Runner Is Trying to Regain the Edge : Miler Jim Robbins of Corona del Mar Increases Training

Every runner has a race he would very much like to forget. A performance marred by the collapse of will or body, or both.

For Jim Robbins, a senior at Corona del Mar High School, the forgettable moment occurred last May at the Southern Section 3-A track and field championships.

Robbins was a favorite to win the 1,600-meter run. He had run the mile in 4 minutes 16 seconds at the Arcadia Invitational, and, just weeks earlier, had run 1:54.6 for 800 meters.

Things looked good, and very fast, through the race’s first three laps. Robbins and Newport Harbor’s Jim Geerlings were leading the pack by 20 yards. Robbins had passed the 1,320-yard mark at 3:07, the pace of a 4:09 mile and a much faster pace than he had ever run before.

With 400 meters remaining, Robbins was in good position and started a fast, furious kick.

But with 200 meters to go, his legs, he would say later, began to feel like rubber. He started to jog, and Geerlings sped past him, as did four others. He finished sixth in a slow jog.

“Everything just shut down,” Robbins said. “I collapsed physically and mentally.”

And now, 10 months later, Robbins is a runner rebuilt.

Evidence of the rebuilding began to show up last fall, as Robbins, the No. 2 runner on the school’s cross-country team, helped the Sea Kings win the Sea View League and Orange County Championships.

Now, with track season beginning, Robbins is looking all the readier.

Last Thursday in a nonleague dual meet, Robbins ran stride for stride with teammate Eddie Lavelle and cruised to a 4:23 mile with minimal effort.

Saturday, Robbins won the Beach Cities Invitational 880-yard run in 1:57.96. It was an impressive victory, because it was run on a dirt track and because of Robbins’ tactics.

Robbins followed Trabuco Hills’ Jim Cravotta, a 1:58 half-miler, through 660 yards. When Robbins took off with 200 yards to go, it was with such force that the sight elicited a loud “oooh” from the crowd.

“Mentally, I think he’s still in the process of rebuilding after that mile last year,” Lavelle said. “After he gets a few more good races under his belt, he’ll be OK.”

Robbins credits his current success to a harder training routine--more miles and more weightlifting. His confidence, he says, is locked into a tough work ethic.

“I think the thing that’s wrong with me, seriously, is if I’m not in great shape, then my mind is kind of weak,” he said. “If I haven’t been training that much, I find it hard to believe in myself.”

Robbins said he showed that last season. His training was oriented to the 800 meters, with more emphasis on shorter, faster workouts and less on longer, slower runs.

“All that ended with me running a bad race,” he said, referring to the 3-A mile. “I needed more strength work.”

Corona del Mar Coach Bill Sumner disagreed but made some adjustments anyway, allowing Robbins to increase his mileage this season by about 15%.

“He has enough strength,” Sumner said. “Robbins works out like crazy. . . . I don’t think he has a problem.

“He has to remember not many 16-year-old kids can go through the first 1,320 yards of a mile at 3:07 and not (tire).”

Still, Robbins seems to ask a lot from himself. His intensity, his teammates say, is his greatest asset.

Said teammate Paul Scott: “He’s definitely a workout animal.”

Along with that, Robbins has a 4.0 grade-point average and is involved in several school activities outside of sports.

“He sets high standards for himself,” Sumner said, “but Jim’s not an overachiever. He’s an achiever. He’s very methodical when he sets out to do something.”

And, for now at least, mileage--about 52 a week--is Robbins’ method.

His goals?

Robbins would rather not set specific times, or places, in upcoming meets. Publicly, he limits his goals to a simple “just do well at CIF, hopefully go to the state meet, and have a good season.”

Then there’s a more specific goal--that of rectifying last year’s performance in the 1,600 meters.

“I try not to think about it,” he said. “But it’s always in the back of my mind. I see myself more as a strength runner now. Someone who won’t die.

“I mean, I may slow, but not all the way to a jog.”