Milesplit Arizona Cross Country Journals
Billy Orman returns this season as the top runner in Arizona with a National ranking of 22. Billy had a great cross country season last year, making it all the way to Foot Locker Nationals and finishing 2nd at the Nike SW Regionals. Billy also posted some great times in track finishing the season with a 4:19.50 1600 at the Chandler Rotary and a 9:04.97 at the Meet of Champions. He is set for a great season. Keep checking back as Billy journals about his final prep cross country season.
Billy Orman
(Sr., Tuba City)
Journal Entry #1 (September 29, 2010)
Introduction
Hi MileSplit readers, Billy Orman here. Many thanks to Margot Kelly for her great high school running website, and thanks, Margot, for inviting me to contribute some journal articles. I'm really happy and excited to write some, because I have gotten a lot out of other runners' journals over the years. Maybe I can help out some younger runners with my experiences. It seems like just yesterday that I was reading Tim Freriks' great articles on this website, and it's hard to believe that I'm now in the position to write some myself. I feel pretty humbled to be doing this, because lots of really awesome runners have written on these pages before me.
Photo left: from left, Coach Perry, Billy's mom, Billy, Billy's Dad at Foot Locker Nationals)
Anyway, for those of you who don't know me, I am a senior at Tuba City High School. Some of you might not even know where Tuba City is. It is a small town 75 miles north of Flagstaff, on the western edge of the Navajo reservation. There are only 2 traffic lights here in town and most of the roads are unpaved. We actually also have a small Hopi Village called Moencopi here in town as well, so we always have some really good Hopi runners on our team. Tuba is at 5000 feet altitude and it has a dry, sandy, high desert climate with hot days and cool nights. It is a great place to run and train, since you can basically run in any direction and pretty soon you will be alone out on a desert trail or road. There is a lot of deep sand here though, and most days it gets really windy in the afternoon. Although those conditions can be tough to run in, it does make running on surfaces like golf courses seem pretty easy. In case you are wondering, I am not Navajo or Hopi, but have lived in Tuba City since I was 6 months old. I was born in Baltimore, Maryland and my dad came here to work at the Public Health Service hospital that is right by our house. My mom is Puerto Rican and she teaches Spanish at my high school.
A lot of kids here in Tuba City start running at a very early age, but I was not one of them. The first time I ever remember running a race was in 7th grade, when the hospital put on a turkey trot 5k. I am vegetarian, but for some reason I wanted to win a turkey for my mom, so I went out and ran. I still remember; I was wearing skateboard shoes. Anyway, I came in third and won a small turkey.
I started running in school when I was in eighth grade. It was my dad who actually made me join a school sport, because he was tired of coming home from work and finding me watching T.V. Since our junior high only had 2 sports, cross country and football, I chose cross country. I can't say it was love at first sight. In fact, I actually hated it at first and I wanted to quit after the first day. I was really out of shape and it was about a hundred degrees outside that day, and I've never felt so tired since. Anyway, my dad made me agree to tough it out at least 2 weeks before I could quit, because he told me most new things are hard at the beginning, and then usually get easier. So I toughed it out and then I actually started to get a lot better and came in second in my first real cross country meet.
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(Photo left: Orman on his way to the 2009 cross country state title.) I have continued to run each year in high school and have been lucky enough to have coaches who have really helped me along. My junior high coach, Arvis Myron, is now again coaching me this year. Carl Perry was my coach from 9th to 11th grade. Carl helped me develop a long term plan for my running starting in my freshman year. His plan was for me to slowly increase my mileage each year. That way I could slowly improve and also avoid injury. So far it has worked well for me - the only running injury I've ever had was when I tripped on my shoelace last fall and landed directly on my kneecap on pavement, and had to miss a month of the season. My freshman year I ran about 35 miles a week, and have gone up about 10 miles a week each year since then. My goal mileage for this year is somewhere around 60 - 65 miles a week. Starting my junior year I started running doubles for the first time, putting in maybe 3 miles a few mornings a week.
To prepare for this season, I started putting in summer base miles around July 1, after all the post-season track meets were over. I tried to hit around 60-65 miles a week. I generally divide the week up into days where I do 8 or 9 miles, sometimes doing 3 of those miles in the morning; then I do one long run each week, between 12 and 14 miles. Most of the time I run here in Tuba, but occasionally I'm able to run in Flagstaff when we are down there to shop on weekends. I do most of my summer runs at what most people would consider a very slow pace, probably around 8:30 minute miles or even 9:00 pace. Toward the end of the summer, I do try to enter a few local, community races, usually 10ks, in Flagstaff or over on the Hopi reservation, to get in a little speed work.
So far this season, I have run in 3 meets and have managed to win in each of them. It has been pretty hot so far this season, so my times were not quite as fast as I'd hoped, but I feel like I'm in pretty good shape. My main personal goal for cross country this year is to be able to qualify again for Foot Locker nationals in December. Qualifying last year was really the high point of my high school running career. I am also really looking forward to the upcoming Twilight Meet in Phoenix, and of course to the state meet in November. My other big goal for this fall is to find a college I'd like to attend next year. So, I have started to interview at a few schools and am trying to figure out what is a good fit for me. Even though I really like to run, my primary concern is to find a school that is a good academic and social fit for me, where I can also contribute to a team.
This is a really busy week for me, so I can't write any more now. If there is interest, I can write more about training in another entry, and I would also like to write some advice about preparing for college admissions and applications, based on what I have learned.
Best wishes to everyone for a great season!
