a vow is taken to never ever do this again. My dad watched me run only once, branding the experience as "inhumane." I think he meant for me.
We didn't have a state freshman meet back in the mid-1950s, but the closest thing was the season-ending Hutchinson Invitational, a nighttime headliner that attracted many of the top track and field competitors from around the state. Running at night was somewhat exhilarating compared to daytime races beneath the scorching Kansas sun. It felt good, and I was lucky enough to place fourth in the mile run with my best-ever time of 5:08. Larry Manning, an acquaintance from the neighboring small town of Ellinwood, easily won the race. He went on to become famous, not as a miler but as a vascular surgeon in Temple, Texas. As a sophomore, I discovered high school baseball - not that I was destined to contribute to the Kansas lore as a distance runner.
The state's tradition for developing a long line of legendary distance runners began back in the 1930s, when small-town Kansas products Glenn Cunningham and Archie San Romani burst onto the scene. And what a burst it was - Cunningham would go on to become the nation's most popular Depression Era track star, with San Romani only about a stride behind.
San Romani, from tiny Frontenac in Southeast Kansas, was one of the most prominent milers in history. He set NCAA records, world records, and qualified for the 1936 Olympic team. Cunningham, from remote Elkhart in the extreme southwest corner of the state, edged San Romani in the 1,500-meter run for a victory in the 1936 Olympic trials. Cunningham went on to finish second in the Olympics, while San Romani placed fourth.
 Depression Era runner Glenn Cunningham |
Once Cunningham was introduced to a training routine known as "under-distance faster, over-distance slower," he quickly developed into a world class runner. Two years later, he was to break the world mile record with a clocking of 4:06.8.
Known as the Elkhart Express, Cunningham arrived at the University of Kansas in 1930 as the greatest scholastic miler in history. During his senior year in high school, he had set a state record for the mile at 4:28.3 at the state meet in Manhattan. In July of 1930 at the National Interscholastic Meet in Chicago, he had set a national record for high school runners by posting a time of 4:24.7.
By the time Cunningham retired at age 30, he had become an international celebrity and had competed in two Olympics. The last two years he had competed in hopes of trying for his third successive Olympic team, but the onset of World War II made the holding of the games impossible so he decided to hang up his cleats.
The string of legendary Kansas distance runners would continue, with the arrivals of Wes Santee in the 1950s, and Conrad Nightingale and Jim Ryun in the 1960s.
Santee was another one of those small-town prep phenoms - from desolate Ashland in southwest Kansas. As a sophomore at the University of Kansas, he was already one of the world's premiere milers when he ran the 5,000-meter race in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. Although he did not win the Gold Medal, he garnered a significant amount of publicity.
Nightingale, another small-town product, from Halstead, went to Kansas State University where he was part of several top-caliber cross country teams. During the 1966 indoor track season, he captured the NCAA Division I mile run championship in 4:03.4. He also competed in the 1968 Olympics in the 3,000-meter steeplechase event.
The most supreme talent ever to come out of Kansas, however, was Jim Ryun. Between his junior and senior year at Wichita East High School, he made an Olympic team. And while he was never able to win an Olympic Gold medal, many consider Ryun to this day to be the most gifted of all the great milers - from Bannister, to Elliot, to Coe, to Aouita, to Morceli and El Guerrouj.
Thanks goes to Franklin Central's Adam Green for triggering some recollections that go back quite a number of years. He certainly is to be congratulated today for his distance running exploits - they will be part of his long-term memory for years to come.
NOTE: Click here for a related column on Jim Ryun.
- FTONEWS.com -