Here’s an idea for a sport (to crib from Robin Williams’ comical breakdown of the origins of golf): Get a huge pack of guys and girls together. Send them running mind-boggling distances, over hills and around trees and through God knows what, with no referees or umpires anywhere to bear witness to any fouls, where the point is to score as few points as possible.
I give you cross country.
Pablo Nicasio loves cross-country running. Perhaps it’s an acquired taste from being the youngest child in the family. With four older sisters and two older brothers, you can bet he did his fair share of running.
Runners are a different breed. After all, this isn’t a sport a person can “go pro” in. At best, a CC runner can score a scholarship to college, but that’s where it ends. You aren’t likely to see any Monday Night Cross Country on Primetime. Despite this, Nicasio runs. He’s been running since junior high, and he’s currently a junior at Righetti High School running for the varsity team.
“It’s just fun,” he said.
Cross-country runners tend to also compete in track. Pablo runs the 800, the mile, and the two-mile events.
Coach Louie Quintana recently sent his charges loping off on a warm-up run: a 20-minute run that for most would be a complete workout in itself. And they do this on a daily basis, running random lengths often followed by specific workouts.
“We have to slow him down sometimes,” Coach Quintana said of Nicasio. “Sometimes he practices too much if he’s not happy with his performance. It’s not good.”
Aside from that mild criticism, Coach Quintana was full of praise for an athlete who trains hard, is a good role model, and will even run over the weekend.
Nicasio, like many teens, hasn’t decided on his future yet. He’s unsure whether he wants to run for college or not. And his attention is split between law and medicine in terms of studies.
Righetti Cross Country fared well at the Ojai Invitational on Sept. 17, with three guys in the top 10—including Nicasio, who came in sixth. Nicasio also had a ninth-place finish out of 108 runners in Morro Bay on Sept. 10.
“It’s not hard or easy,” Nicasio said of running.
He admits that some courses are more difficult than others, but the act of running? It just is. That’s not to say his success comes without any effort. He’s currently focusing on his form and speed, like tuning up a muscle car, smoothing out the little hitches that can slow him down.
This article appears in Sep 29 – Oct 6, 2011.