The 3,200-meter gang is a big picture group. You don't step onto a track for a two-mile race without having a plan.
For some, the plan is simply to finish; two miles, after all, is a long way. For others, the plan is to race. And then, for a few, the plan is to win.
Drew White is in the last group.
The 17-year-old Festus senior did plenty of winning during the spring season. He raced to titles in the 1,600 and 3,200 at the Jefferson County Conference meet, to the 3,200 title at the Class 3 district, to 1,600 and 3,200 wins at the Class 3 sectional and, to cap it off, there was a runaway win in the 3,200 at the Class 3 state championship meet.
White smoked the state-meet field in the 3,200, running the metric version of the two mile in 9 minutes, 16.83 seconds. He finished nearly seven seconds ahead of Westminster Academy twins David and Daniel Everett, who place second and third.
"I think I had a breakout track season," White said.
The breakout was not an accident. Throughout the spring, White had planned for a big season and, in particular, a big finish.
"I trained through all the season," he said.
That meant no breaks to rest his legs for races. And so, through the Tiger Town meet, and the Capital City Relays, through the Potosi Relays and the JCC meet, he ran on and on. More miles, more strength, more training. It was that way until the district meet, two weeks before the state championships.
"That's when I started to shut it down so I'd have that pop (at the state meet)," he said.
He has been planning the next "pop" since about the mid-point of a disappointing test last month at the Great Southwest Track and Field Classic at the University of New Mexico. Running in the 3,200 against a national-caliber field, White was running at the front of the field for half a mile when he began to suffer a side stitch.
"I was going to drop out," he said.
White didn't drop out, but every step through Alburquerque's mile-high altitude was a struggle from the 800-meter mark forward. He finished near the back to the field in 10:31.3, more than a minute off the time he ran at the state meet.
The summer brings a long list of all-star track meets. After the Great Southwest meet, White figured he had had his fill. He considered the big picture and opted off the big-race wheel.
"After that I decided I was going to go back to training," he said.
Since then, he has been clicking off mile after training mile with an eye set on the Nov. 5 state championships. Last year, he ran 15:57.86 and became the first Jefferson County runner to break the 16-minute mark at the 5,000-meter state cross country meet.
He intends to go far below that 15:57 time this fall.
"I guess I'd like to go in the low 15's, maybe 15:20, (or) 15:10," he said.
That sets the bar pretty high. In fact it sets the bar at state-record levels.
Last year's best time at the state meet was 15:30.55 by Class 4 winner Zach Herriott of Rockhurst. The state record, set before the Missouri State High School Activities Association took a little bite out of the course last fall, is 15:26.
"I guess that would be another breakout season," White said of the plan to hack 40 seconds or so off his career-best time.
It is a long way from July to November, and White doesn't have an exact measurement of how far he's moved toward being ready to take a run at the state record.
Some runners train on a strict schedule. They have notebooks and charts, they record miles and times. If this is Tuesday, we must be at mile marker 41.
White is as serious as the notebook-and-chart crowd. But he's not consumed by the details. In fact, he said, he even has written a small bit of wiggle room into his schedule.
"I kind of run off feel," he said. "I think everybody's different in terms of mileage and in terms of training."
His training schedule is nowhere near as wispy as that "feel" business makes it sound. White did not become one of the state's top high school runners by running an easy training path. The workout plan he has drawn up is the toughest he has ever attempted.
"I've pumped it up," he said. "It's at a higher pace and higher mileage."
While all the summer mileage and time measurements have been private so far, White is considering taking a swing at the Moonlight Run on Saturday. The annual 10,000-meter road race through the streets of Crystal City allows for race-day entries, a perfect maybe-yes/maybe-no set-up for a guy whose schedule is designed to have wiggle room.
"I might (enter)," he said. "I've done it before."
While the Moonlight Run might scratch White's itch to race, he is OK with keeping racing on the back burner for a while longer.
Fall's races will arrive soon enough. And when they do, White will be ready.
For now, though, he is enjoying having some wiggle room.
"I'm ready for another six weeks of summer, and training and staying away from school for as long as I can," he said.
