By Alex Frazier
Chris Campbell is the kind of athlete every coach loves.
Tell him what to and he does it.
Campbell and Council Rock North coach Dave Marrington developed a strategy for last Saturday’s Council Rock Invitational held at Tyler State Park.
As Marrington explained the plan, “run the first mile pretty hard, get out front and run with the lead pack, settle in a little bit in the middle mile, relax, get a feel where you were, and then we wanted to accelerate throughout the whole last mile (there’s a big downhill right at the start of the last mile, and we wanted to use that as a launching pad).”
Campbell followed the plan to perfection, winning the race in 15:59, edging his teammate and training partner Mike Mahoney by 23 seconds. Both Indian runners met the national silver standard.
“I wasn’t expecting that fast of a time,” he said. “I felt good. I felt really strong.”
“He’s developing into one of the better runners we’ve had in the past 10 years, and we’ve had quite a few good ones,” said Marrington.
Though Campbell isn’t a fast runner, he has the endurance.
“He has a huge engine, big heart,” said Marrington. “His VO2 is very high I’m sure, which allows him to do a lot of hard work. He can run close to his top speed longer than just about anybody else.”
Marrington noted that his mental attitude also played a big role in his success.
“He’s able to push through those kinds of things that slow down other guys,” he said. “I see it every day in practice.”
And he listens to his coaches.
“He does exactly what we want him to,” said Marrington. “He doesn’t run too hard. His easy days he keeps them easy. He won’t let himself get pushed into something he doesn’t want to do. He’s learning how to be a very, very good distance runner, and he’s ahead of the curve.”
Campbell didn’t start running until eighth grade when he went out for spring track. Until then, basketball had been the love of his life.
“I did OK,” he said. “All my friends did it, so it was fun.”
The following year when he entered Council Rock North, he decided to try cross country “to get in shape for basketball.”
“I got good at it, so I stuck with it,” he added.
Campbell stayed with basketball as a freshman, even though he did run a couple of indoor meets before the season started. He wasn’t very impressed.
However, the following year he quit basketball to run winter track.
“I got my priorities straight,” he said. “I wasn’t that good at basketball. I guess I fit in more with the runner type, so I decided to run. I liked it a lot better than I did my freshman year.”
In other words, he realized distance running was his sport.
He and teammate Mike Mahoney have become close friends and running partners.
“We did a lot of runs over the summer together,” said Campbell. “We always do our workouts together and run our dual meets together.”
In the Indians’ first tri-meet of the season against Abington and William Tennent, the two crossed the line at the same time.
“We were ahead by a good amount and decided to be a tie,” he said.
Campbell has already established some lofty goals for this year.
At leagues last year, he finished third in 16:02. This year he hopes to win it.
He set his PR of 15:49 at districts last year, placing 20th, qualifying for states both as an individual and as a team.
He wasn’t pleased with his performance at the state meet on the challenging Hershey course.
“I didn’t do my best,” he said. “I don’t remember running well there.”
This year he wants to make sure his team returns to states, and for himself, “I want to medal at states and also win my league and our team win the league.”
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