"I wasn't supposed to be doing this (running) and now it's all I can do. It's what makes it fun for me to train for something and knowing it's worth it"

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Jack Pinho was a 3 sport athlete in high school with an emphasis in Football and Basketball. Track was a secondary sport as baseball was too slow for him. As he went off to Springfield College for their PE/Education program, he had plans to only be a student. As time wore on, the feeling of not having competition took over and he ventured over to the Track Captains’ practices. He quickly became invested in the team and want to join them.

Jack had PBs of what most D3 Coaches would want coming out of high school: 2:00/4:30. Yet Jack was unsure on how he’d fair on the team. His hard work mentality showed him success early on as he consistently broke 2 in the 800.

An ultimatum was the force behind joining cross country led him to losing his nickname of ‘Fake Distance.’ Jack continued to improve while working hard. He lowered his 800m PB down to 1:53 and was on the cusp of making it to Nationals.

As a walk-on at the D3 Level, Jack didn’t expect to have the success that he had. He began focusing on the mile for his senior year and came away with a 4:07PB and a 4th place finish at the National Meet. From there, he knew he had to repeat that success but it would come down to the final last chance qualifier at Swarthmore. A 3:47 PB would get him qualified for the Outdoor National meet but his qualifying time placed him 6th in the nation.

Jack chalked it up to his training that led him to a senior year All-American performance. Despite a heatstroke in the prelim, Jack recovered enough to repeat his 4th place performance.

With 2 season of eligibility left, Jack continued at Springfield to continue to lower his mile PB. Unfortunately, that fell short but gave him the fire of keep competing after college.

Jack has lowered his mile PB to 4:03 and is continuing to hunt for that sub 4 attempt. For a kid who wasn’t supposed to continue running, he has a quintessential D3 Story.

Official training for the mile is from August 30th to September 30th. You then can run your mile from October 1st - October 11th. Need training advice? The link above has you covered!

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