The Ultimate Competitive Streak

Many perceive it as athletes competing mano-a-mano (in a manner of speaking) against athletes wearing different colored shorts and singlets. There’re no trick plays, no fancy schemes, just one-against-the-rest, all alone, out there by yourself, a loneliness-of-the-long-distance-runner mentality.

Well, actually, no. That’s not so. Not even close. Track and field, my friends, is the quintessential team endeavor.

 

Liam Bellamy learned that immutable fact early in his running career when he was still a promising 8^th grader, not the elite practitioner of the sport that he has become.

 

Bellamy, who’s signed to run for the University of Virginia, is the defending Prep League and VISAA 800 champion in spring track. He also anchored the 4x800 relay team that won both the league and state titles in 2019.

 

In the indoor league championship competition last month, he won the 1000 and 500 and anchored the winning 4x400 relay team, feats which secured him the Outstanding Running Event Performer award.

 

Then, a week later, he placed first in the 500, second in the 1600, and third in the 1000, all within 90 minutes, and amassed 24 team points which played a significant role in the Cougars’ first ever VISAA indoor championship.

 

He’s recorded personal best times of 1:52.87 in the 800 (school record), 4:29.62 in the 1600, 2:32.74 in the 1000, 1:06.14 in the 500, and 49.81 in the 400. He anchored the 4x8 team (with Sam Hart, Johnny White, and Will Neuner) that recorded the second fastest time (8:03.73) in program history.

 

This past fall, Bellamy ventured into cross country for the first time and was successful enough (runner-up in both the league and state) to earn All-Prep, All-VISAA, and All-Metro honors, which enhanced a résumé which includes the same citations in multiple events in both winter and spring track.

 

Watch Bellamy run, and you can readily see that, one, he’s really, really fast, and, two, he’s taken the concept of competitive spirit to a stratospheric level. Yet if you inquire about his prodigious success fueled by the high-octane motor with which he trains and races, he responds with it’s-not-about-me humility.

 

“A big part of it is the team,” he said. “When I started running (in the spring of 2016), I saw track as more of an individual thing. I mean, you go through all the events except for the relays by yourself. As I’ve been on the team and run longer, I understand that we’re collectively together. You know your guys count on you and have your back. It goes both ways.”

 

That’s no just-say-the-right-thing-for-publication answer.

 

This is the guy, after all, who, when asked by a Richmond Times-Dispatch reporter for the All-Metro cross country spread to name his favorite gift, responded, “…all the opportunities I’ve been given.”

 

You see, as talented, driven, and accomplished as he is, Bellamy is a team-first, make-everyone-around-you-better guy of the highest order.

 

“Liam’s actions speak louder than his words,” said Matthew Richardson, Collegiate’s head cross country coach who also oversees the distance runners in winter and spring track. “He doesn’t have to say a lot for you to know exactly what he’s thinking. He’s honest and straightforward. He speaks with integrity. People listen because they know what he ways is authentic.”

 

So where does his fearless, without-limits, run-through-a-brick-wall mentality come from?

 

“I think part of it is fear of losing,” Bellamy said with a smile. “I’ve never really been a fan of losing no matter what I’m doing, whether I’m out with friends playing pick-up basketball or running in a track meet. I never, ever want to lose. That’s my mindset going into everything.”

 

Since he was very young, Bellamy has competed in a range of sports. He played in the Upward and Bon Air basketball programs and on Collegiate’s Cub and JV teams. He played baseball in the Richmond Little League and for Collegiate at the Cub and JV level.

 

His speed and athleticism made him a natural for soccer, which he played for years until he decided after his junior year to cast his lot full time with the distance program.

 

“The thing about Liam is his drive,” Richardson said. “He confronts the brutal facts of each situation and says, ‘This is the best I can do, this is what I hope to do, these are the points we need to get, this is the time I think I can run. Then, he goes out and tries to do even better.’”

 

Among Bellamy’s numerous significant achievements was his performance in the May 2019 Dogwood Track Classic, a high-level regional event held at Lannigan Field at UVA.

 

That day, undaunted by the stellar competition, Division I setting, over-the-top energy in the venue, and star power of the opposition, he ran splits of 55/58 and crossed the line in 1:53.86, a full two seconds faster than the previous school mark set by Chris DeCamps in 2001.

        

“A week before, I’d run 1:56,” Bellamy recalled, “so I knew the school record was doable. I knew I’d have people pushing me. I went into the race thinking, All right, this is the day. Go do it. At the 400, there was a kid (Zach Hughes) from First Flight (High School) in front of me. I was following him. I remember coming down the (final) straightaway. Then I saw 1:53. That was my goal for that day.”

 

Two weeks later, he won the state championship in a thrilling, photo-finish with St. Christopher’s Ian Smith, who crossed six-hundreds of a second later.

 

“That goes back to the indoor Preps that year,” Bellamy said. “Ian beat me by .04 seconds. That had been on my mind ever since.”

 

Revenge, maybe?

 

“No,” Bellamy said. “Ian’s a great runner. That’s what drove me.”

 

Over the past three years, Bellamy has amassed enough medals and plaques to fill a trophy case. He’s been told he’s good. He conveys a high level of confidence without a trace of cockiness.

 

How has he maintained his edge?

 

“You really can’t get complacent,” he said. “If you do, your work ethic goes. By setting the bar high and getting attention, there’s a big fear of not performing at the same level. It’s just keeping the hunger to go out and achieve my goals. That feeling got me here, so why not keep that same mentality?”

 

And how has he remained humble?

 

“People don’t want to just hear you talk about yourself all the time,” he said. “It’s really, really important to understand that no matter what, everybody’s doing the same amount of work. Everybody’s giving 100 percent. I know that for a fact, especially with this team.

 

“When you’re part of something that’s a lot bigger than yourself, it’s special. If you just make it about yourself, what’s the fun of that?”
   ~ Weldon Bradshaw