Sims Taking a Step-by-Step Approach : Prep track: Esperanza senior is still learning his lessons--painful as they may be--as he is attempts to master a simple race--the 400 meters.

Roshawn Sims of Esperanza High School runs a simple race--400 meters, once around the track. Nothing complicated about that. Easy, right?

It should be, but it rarely is. There is too much that can go wrong.

Run poorly, the 400 meters can be an agonizing race. Run well, the 400 meters still can be an agonizing race.

It takes time to run the 400 as fast as Sims has, and along the way there are painful lessons to be learned.

“A dumb person could never run the quarter (mile),” said Sims, whose best of 48.32 seconds was the fastest in Orange County last year. “On the other hand, they say people who want to run the quarter are dumb . . . or crazy.”

Dumb, crazy, whatever people call Sims, he likes the 400. It’s been his race ever since he was a sophomore, a novice feeling his way through his first 400 more by instinct than anything else.

Esperanza Coach Al Britt asked Sims to run the 400 at an invitational meet at Poway High in San Diego County. Sims, having never run the race, said sure.

When the starter’s pistol cracked, Sims burst from the starting blocks and ran as fast as he could. This was a sprint wasn’t it?

Soon, the footfalls of the other runners faded and Sims pulled away.

“I was running crazy,” he said. “Then I died.”

He began tying up at 300 meters. Luckily for him, the field could not overcome his lead and he won the race.

“I noticed when I was a sophomore I used to run hard with no form,” he said. “And I prayed to God to hang on.

“The trick is concentration. Can you run fast and relaxed faster than the guy next to you? It’s really mental.”

Lesson No. 1: pace.

As a sophomore, Sims helped Esperanza win an unexpected Southern Section 3-A championship. As a junior, Sims and his teammates were cast as the favorites.

He was doing his part for the Aztecs, running the 400 and 200. After finishing second in the 400 to Dustin James of Ontario, Sims rested for the 200, where he figured to be the only challenge for Erik Mitchell of Los Alamitos.

But his legs tightened in the cool air of the late afternoon and his warmup didn’t go well, but he didn’t give it a second thought. He was concentrating on his race, knowing he had to run well to help Esperanza win.

Fifty meters into the 200, Sims’ right hamstring seized. As he fell to the track, he remembered thinking the championship was lost.

Later, after Mitchell had won by 15 meters, Sims was made to lie on a trainer’s table. It was determined he had pulled his hamstring.

“I cried for 20 minutes,” said Sims, whose injury did not prevent Esperanza from winning the title.

Lesson No. 2: injury.

Last Friday was cold and dark clouds passed over the portable classroom that serves as Britt’s office.

Sims strained his left hamstring in a recent workout and wore thick, gray sweat pants over a pair of athletic tights to keep his legs warm. Though the season was two weeks old, he had yet to race.

Britt wants to make sure Sims is 100% healthy before he runs again. But Sims was getting antsy.

“Coach has to tell me to slow down,” Sims said. “ ‘No, you can’t do that.’ ”

Lesson no. 3: patience.

“Everyone thinks I’m not nervous,” Sims said. “I’m always jittery. Once I settle into the blocks, I’m focused. I’ve seen people who you can’t look at them (before their race). You can’t talk to them or they’ll beat you up.”

Those competitive urges have reached a boiling point inside Sims.

It is decided he’ll run the 400 in a dual meet Thursday against Los Alamitos. But Britt doesn’t want him to run either the 400 or 1,600 relays.

Sims rolled his eyes, but later called Britt the greatest influence on his running. He said he’d listen to anything Britt says.

After all, Britt got him started in the 400 in the first place.

“The two kids who are big with us are (shotputter Mark) Parlin and Sims,” Britt said.

Esperanza could not win a third consecutive 3-A title without them.

“There are people out there,” said Sims, pointing outside Britt’s classroom where the rest of the Aztecs are warming up, “that won’t let me run slow.”

Lesson No. 4: expectations.

So what else has Sims learned in less than three seasons of running the 400?

He knows he has not yet mastered the race.

Perhaps most of all he has learned to respect the distance. Even when he runs well, he never forgets how much effort is involved.

“Seconds seem real short when you’re just walking around school,” Sims said. “Then you think, ‘I can run around the track in less than a minute.’ It seems like a long way to go in such a short time.”