Finding Meaning in the Journey

Four times 200 meters at full throttle. Quick off the line. Fast through the turn. Top gear down the straightaway. Sprint through the finish. Make your teammates better. Mainly, have fun.

 

Except when Stan Craig hit the deck that January afternoon in 2022 and landed hard on his right shoulder, there was no fun to be had.

 

“We got our feet tangled on the curve,” Stan said one day recently as he recalled the abrupt end to his promising junior-year winter track season. “I tripped and broke my collarbone. After that, I had to have surgery: nine pins and a plate.

 

“Accepting the situation was difficult, but, if anything, the two months before I got back into running helped me realize my love for the sport and love for the team.”

 

It’s hard to imagine that there was ever any question. By that time, you see, Stan had established himself as one of the top distance runners in the state among all schools, public and independent.

 

In 2021, the first fall after COVID, he’d emerged seemingly out of nowhere to finish second in the Prep League in cross country and third in the VISAA, lead the Cougars to runner-up finishes in each championship race, and earned first-team Richmond Times-Dispatch All-Metro honors.

 

His performances and humble, sportsmanlike manner commanded the respect of teammates and competitors, but it was always the camaraderie he shared with his guys that made the journey so worthwhile. It also kept him motivated as he rehabbed his injury, which left a six-inch scar.

 

“I don’t feel any pain now,” he said. “I don’t even think about it that often, but when I do, it reminds me of what I went through. More than anything, it makes me thankful for the team and what they did for me.”

 

Stan’s running career began when — “on a whim,” he said — he went out for cross country as a 7th grader. He ran track that winter, played tennis in the spring, then returned to distance full-time as an 8th grader. Then the pandemic took his freshman spring and sophomore fall and winter seasons. Nevertheless, he continued to train.

 

“It wasn’t like marathon training,” he said, “but it got me more invested in running and gave me a good base [of conditioning]. I improved a lot. The jump was bigger jump than I expected.”

 

When competition began anew in the spring of 2021, Stan showed glimpses (including 4:53.96 in the 1600) of the athlete who would burst onto the scene the following fall.

 

“Stan has grown a lot over the years,” said cross country and track distance coach Matthew Richardson. “He’s done a great job of being disciplined and diligent in his training and focusing on the little things. He’s never let one race define him or hold him back. He’s always looked forward and done his workouts with purpose and thoughtfulness. He’s found himself getting better every single time he goes out for a run.”

 

This past spring when he focused on the 3200, Stan placed second in the Prep League, won the state championship, and lowered his personal best time to 9:38.47.

 

In the fall of 2022, he was rarely challenged in races. A team captain, he set the tone in workouts, won the Prep League title on the 5K course at Pole Green Park in 15:46, then finished second in the state in 15:56 at Woodberry Forest over much more challenging terrain than Pole Green offered.

 

In the league meet, he ran side-by-side with STAB’s Biruk Beardsley most of the way, then outsprinted him in the final meters. At Woodberry, Potomac’s Charlie Ortmans, the favorite, pulled away early, and Stan separated from Beardsley early in the third mile and began to close on Ortmans, who finished just 12.7 seconds ahead of him.

 

“I don’t really like looking online and analyzing who’s in a race, but I have an idea,” Stan said. “I like to race and see what happens. I obviously want to win, but more than anything I want to push myself and prove to myself that I was not only just able to run on by own, but against somebody else.”

 

At states, he sailed through the mile in a blistering 4:56 although he trailed both Ortmans and Beardsley. Rather than panic, he knew he had to run with his head as much as with his legs, adjust on the fly, and not let emotion take over. He averaged 5:07 per mile.

 

“I definitely had a minute or so after Beardsley passed me and pulled away about a half-mile in that I had to refocus,” he said. “Pacing and consistency have been a big focus of our training on the track and trails. That helped me understand what I was doing.”

 

Stan’s understanding, though, goes well beyond mileage, intervals, speed work, and talent that enable him to run with the best. It’s about his commitment to his team and finding meaning in the journey that’s taken him from tentative rookie to leader to a champion who will take his talents and spirit to Division III Amherst in the New England Small College Athletic Conference.

 

“It’s definitely profound, the transformation from being one of the young ones in the program with older guys like Liam Bellamy and Johnny White who I felt were impossibly fast and talented,” he said. “They inspired me. To now be in a position where I can hopefully do that with younger runners is really exciting.

 

“Thinking about 7th grade, my first day of practice, it’s surreal to be at this point. I struggled so much at the start and initially didn’t enjoy it. Now, I can see the tangible improvement and the community aspect of building each other up.”

~Weldon Bradshaw