Judy Zoellick

Humen sprints his way to his Conference victory.

He’s in the box, getting reading to run, or as some may see it– sprint– the next three miles. His nerves are kicking in — this is one of the biggest races he will ever run. All he can think about is getting a good head start in front of everyone. When suddenly, “boom!” the gun goes off and Patrick Humen sprints away.

Humen is shocking the boys cross country team with his outstanding times and even more surprising is that this is his first year doing it. He placed first at the Libertyville Invite (September 21) and at Conference (October 19). He also did very well at Regionals on October 26.

Humen started off playing soccer for his first three years of high school. During the past two track seasons, he was contemplating if he was going to play soccer or run cross country. Humen has always been a pretty fast runner and knew he would fit in well with the cross country team. Plus, he ran distance on the track team for three years with many cross country runners, and he became close with them. They all hoped he would quit soccer and join cross country. Furthermore, Humen and fellow senior Steven Zarling knew that they might not get playing time if they chose to play soccer.

“We were both thinking about running cross country,” said Zarling. “With both of us quitting soccer together, it made it easier to decide to run cross country.”

Although this is Humen’s first year at running cross country, he is the top runner. His personal record is 15:25 minutes for three miles straight. This means that Humen ran at a pace of 5:08 minutes each mile. That is unheard of for a first-year runner.

Even though Humen was born with fast legs, he had to train hard to get better. On November 2, Humen is going to Sectionals. If he places as a top 10 individual there, he will achieve his ultimate goal of making it to State, which would be Saturday, November 9, in Peoria.

Humen knows that getting to state isn’t going to be easy. He has to wake up at 5:30 for morning practice on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, in addition to the practices that are everyday after school until 6:00. Mr. Ben Zollo, one of Humen’s cross country coaches, is very happy with how well Humen has done this year and thinks he’s a great addition to the team.

“He is somebody who shows up every day to work hard and is [always] focused. [He] is really setting an example for everybody else on how to compete and how to work hard,” Mr. Zollo said.

At a normal cross country practice, Humen will run approximately six to eight miles. But he has run up to more than 17 miles in one day–four miles in the morning and a half marathon (13.1 miles) after school. He never complains about any of the practices though. Zarling looks up to Humen and respects him as a teammate.

“He never slacks off in practice or makes up excuses for why he ‘can’t’ run,” said Zarling.

Despite the fact that Humen is always leading the pack and winning many races, he always manages to stay humble. He is never talking about how fast he is or how he is better than anyone else. Instead, he is always encouraging his teammates to do the best they can.

“He doesn’t brag. He’s fast and he doesn’t let people know it,” said senior Scott Post, a teammate of Humen’s.

Senior Atticus Rush, a captain of the cross country team, believes Humen is a great addition to the team.

“He wins every time for our team but you never hear him bragging about it or anything. If I had to pick one kid to lose to every time, it would be him because he is like, not a [jerk] about it,” he said.

Humen was even nominated for athlete of the month by the Chicago Tribune. He was shocked when he found out about this news.

“Being nominated was such a good feeling!” said Humen. “It was great knowing all my hard work was recognized.”

Sprinting to the finish line at Regionals, the time reads 15:48 minutes. Within seconds of him finishing, his hands are over his head and he is trying to catch his breath. Humen is a little light headed, but it is all worth it: he finished third place out of hundreds of guys. All of his hard work paid off.

“Thank God it’s over,” is all Humen is thinking.