Runner’s spirit helps her set school record

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Heather Clark runs through the halls of Brewer High School, her efficient, compact stride carrying her by lockers, trophy cases and soda machines.

She paces herself with a member of the Brewer boys indoor track team, pushing herself to put one foot in front of the other just a little bit faster.

Clark, a junior, has established herself as one of the top distance runners in the Eastern Maine Indoor Track League. But the fast times and first-place finishes she has earned in meets at the field house at the University of Maine are rooted in the hard work she puts in at Brewer track practices.

Today, Clark is running a speed workout, pacing through distances from 400 to 800 meters with just a 60-second rest between repetitions. As she jogs between repeats, Clark has a question for coach Dave Jeffrey.

“Do these have to be right on, or can we do them fast?” she asks. Clark, to be sure, wants to run them fast.

But Jeffrey wants to be sure that Clark isn’t running too fast in practice. Training a distance runner for a peak performance in championship meets requires building speed and strength gradually throughout the season.

“Well,” Jeffrey says matter-of-factly, “if you do them too fast, there’s nothing we can do about it afterwards.”

Clark grins – she gets the message.

“I really love the workouts,” Clark said when she finished the speed session, “but sometimes it happens that you get caught up in hearing the footsteps and the person behind you breathing, and you just go faster listening to that.”

Jeffrey said Clark has been learning how to pace herself.

“In a lot of the workouts I have to slow her down. But she’s also learning what we want to do with each workout. That comes with experience, age and understanding,” Jeffrey said.

It’s that combination of competitive spirit and savvy that has helped Clark run personal bests in the 800 meters, mile and 2-mile this year.

On Saturday in a meet at the University of Maine, she set a school record in the mile with a time of 5 minutes, 11.37 seconds, shattering the 5:18.82 set by Heather Jovanelli, who graduated in June.

In the EMITL, only one other runner has come within 30 seconds of Clark’s time in the mile. She won both the mile and the 800 meters Saturday.

During the cross country season, Clark finished third in the Class A state meet.

Clark’s spirit and savvy also have driven her to be a top-notch student, ranked second in her class and aiming to study nursing in college.

“She’s a very motivated student,” said Glendon Rand, Brewer’s cross country coach and distance running coach in spring track. “You won’t see her hanging out in the hallways after school. She’s always in a teacher’s room, asking questions and making sure she understands everything.”

Winning ways

Clark has won seven of the eight individual EMITL races she has entered this season. She also runs the anchor leg of the Witches 880 relay team.

Clark was beaten by Hampden standout Oriana Farley in the 2-mile in the first meet of the season, as Farley ran 12 minutes, 13.02 seconds to Clark’s 12:21.06.

But Clark defeated Farley two weeks later in the mile, 5:23.19 to 5:33.74.

Clark said she was most pleased because she has posted the fastest times of her career (2:25.01 in the 800, 5:11.37 in the mile, and 11:58.26 in the 2-mile). With one record already, she is motivated for two more.

Jovanelli, who now runs for UMaine, holds the mark in the 800 (2:23.04). The 2-mile record (11:50) was set by Theresa Lawlor in 1981.

Jeffrey said he expects Clark to improve as the season progresses.

“She’s training very, very hard right now,” he said. “Her training indicates that she’s ready to run a lot faster [in races] when those situations arise. Hopefully, that will be in the big meets.”

Jeffrey said Clark would run two or three individual races in the Eastern Maine championship. She will run two races in the state championship.

Clark and Farley, the state Class A cross country champion, should be the top Eastern Maine contenders for state titles in the distance races.

“I haven’t really thought about placing in the state meet,” Clark said. “I just want to run my own race and do my personal best. That’s all I can ask for.”

Clark also looks forward to helping the team be successful. Her team-oriented focus is one of the reasons she enjoys the relay.

“I love to do the relay. It’s fast, fun, team-oriented and not too much pressure,” Clark said.

Steady improvement

Clark has come a long way since she took up running in her fifth-grade gym class.

Her gym teacher had a program where each class had a car that moved across a map according to the number of laps the students ran.

Clark joined the William S. Cohen School cross country team in seventh grade. As a freshman at Brewer, she won the Eastern Maine championship over 800 meters.

As a sophomore, she ran 11:38 over 3200 meters and carried that success over into her junior cross country season.

Rand expects Clark will continue to build on her success.

“In cross country, other than two small meets, she didn’t win any major invitationals or state meets. Now her goals will be to win some big races,” Rand said.

Clark is also setting her sights on college competition.

“Hopefully, she will develop enough as a runner to get some scholarship aid,” Rand said. “She’s really driven right now, and focused on working hard at school and running. She sees how her athletics and academics can work together for her in college.”

Jeffrey agreed.

“She can run Division I. … [Colleges] are interested in having her,” Jeffrey said.

And Clark has no intention of slowing down.

“If you’d asked me when I was young if I’d expected to be a runner, I would have said no. But there’s just something about it,” Clark said. “I’ve found my niche.”