By Cassie Sheridan |
While most students at UP were exploring downtown, camping out in the Clark Library, or soaking up some sunshine in front of Franz Hall, redshirt freshman Danny Martinez was competing for Team USA at the World Mountain Running Championships in Poland on Sept. 8.
Martinez completed the 9K mountain course, which he compared to running up a ski slope, in 40:42, earning him a ninth place finish overall and a second place Team USA finish. As if this wasn’t impressive enough, Martinez competed with no prior mountain running experience.
“It was actually my first mountain running race,” Martinez said. “I applied fairly last minute after hearing about it from some UP cross-country teammates who had competed (for Team USA) previously. The course suited my cross-country background well. 40 minutes for a 9K is normally really slow, but if you look at the course it’s understandable.”
The course was a 9K two-loop scramble with a downhill followed by a long, steep uphill. For someone with no formal mountain running training, Martinez made the entire endeavor sound like an average jog along The Bluff.
“We did a course preview so I knew what to expect,” Martinez said. “The race started on a downhill so when I got to the base of the big hill I mentally was like ‘Okay this is it. It’s time to go.’ Everyone just started crawling and I guess this was when I made my move. I think at the base I started in about 30th and by the top I was probably in about 17th. A race like that is extremely tactical. It is really easy to just go hard at the beginning and kind of blow yourself out.”
That’s not to say the run was easy. Martinez was very clear that it was one of the hardest he has ever competed in.
“I feel like after that I can do anything,” Martinez stated. “There was a point before starting the second loop where I was like ‘Wow. This really sucks,’ but I guess my running mentality kicked in and was like ‘The hill is coming, it is make or break time. You can either quit or keep going’. I just kept pushing myself and was still catching guys at the finish line.”
Martinez’s only alteration in his normal training routine was a twice-a-week run through Griffith Park in Los Angeles, which was as mountainous as he could get in southern California. Not only did Martinez have a 3,000 foot elevation change to overcome, but also a nine-hour time difference to contend with.
“The quick turnaround didn’t affect me that badly till about the third day when I was having trouble sleeping,” Martinez said. “It was a fairly intense travel schedule, because I was only there for about 4 days. My last travel day was 23 hours.”
Martinez doesn’t know if he will continue to pursue mountain running seriously. At this point he is purely focused on his cross-country performances at UP.
“Coming off this race I feel really confident for the season,” Martinez said. “The team is looking really good and I am just really looking to contribute to that. There’s a lot of talent and I’m excited to be a part of it all.”
The men’s cross-country coach Rob Conner has high expectations for this season and was very excited about Martinez’s accomplishments globally.
“Obviously going out and performing at that caliber says a great deal about your running talent,” Conner said. “Mountain running takes three main things: endurance, mental toughness and patience. I am confident all those attributes that Danny displayed in Poland will cross over to our 10K cross-country race. Everybody (in the cross-country department) is incredibly excited for this season and to see what we can do as a team.”
Martinez will compete in his first cross-country race for UP on Oct. 5 at the University of Oregon.
The absurdly modest Martinez had little to say on representing the USA globally.
“It’s one thing to go and represent the U.S., but I feel like its another thing to do well. I was just really glad that I performed well,” Martinez said.
Luckily, Martinez made it back to Portland just in time to attend his 8:10 a.m. class Tuesday morning.
