A healthy Spencer Martin lowering his times and supremely confident in how low he can go by the time the regional meet at Valparaiso is run May 28

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

Moves with the trudging, determined gait of a plowhorse, lights up a stopwatch like a thoroughbred, so it must be Spencer Martin, back in first place.
Marred by injuries during the fall cross country season, Martin is back in top shape and running the mile better than he has for Chesterton.
Martin’s return gives Chesterton two top-end distance runners in the junior class, joining reigning DAC cross country champion Ryan Nix in piling up points in dual meets. Martin’s sweet spot appears to be the mile and the longer the race the better for Nix.
Martin blasted out to a big lead in Tuesday’s home double dual meet with Crown Point and LaPorte for the wire-to-wire win in the 1600 meters, timed in a personal best 4:24.65. Nix placed second with a 4:29.24.
Three days earlier, both ran well in the 3200 meters at the Lafayette. Nix was clocked in 9:34.46, Martin a 9:39.46. Also, fellow junior Nick Jakel ran a 9:53 and a fraction for his best time.
The distance runners at a lighter load than usual Tuesday to stave off burnout, but still piled up points for the team. Jakel (10:00.57) and senior Ray Hundt (10:02.13) took the top two spots in the 3200.
Martin’s strong race Tuesday came with him adhering to his unconventional race pace, but with little more caution than usual in that he appeared to intentionally leave something in the tank.
“I love the mile,” Martin said. “It’s definitely my favorite race.”
Martin can be as entertaining talking about the race as running it, which is saying a mouthful.
“So, I run it the worst way possible, completely the worst,” he said. “I come out as fast as possible and I always lead. And you’re not supposed to lead. You’re supposed to let someone else do the work for you for the first lap, for sure, and just sit back on them and wait.”
He’s his own rabbit.
“The way I run it is if I can run so far ahead of everyone else, then no one will have the chance to catch up,” he said. “The problem is that would take a lot more than I have in me, so sometimes people do catch me.”
He was confident Tuesday would not be one of those days.
“Today was just a beautiful day to run,” he continued. “So, today I went out in about 64 (seconds in the first lap). Then I followed it up with a slower lap that I did not mean to go that slow, a 67, 66. And then my third lap was 65, so that was definitely a big improvement. That was the third-lap mentality because the third lap needs to improve because it really does matter. In any race, the part leading up to the final part matters the most.”
He said his last lap, “I think was my slowest, which is something I need to improve on.”
But he didn’t need to improve on it Tuesday. He had won the race, so there was no need to push himself to the point that it might slow him in the future. He looked as though the slowing was intentional and in fact after the race he said it was.
“I can have a really strong kick, but if I don’t have anyone to kick against then why put myself in jeopardy if I don’t need to,” he said, words that have been preached to him by coaches.
Knowing when to go slower is part of the winning long-range plan and it perhaps can be the final piece in Martin reaching his potential.
A 4:19 not too far down the road seems within reach, but Martin is aiming higher before the year ends.
“This year? A 4:14,” Martin said.
He didn’t just pull that number out of thin air. Brendan Smith has held the school record (4:14.20) since 1986.
Ten seconds is a lot of time to drop in a month, but Martin had his case ready to go for why views that as attainable.
“I’ve got a lot left in me,” Martin said. “I’m still training. I mean we just started hard workouts more recently, actually. So the way (distance coach Tom) Moeller runs things, we peak perfectly at the right time. And he doesn’t overwork us. He makes sure to hit us perfectly, so that at regionals we run our best race.”
The regional is scheduled for May 28 at Valparaiso, a track all runners love to use.
“Honestly, I think that will be where I’ll break the school record,” Martin said. “It’ll be at regionals.”
Martin has the speed to do big things in the mile. He has split in the 52s in the 4X400 without training for that distance and has been sub-2 in the 4X800.
Whether he gets the record this season, next season or never quite, it will be enjoyable to watch him pursue it when he’s healthy and peaking at the perfect time.