Recommend This StoryPerfect pace lifts Owens to state title
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By Brian Eller - beller@nvdaily.com
BERRYVILLE -- Say what you want about Adam Owens. Just don't question his dedication. Simon Biddle-Snead sure doesn't.
Four years ago, Owens and Biddle-Snead were preparing to run in the state cross country championships as members of the Clarke County team. Biddle-Snead, a senior, was the team's top runner. Owens was just a freshman, a mere afterthought on a deep roster of talented runners. But there was a problem. Biddle-Snead had shown up without his jersey, which, if caught, would disqualify him from the race.
No matter, however. He'd just wear Owens' jersey. Call it an initiation into the sacred bonds of cross country.
"I guess he was picked to win the race, so he really needed a jersey," Owens said, "so our logic was I was the No. 7 runner as a freshman and the least-needed person in the scoring. So if they were to disqualify somebody and it be me, it wouldn't matter on the team points scale."
Knowing it was what was best for the team, Owens gladly gave up his jersey, allowing Biddle-Snead to run without worrying about being disqualified for incorrect attire. But the wardrobe malfunction still wasn't fixed. Now Owens was without a jersey and it wouldn't take long for the judges to notice something wasn't quite right. So, to add insult to injury, Owens was given a girls jersey, and ran the race sporting a Clarke County girls jersey.
"It fit all right," Owens recalled. "A little tight around the chest."
From that day, Owens knew he had earned his place on the team, and four seasons later, it was Owens who helped guide Clarke County to a state championship and earn The Northern Virginia Daily's Boys Cross Country Runner of the Year award.
Owens always had a knack for cross country, he just didn't realize it. That is, until sixth grade. Passionate for soccer throughout middle school, Owens decided he would try out for the cross country team, if anything to help him maintain his conditioning levels for soccer. He had never run before, certainly not to the extent cross country requires, but Owens showed up to practice, 11 years old, ready to run alongside 12- and 13-year-olds.
The tryout was a two-mile course. Owens won, beating out the supposedly faster seventh- and eighth-graders. From then on, he knew he'd found his calling. But as a sixth-grader he wasn't allowed to compete, so he had to train on his own.
"I just kind of practiced alone and just had un with it," Owens said. "I'm kind of a laid-back, adventurous kind of guy, so I liked running around in the woods and having a good time."
After missing his seventh-grade season with a broken foot, one of several bouts with adversity over the years, Owens entered eighth grade as the team leader and went undefeated all season. Then, a day before the district meet, Owens woke up with the flu, and wasn't sure if he could compete the next day. But staying in bed wouldn't be the final mark of a successful season.
"I was like, I can't sit this out, it's the most important race of the season," Owens said. "I'm undefeated all season. I've just got to run it whether I win it or not."
In the race, Owens started out beautifully, taking the lead after the first mile. Then with 100 meters to go, he began to feel the effects of his flu.
"My teammate, Colin Brown, during the last 100 meters I heard him coming behind me because I was dying," Owens said, "and he was getting closer and he yelled at me, 'Go on, Adam! Go!' And so we just take off and he's basically right next to me and we just run it in together."
Somehow, to this day, Owens himself isn't sure why, but he took first, edging out his teammate who had helped him muster enough energy to cross the finish line.
Once Owens got to high school, however, his idea of cross country changed. The sport that had been something fun to do in middle school suddenly became more than that. It had become a lifestyle for Owens, thanks in large part to his former coach Dustin Sweeney, the man Owens said "changed the way [I] thought of running."
Owens had never experienced anything like the training he received over the summer before joining the high school team. It was a rigorous routine. Up each day for a 7 a.m. run, with extra-long runs on the weekends. And then there was the diet. No more trips to McDonald's or wolfing down candy bars on the way to class. Instead, Owens was forced to realign his daily eating habits.
"I don't eat a whole lot of breakfast, but when I do it's cereal," Owens said. "Lunch is light because it's close to practice. No junk food. Usually an apple and a sandwich, that's it. Then we get to dinner time. Dinner time you usually get that deep hunger feeling. My personal rule is everything in moderation. Never overindulge. The main focus is getting carbs."
But the biggest change for Owens wasn't the sudden lack of fast food, nor the early-morning runs. It was the realization that to be successful at the sport, he'd have to put in more hard work and dedication than he'd ever thought, and have to push himself to get better every day.
"His tolerance and his drive to work harder [is Adam's forte]," Clarke County coach Nancy Specht said. "The higher up the ladder you want to go, the more tolerance you have to have. Adam has the ability to do his reps and bounce back, and then do his reps a couple of days later and just continue to pound and he's got a beautiful structure. Cross country success is pretty much dictated on how much you want to work. Coaches can say eat this or suggest that but when the bottom line comes, it's how much are you willing to put into it? How hard are you willing to work? How much are you willing to put in over the summertime?"
As is turns out, Owens was willing to do all that, and more. As the seasons went by, Owens got stronger as a runner, first developing his skills, then trying to perfect them. All of his hard work looked like it was going to pay off as Owens headed into his senior season as the top runner for the Eagles. But then, fittingly for Owens, adversity struck again.
With the fall season underway, Owens came down with Lyme disease, preventing him from breathing as smoothly as he needed to compete. The senior still went out and raced, but as Owens struggled, so did the Eagles. In a dual meet against Skyline, Clarke County finished second, at the time a result that forced the Eagles to realize they weren't going to be able to coast on talent alone.
Owens recovered soon after, and with his body closer to firing on all cylinders, so too was the rest of the team. With Owens leading the way, Clarke County became unstoppable, easily capturing the district title.
In the regional championships a week later, the Eagles ran so well they recorded a perfect score of 15, with the top six finishers all sporting the Clarke County orange.
Then at the state championships, Owens put together one of the finest performances of his high school career, capturing the Group A individual championship with a time of 16:32, and helping lead the Eagles to their fifth state title in six years. It was the perfect end for a runner who had overcome so much.
Just four years before, Owens had proved his dedication, giving up his race jersey to a teammate in need. But as he crossed the finish line as a champion in his final high school race, Owens knew that no matter how many times his body was tempted to fail on him, the runner inside of him kept going in stride. Even if it was while wearing a girls jersey.
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