Going The Distance Cv’s Warnock Runs Through Difficult Times To Success
As a freshman, Robby Warnock figured that this distance running thing was easy.
After all, he ran a 1:59.2 800 and timed 10:19.5 in his only 3,200 meter race as a freshman.
“I ran all through junior high and did really well then,” he said. “I was already into the scene.”
Warnock, now a senior at Central Valley High School, didn’t count on the problems that have made his prep career as much a character lesson as an athletic experience.
“It’s been a long and hard battle,” Warnock admitted.
Advancing to regionals as a freshman with a third-place finish in the Greater Spokane League meet, Warnock false-started out of his preliminary 800 heat.
His sophomore year he was originally picked fourth in the prelims after running a school record 1:55.95, but was left unfulfilled.
“They told me I had qualified (for finals),” said Warnock. “Then they reviewed the film and I was edged out.”
He finally made it to state last year, finishing fifth, in 1:57.66. Still, it was a year with further trauma.
Mononucleosis resulted in a late start to the season. Warnock then suffered a hip injury that hampered his performance.
“Through the whole process, with the injury and stuff, I guess I was satisfied,” said Warnock of the season-ending outcome. But not with the time.
“Last year, without the mono I could have run 1:53.”
That is the kind of time it will take to advance from region to state this year and Warnock has set for himself an ambitious goal of running 1:50 in the metric half-mile.
Except his hips are bothering him again.
“I’ve got new orthotics,” he said. “Everything is getting better now. Hopefully, everything is kicked.”
Warnock ran 1:57.76 two weeks ago at the Pasco Invitational.
Warnock’s father, Mike, was an 800/1,600 runner in Utah, so Rob had the genetics for distances. But he tried football in seventh grade.
“It only lasted three days,” he said. “I went to cross country and found I was pretty good at it.”
He set a Spokane Valley junior high activities league 1,600 meter record of 4:57.8 as an eighth grader.
He also was good enough in basketball to sit on the varsity bench at CV as a sophomore before turning to running full time.
This year in cross country he placed 17th in the regional meet and ran in the Foot Locker western regionals in California.
It is on the track, where his speed has also meant two trips to state as part of CV’s 1,600 relay team, that Warnock excels.
“Track’s definitely my forte,” he said.
Building toward the end of the season, Warnock can look back on his obstacle-laden career and find positives.
He likened it to the satisfaction derived from climbing a mountain and getting to the top.
“You deal with things as they come and do the best you can. Everything will all work out,” Warnock said. “When you’re faced with troubles you push through them and are more grateful.”
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