Robert Grant (Sr., Brophy College Prep) will be writing a journal for the Arizona Milesplit site, sharing his journey through his final prep track and field season.
He returns this season at the top of the Arizona leader board in the 300 hurdles and #4 in the Nation. He also ranks #3 in Arizona in the 100 hurdles and #2 in the 400 meters. Last weekend up in Flagstaff he ran an indoor time of 21.88 in the 200 meter dash for a US#10 time.
Robert holds the 300 meter hurdles sophomore record at 37.95
PR's
100 dash - 10.94
200 dash - 21.42
400 dash - 48.09
110 hurdles - 14.45
300 hurdles - 36.88
400 hurdles - 52.46
Journal Number #1
Hey Arizona track and field, my name is Robert (Bobby) Grant, and I will spend the next couple minutes occupying your time with my journal that will hopefully give you a little insight into my life or blow your mind entirely with my crazy stories (not really). So sit back, relax, and strap into your seats because this will be interesting. I have never tried my hand at writing a journal before or anything like this, but hey, I’m in AP English - how hard could this really be?
I want to start this journal where I left you all, my last race of the season. I want to tell you about everything that has happened to me since June, all the way up to today, the first Monday of Spring track.
It’s the finals; I’m sweating like a pig. I have never been so nervous in my entire life. The gun goes off; I run and jump over 10 hurdles for 400 meters. It comes down to the last 40 meters and I can’t pull it off. I get fourth, the whole world stops for a few seconds as I sit there in awe of my seasons end. I had just lost my race at the World Youth Trials in Evansville, Illinois. It was over. All of that hard work and dedication to my season had come to an end. Getting fourth means nothing, you get no medal, no USA gear, no travel to Ukraine, and you get no satisfaction. I had run the 8th fastest time in the world for a high school student in the event but I still didn’t make the team. I was devastated. Questions running through my mind were “what now - what’s next? Where do I go from here”?
I don’t want it to be over. The pain in my gut was excruciating and I can’t seem to find any positive light in this world. The long plane ride home made me realize that losing to Devon at state and not making this USA team were two of the best things to ever happen to me. It made me hungry to come back this year and come back with a vengeance. But stop, I’m getting ahead of myself. Back to my life.
After the devastating loss I realized that July 1st would be coming around and that I had run fast enough my junior year to be recruited by a Division I college program. July 1st is the first day that college coaches can call you on the phone. I didn’t realize how many calls I was going to get! It was all so fast. The phone was ringing, my palms were sweating and I had no idea what to say to these random people calling me - interested in me! It was an exciting time. As the summer continued I spent my time tanning in Southern California with my brother or back at home entertaining college coaches. That was something I will never forget. To have a college coach in my house actually interested in me was amazing. I was in lala land for a few months.
Then the day that everyone dreads came along… first day of school. I know I’m supposed to be excited because I’m a senior and all, but it was tough. I wasn’t playing football and I had nothing to do with my life except go home, eat, and do homework. My coach still wanted me to rest so I wasn’t able to do actual track workouts. I was lost. While all of this was going on I was still feeling the stress of my college decision and the pressure to pick the right places to visit. So now we have reached the next chapter, visits.
I went on my first visit to Cal Berkeley and let me tell you - that is one beautiful place. Visits however are grueling and drain the energy out of you like you can never imagine. All of the meetings and talks with coaches - it’s so hard to get any sleep.
I followed my visit up at Cal to a visit to Texas Christian University. I have never been to Texas and boy was it interesting. The people there are so nice and it was such a friendly environment - I loved it. TCU is a smaller private Christian school that was similar to Brophy. In fact when walking through the campus I saw about 25 people from my high school. It Is weird being on a college visit seeing all these people you know! I followed that visit up with a trip down to South Beach. Yes ladies and gentlemen I visited University of Miami - quite possibly the greatest school ever. If you haven’t already heard that’s the school I chose and it’s the best place on earth. The campus, team and coaching staff were honestly the best fit for me and I fell in love. Finally I visited Tennessee. UT was a great school and I loved seeing a part of the world I had never seen before but my love for Miami was just too strong. I committed in November and am so glad to be a Cane.
But back to track
I started training in October and it’s been four months of rigorous weight lifting, running and plyometric work. Let me tell you I have never trained so hard in my entire life for anything. That hunger I was telling you all about is firing inside of me for the Arizona State Record and a trip to Oregon on the USA team. I usually find a workout that I hate every single year. Junior year it was the repeat 150’s, for some reason they always made me throw up. This year however it has got to be the repeat 600’s. When you do that workout for the first time it’s brutal. I can tell you right now that I was close to throwing up things I ate last year when I ran that workout.
As well as training, I have participated in Brophy Student Council, and I have even been in a fashion show for Brophy Seniors. I am trying to soak up as much of my high school experience as I can. I am attending Basketball, Soccer, and any other school events that I can make it to. I know this spring and summer is going to move real fast. Honestly, this year so far has been so fun and it has led up to tomorrow, the first day of track.
All of the hard work all of the dedication this year; the stresses of the recruiting process and the hard decisions being made are all worth it because today is the first day of track. Do you know what that means? That means that we all get to run now and not just train, we get to run in meets. I know… I got Goosebumps too.
I guess this is where I leave you fellow AZ runners; in my next journal I will talk about how my training is going and what I’m looking forward to this year. I will also tell you about my goals and give you some advice on how to have fun this season.
Well until next time…
-Robert Grant
Robert Grant (Sr., Brophy College Prep) will be writing a journal for the Arizona Milesplit site, sharing his journey through his final prep track and field season.
