Benjy, a hurdler on the track team, and two of my other friends, Adam and Brendon, are sitting in Adam’s room discussing sports and playing music. Eventually I start to question Benjy so the music is turned down. “When did you first start running?” Benjy looks up and responds, “I started running in 6th grade. I always liked the competitive aspect, but didn’t start running competitively until 10th grade.” “When did you realize you had talent?” “Sophomore year I tried out for the track team and I made it.” He goes on to explain that along with his sophomore uniform the coach also handed him a varsity uniform saying “You might be needing this in a few weeks.” Indeed he did. “That’s pretty amazing that you were pretty much on varsity your first year” I say, and go on to explain my struggle to finally make varsity. He laughs a bit and replies, “Yeah, I pretty much knew the instant my coach handed me the varsity uniform that I had a lot of potential.” I go on to ask Benjy “Oh by the way, what’s with that interesting uniform that I see you wearing in a lot of Facebook pictures?” He laughs and says “You must be talking about the speed suit.” My friend interjects saying, “Damn Benjy, that’s one tight suit” after I proceed to show everyone the pictures I am referring to. At this point I didn’t expect the conversation to go anywhere so as I prepare my next question Benjy surprisingly goes on. “My sophomore year I saw all the fastest runners wearing those suits, and you couldn’t ask for one, you had to earn it.” I ask him to elaborate on that as it was pretty interesting. With my two other friends now fully attentive, Benjy says, “I worked my ass off for one of those suits. I spent the entire off season training hard and I finally earned it. It was an honor to wear.” The conversation drifts off path for a little bit as we throw soccer ball around the room and begin to play music again. We get back to the interview and I ask him about his most memorable experiences with running. “There are two” he says. “Sophomore year I was at a race and all my coaches were just telling me to run hard and not worry about making finals.” From the way he began to explain the story I could tell that he was in fact nervous the entire time. “Despite the pressure, I ended up making it into the finals.” As it turns out he ended up making all conference and placed 3rd. “I wasn't expecting that at all” he says with a huge grin.
“What about the second one” I ask. Benjy immediately loses a bit of happiness in his voice, so I immediately know this next story is not necessarily a good experience. “I qualified for state and I was at the race, it was huge for me. I was training hard the weeks before and my practice times meant I was set to PR.” As he tells the story his voice gets sterner with every word. “I got onto the track and immediately felt weird. On the first hurdle the back of my spike snagged the hurdle and my shoe began to slip off.” Laughing with disappointment he says, “on the sixth hurdle my spike just flew up in the air...I ended up finishing dead last.” Benjy’s voice picks up again, “It wasn’t all bad though, I ended up breaking a school record in an open meet that night. It was the best possible way to end my high school career.” We all laugh at how nonchalantly Benjy mentions breaking a school record and we begin to blast our music in the room yet again, this time passing around a tennis ball. The conversation works its way back to running and we just talk about short little anecdotes of our running careers when Benjy finally says “I’m never satisfied with a race.” I’m blown away. Someone who has achieved so much is “never satisfied.” For this reason, I believe Benjy is a true champion. He never stops, and probably never will stop. His lack of satisfaction is what drives him to be so great. It’s clear to me at this point that Benjy is one of the most driven, yet humble, runners I have ever had the pleasure of talking to. The interview ends with Benjy explaining to us all the one true time where he was, in fact, satisfied: “It was my head coach’s last year during my senior year. We hadn't won indoor or outdoor conference in about 20 years. I was going up against a rival hurdler and I was incredibly nervous. The second the gun went off, everything clicked…I had perfect rhythm, perfect form, perfect speed. I shattered the school record by 3/10ths of a second.” Benjy looks up, smiles, and says, “I don’t expect anyone to beat that record.”