Fitness Files: Runner has grace and perseverance

An email from the father of a former student read, “Get November/December Running Times. Nick’s on the cover.”

Bought it. There’s Nick Arciniaga, top-ranked USA Marathoner, striding smoothly along a dirt track, his linear frame, wide stride, long lean muscles and intensely focused expression silhouetted against blue sky and green hills.

Nick, 32, remembers that his running career started in the fourth-grade class I taught in Fountain Valley in 1993, when he lost the first heat of a relay race. He told himself, “I can do this,” and won the next race.

Back then, I hadn’t a hint of Nick’s thoughts. He was a small quiet kid who did his work — a blessing for a teacher with 33 students packed into a classroom.

Nick graduated to middle school, where he was cut from the track team.

Undiscouraged, he joined Fountain Valley High’s track team. During his high school running career, Nick never qualified for an all-state meet, but self-discipline and determination made him the first to meet Fountain Valley Coach Barry Migliorini’s 1000-mile summer challenge.

At Cal State Fullerton, he joined the track program, where his work ethic became a familiar theme. He drove himself to train with marathon mileage for his 1600s (nearly one mile) track races. Today Coach John Elders says, “You could see [Nick] had talent and the will to train … but an elite U.S. marathoner? Not something I saw. His rise is amazing.”

Completing his years of college eligibility, Nick took his remarkable will and ran with it. He emailed me in 2011, “After I had no pressure from team sports … I trained harder than before, longer, faster … nothing to shoot for except … the 2008 Olympic Trials. Since the only Olympic running event [available to me] was the marathon, I decided to give that a shot.”

Nick coached himself for the Chicago Marathon, 2006.

The Chicago Marathon “was going to be my fate or destiny.… [It] was the turning point in my life.” Self-trained, Nick finished a 2-hour and 16-minute marathon, an Olympic qualifier.

“This was something I dreamed of since high school,” he said. “I’m pretty analytical, comparing data, probably got it from my CPA dad.”

The site MapMyRun.com says Nick’s running career “is defined by a methodical rise to the upper echelon of the sport, punctuated by moments of brilliance at major marathons.”

Highlights of Nick’s recent marathoning: Houston in 2011 at 2 hours, 11 minutes, and the same for Boston in 2014.

However this year’s Boston was a disappointing 2 hours, 18 minutes, and Sunday’s New York Marathon was 2 hours and 22 minutes.

Fast time or disappointing, a post race interview with Nick will be the same: Nick delivers a calm, pleasant analysis of his race and gives enthusiastic compliments to his winning teammates but never resorts to excuses.

Let’s underline the idea that self-motivation is Nick’s sole reason to be a professional distance runner. His accounting major could have landed him a job upon graduation in 2006. He chose to be a professional distance runner, a demanding sport with meager monetary rewards.

According to Track and Field Athletes Assn., about 50% of U.S. track and field athletes who rank in the top 10 make less than $15,000 annually.

The site says that the sponsored distance runner has no job security. An injured football player may collect millions. A distance runner, falling behind in wins, faces reduced income or loss of sponsorship. Even “Olympic and World Championship finalists do not get re-signed by their [sponsoring] company the following year,” the association’s website says.

Finally reaching the top four, Nick was in line for a more lucrative Under Armor sponsorship.

Up next for Nick is the Olympic Marathon Trials on Feb. 13 in Los Angeles. His personal best time for the marathon mile is 5 minutes, 1 second. He needs a 4 minute, 55 second pace, finishing at 2 hours, 9 minutes and qualifying to compete for one of only three USA Marathon spots.

Nick puts it this way, “I’ve had more failures than successes, but I wouldn’t be where I am without them. I’ve closed the gap enough to know that next year I can make that next step.”

This is Nick’s year. At the Olympic Marathon Trials, look for an all-out, carefully calculated, 100% personal effort and no excuses.

Running Times says Nick is Flagstaff’s hometown hero, but for the first 22 years of his life, he was ours. Young people who worship basketball or football players should know this self-made USA elite runner and join me cheering him on.

Newport Beach resident CARRIE LUGER SLAYBACK is a retired teacher who ran the Los Angeles Marathon at age 70, winning first place in her age group.