Throwback Thursday

So today, in honor of #tbt (gosh I feel too old to do that) I figured I would post up a little something about some of the runners from my day and their achievements on the big stage. If I have time I'll try to do this weekly at some point when news is slow, but these days I have been outrageously busy. But when I have time I enjoy doing this sort of thing so I don't mind putting together a few words. Here we go, first off I'll talk about one of my favorite runners in the business, Ben Furcht.

I followed the sport pretty religiously since the middle of 2008, but I consider the "etrain era" from 2007 to the present. Ben Furcht was my favorite runner to watch during that entire period and there were some pretty good dudes in there. Furcht was a distance runner for Lower Merion who graduated in the class of 2009.

For those of you who don't know, Ben was not a particularly tall runner, nor was he particularly muscular or impressive looking. Not to knock the guy, I think that's what makes his performances so impressive. If I had to guess a height I'd say like 5 foot 6 or so, but again complete guess. Feel free to google him.

At Districts in 2005, the freshman Ben Fucht finished 348th in the JV race running 19:48. The next year, he began to show significant improvement running a solid 17:27 as a sophomore, a time that landed him the 6th spot on his team and the 188th spot at districts. That year Lower Merion was 16th as a team at the District Championships.

But Ben kept working to get better and his Junior campaign featured the most significant improvements of his career. He finished 22nd at Districts in 15:53 and qualified for his first ever state championships in cross country. This was back when Ben still had the wild, crazy bounce hair. After he ran sub 16, he was certainly on some people's radar, considering the impressiveness of breaking that barrier.

But my first real Ben Furcht memory came a few weeks later at an indoor track and field meet at Ursinus. My friends and I were waiting for the 4x800m relay and watching the final laps of the 3k. Brad Miles, fresh off a huge break out XC season where he ran in the 15:20s, was dominating the race from the gun. I kind of zoned out the race and focused on stretching and preparing for my own race. Then all of a sudden I saw some Lower Merion kids jumping around and screaming for one of their runners. I had just assumed he was being lapped, but nope Ben Furcht ran his beautiful even/negative split race and beat out Brad Miles to win that 3k at Ursinus.

This was the moment when I started to become a Ben Furcht fan. I watched him in person at my first ever state championship indoors in 2008 (I was a de facto alternate for the DMR after a slew of injuries/sicknesses). Furcht, Tarsnane and Beveridge ran a fantastic race in the slow section of the 3k which showcased all three of the Juniors excellent strength. It was ironic foreshadowing as these three would end the next XC season as the three best of PA: AA state champ, AAA state champ and footlocker finalist. But we'll get to that.

Outdoors Furcht continued to stay on a roll and his teammate, Neal Berman, began to grow into a bona fide stud alongside his teammate Ben. The two went out a comfortable and smart pace and then proceeded to pick off the majority of the field en route to a couple state qualifying spots in the 32. Ben also buzzed off his trademark hair at this point giving way to his new, more intimidating seniro year look. Furcht was 4th outdoors that year behind Dennin, Aldrich and Tarsnane. The XC season would be interesting.

Furcht took the reigns early in the XC season, winning the pre-state race in what would end up being the fastest time run on the course the entire year. He won the Paul Short meet and his teammate Neal Berman finished 3rd. Furcht and Berman were creating a legacy and a team to follow in their footsteps. At the District Championships, Furcht won yet another race in an impressive 15:08. Berman finished 3rd in 15:25 ... with only one shoe. As for the Lower Merion boys? They averaged 16:02 at Lehigh and finished 6th as a team, one spot away from the state title (this was the first year D1 sent just 5 teams, the previous years they had sent 6). It was an unbelievable turn around from top to bottom.

The Berman-Furcht one-two talks began over the course of the week and Furcht went into the state meet as the favorite. But unfortunately, Furcht was not destine for state gold on this day. He and Berman got stuck at the back as they tried to run a reasonable first mile. The madness of states engulfed them and after fighting through a herd of runners, Furcht hit the mile in 29th place at 4:53. Meanwhile, Tarsnane was out front, out of traffic and controlling the race. After a furious charge on the second mile, Ben moved up to second at 2 miles just in time to hit all the hills. Tarsnane was strong that day and he was confident. Ben did everything he could to try and reel Jimmy back in but in the end, it was too much of a gap to overcome. On the final hill, Ben locked up and fell from 2nd to 11th place in a span of about 300m. He had given everything that day to go for the state title.

His next race, he made sure he got the line in position. He was 10th at the Footlocker Regional meet and qualified for Nationals. His teammate Neal Berman was an impressive 11th.

He stayed hungry and stayed determined. He continued to pound out impressive races indoors adding another dimension to his races that he hadn't before, showing off some mile speed. He doubled at the indoor state meet with the mile and the 3k on his schedule. First came the mile, where he wasn't quite able to overcome a slow early pace and, after some fast times came from the slow heat, he finished 5th overall (he was second in his heat to eventual state champ Ivo Milic-Straklj). Later in the 3k, Ben hammered out the second half of the race leaving everyone besides Bobby Micikas of D2 Crestwood in his dust. But Micikas hung around and the final 200m he was able to use Furcht's pacing to his advantage and kicked home to victory in a surprising upset win of 8:35.58. Furcht was second in 8:36.17.

A few weeks later Furcht ran another impressive race, dropping a PR of 9:16 in the 2 mile at nationals to finish, you guessed it, second place, behind Footlocker Champ Soloman Halie.

But Furcht would have another shot at Halie and Micikas when the crew toed the line for the Penn Relays 3k. Furcht would have fresh legs this time against Micikas and he was in great shape going into the race. When Halie started to suffer from allergies, it was clear the race was much more wide open than it had previously appeared. And Ben Furcht didn't heistate to make the others work. He hammered out the second half of the race and set the stage for one of the fastest 3ks in Penn Relays history. Furcht ran an 8:24.72 that day for 3k but, yet again, his grueling pace was not quite enough to drop everyone. Bobby Micikas followed up his 3k win indoors with another fantastic kick and he stole the title in 8:23.84.

It had to have been a tough stretch of time for Ben. He was doing some phenomenal running, but he just didn't have the natural speed to close down races. He ran off all heart, guts and endurance strength. If you watched the last stretch of a Ben Furcht race you witnessed a back and forth head bob and gritted teeth as he tried to make his legs go as fast as they could.

That outdoor season he kept a pretty low profile (although he did solo a 4:15 mile somewhere in there). He jogged the Henderson 3200m just to get his district qualifying mark. He ran a few 4x8s with his teammates as the team developed a couple sub 2 minute guys in LeDonne and Perry. Then at Districts when Tarsnane threw down a kick at the end of the 32, Ben backed off, looked around and eased his way in comfortably to lock up his spot to states. He was saving everything for a rematch with Micikas.

How was Ben going to avoid Micikas's kick? Well he knew he would have to keep things fast, but there was also no way in the heat of states he could afford to drag the field around the track for 8 laps. Plus Micikas had already shown he had the strength to run 9 minute pace at Penn Relays.

Those were the questions I was asking as I sat in the stands on May 23rd 2009 at my first ever outdoor state championships (again a de facto alternate). This meet had the greatest 4x8 in state history, my roommate for the weekend won the state championship in the mile, and Sam Havko almost broke my coach's record, but still the highlight was going to be Ben Furcht.

He waited in the pack for the first 800m or so, but things were slow. He made a move up to the front. Micikas trudged along on his shoulder. Slowly Ben went to work. The group hit 3:28 at 1200m. Furcht led the way with Micikas, Mahoney, Tarsnane and Gillette in toe. Ben clicks off another 67. 4:35 at the mile and now all off a sudden it is easily just a 4 man race. Furcht, Micikas, Gillette and Tarsnane are free from the group leaving Berman and Bonaventure gasping for breath.

Then comes a 71-72. What is he thinking, slowing it down? He has to pound all the way. Berman is now climbing back up after his hard work on that lap.

Then he charges it back up. 68 seconds on the next lap and the group is confused. Ben has put the gap on now. Micikas is not even close. Another 67 second lap puts him clear of the field headed into the bell. He has a couple second gap on the rest of the pack but Jimmy Tarsnane is moving up. Furcht maintains his lead down the backstretch. He is all out now, but Tarsnane hits 200m and finds another gear. He is flying towards Furcht as they go around the curve and Ben knows it. He can hear him coming, feels him on his shoulder. They come off the final turn together side by side. Even when Tarsnane moves to go by, Ben stays fighting. He never gives up. The whole straightaway they move step for step. He is fighting all the way to the line.

And then it's over. Jimmy Tarsnane runs 9:04.22 to Furcht's 9:04.55 and once again Furcht is a heartbreaking 2nd. Tarsnane had to close his last lap in 59 to take the win. Furcht was around 61.

For four years I watched this guy run off pure guts. He started off his high school years slower than me. He probably couldn't run a quarter faster than I could by the end of his senior year. But somehow the guy was closing down races in 60 seconds. He left everything he had on the track every time he raced. Watching him you just had so much respect for a guy like that.

It hurts to know that Ben never got that state championship he deserved. He may not have crossed the line first in those races, but he certainly didn't lose. He is phenomenal talent and a fantastic role model for future runners to use as inspiration to run every race with nothing to lose. He ran smart fractions, excellent even or negative split races that just looked so cool among all the crazy high school kids going out way over their head. He was the kind of runner I always wanted to be and I'm sure I wasn't the only one.

After Ben graduated he left in his wake another shorter XC stud in Kyle Ingerman who was flanked by a taller skinner Neal Berman like character in Michael McGowan. The Lower Merion team continued to have success every after Ben moved on to Georgetown. Heck he even inspired a young Max Norris to go out and win his own state titles and qualify for Footlocker.

Such is the legend of Ben Furcht.