Phil Duncan at the Hagerty Invitational last month.
Photo by Ralph Epifanio
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Duncan at the flrunners.com Invitational 11.
Photo by Jeff Adams
The pain was excruciating, but Phil Duncan kept on going. He was limited to 15 miles a week to train and he was frustrated. He kept going, taking the turns with care and gritting every time he had to put in a late kick.
Duncan, a senior at Boone who won last Friday won the 4A Region 2 Championship at Lake Park in Tampa in 15:22.73, pushed his body too hard too fast with 75-80 mile weeks and suffered a stress fracture that cut off all summer training and hindered him throughout the 2009 season. With his junior year in limbo and only one year left before college-–he’s going to run at the University of Florida next year-–Duncan had to start back from square one. He drastically reduced his volume and had build up all over again, adding to his weekly milage log little-by-little this time. It has all paid off this season.
"It was frustrating," Duncan said as he prepares for Saturday's state meet at Little Everglades Ranch in Dade City. "It hurt so much and I love to run and being limited was no fun, but it started to get better as the season went on. The turns were tough and some of the awkward steps weren’t comfortable, but I knew I had to keep going."
As the winter went by and spring approached, Duncan was ready to compete in the 1600 and 3200 events. He ran well in the Florida Relays and the FSU Relays but struggled with peaking early and slowing down late in the race. The best part was that the leg started to feel better and he prepped for a big senior year.
Duncan is relatively new to competitive running. He started running in middle school, but the first time things got competitive was once he entered Boone and finished in the top-50 in cross country as a freshman.
"I started going hardcore when I was a sophomore and kept seeing my personal records going lower. I knew I could run even though my size was starting to be a problem."
In a rare sport where size doesn't matter, Duncan has to deal with running at 6-0. That makes him taller than the competition since most of his cross country bretheren are smaller. It gets in the way during some tight turns on a course where every second counts, but Duncan knows there's nothing he can do about it and, apparently, the University of Florida doesn't consider it a problem.
Former Boone cross country runner Aaron Kindt ran for four years in Gainesville and Duncan said he is a big reason for choosing to go to Florida--his good buddy and teammate JL Hines will join him as a Gator as well. It will be a tall task for Duncan once he gets to Gainesville. He has always had the winter off competitively, but he is planning to run cross country, indoor and outdoor at Gainesville. Ever since the injury, Duncan has increased his distances and only takes off for two weeks after every season. The indoor season will present a new challenge to Duncan who has only run in one indoor meet in his life. He ran at the Jimmy Carnes Classic in Gainesville (Florida's lone indoor race) as a sophomore, but said that was mostly to just take in the experience.
With his final shot at a state title this weekend, Duncan knows he is one of the favorites. He said he plans to sit back the first half off the race and make a late run for the title.
“The course suits me well and I think I know how to run it," Duncan said. "Other runners will go out hard and that course will kill you if you do it that way. You have to hold off for at least the first mile. Then you just sit back, see what the pace is, and then go for it. That course will kill anybody who goes out too fast too early."
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Want to read more from Phil?
Phil wrote a series of journal entries for flrunners.com:
