You could have forgiven Dave Wishart if he mishandled the race. Because it was finally here. March 21, 2004. The day the Canadian native circled in his mind over a year earlier. The afternoon of the 2004 IAAF World Junior Cross Country Championships.

Trouble was Wishart always paced himself poorly in major races. So often he would start out too fast, thinking he could keep up, only to fade in the end. And now on the pinnacle of stages in Brussels, Belgium, one could surmise he’d get too anxious again.

Hardly.

‘I ran as good a race as I could have asked for,’ Wishart said.

Never had an 82nd place finish warranted such jubilation. Even more satisfying than the unexpectedly high result, though, was the way he did it: Resisting the temptation to overrun early and finishing stronger than ever before.

This school year marked the second straight the Syracuse sophomore focused his attention on a single spring event. In 2005, it’s the Big East Conference 10-kilometer final on May 7 at Rutgers. Thanks to the Worlds Championships, he knows the rigors of preparing months for a single race.

That was not always the case, though. Not only did Wishart struggle to pace himself in individual races, but over the long term as well. In a sport designed for distance runners to build momentum toward one final race, Wishart previously went all out in every meet.

‘I wasn’t willing to wait for that goal,’ Wishart said. ‘I was really impatient. I wanted to see results right away, and in this sport, you don’t see results for quite a while.’

With Worlds, there were almost no results at all. Wishart finished seventh in Canada’s qualifying race in November of 2003, making him the first alternate for the six-man team. So close to the dream, yet so far.

The disappointment vanished soon enough. One of the original qualifiers left the squad, bumping Wishart up. SU distance coach Jay Hartshorn then designed Wishart’s training program solely for Worlds, forcing her ultra-competitive freshman to practically give up both his indoor and outdoor track seasons at Syracuse. He still competed, but never seriously.

Canada’s coaches spewed encouragement upon meeting him, but privately didn’t think Wishart would contribute much to the team.

‘Going into the race, I thought he was probably our sixth man,’ said Kevin Heisler, an assistant coach for the 2004 Canadian Junior National Team. ‘But based on his good strategy and tactic, he ended up being our third best finisher because he was very wise and conservative.

‘A lot of our other athletes went out way too hard. I guess they thought they were up there with the Kenyans or Ethiopians. They weren’t.’

Heisler explained that Wishart finished the first kilometer in 91st place, proceeding to pass on average one competitor per kilometer for the duration of the 8-kilometer event. Even though Heisler and Wishart discussed the runner’s pacing problems leading up to the race, Heisler acknowledged he never thought Wishart would run that well.

Wishart found his inspiration from living and training with all of the international runners for the 10 days before the meet. He relished the life of a professional distance runner:

Light four mile jaunts in the morning, longer runs coupled with lifting in the afternoon. The dedication fellow runners possessed impressed Wishart the most.

‘One of the biggest things I learned was to have complete faith in my training,’ Wishart said. ‘If you’re willing to work, you’re going to see results.’

That’s been his mantra all year after setting his sights on the 10-kilometer back in September. He still ran a normal cross country season, winning the Orange Classic in October for the second consecutive season. But like his freshman year, he held back during indoor track season.

Similar to the Worlds, Wishart had one chance to qualify for the Big East Championships. He made sure not to take the path of an alternate this time, posting the necessary mark at the Raleigh Relays on March 26.

‘He only had one shot to qualify because we don’t see any other 10Ks,’ Hartshorn said. ‘That’s where the real pressure is. Now the rest is easy. Over the next (two) weeks he runs less mileage (than normal).’

Focusing so much on one event allows for the occasional surprise in another. Wishart unexpectedly qualified last Saturday at the Albany Relays for the Big East steeplechase finals. He won’t be jumping any water at Rutgers, though, because the steeplechase takes place the same day as the 10-kilometer.

Wishart now knows the importance of pacing himself over the long run and realizes extra steeplechase work would disrupt his 10-kilometer preparation. Nothing will come between him and that race.

‘There’s mornings I’ll hear a car start up a 7 o’clock in the morning,’ said teammate Joey Zimensky, a junior, who lives in the apartment next to Wishart’s. ‘I’ll look out the window and he’s on his way to the weight room. When it comes to hard workers, Dave is way up there.’

Part of his insatiable desire includes a possible return to international competition. He said the SU cross country and track teams remain his sole focus until graduation, but wants to make Canada’s senior team in 2008. Turning 20 during the 2005 calendar year deemed him ineligible to run a second time at the junior Worlds.

Qualifying at the senior level is a much more daunting proposition, but Heisler said Wishart should go for it.

‘There are opportunities for him to compete at the next level,’ Heisler said. ‘He certainly has a level head on his shoulders and a good work ethic. However, a lot of juniors get lost when they move up to senior.’

Any discussion of that is unwarranted, though. At the moment, it’s all about the 10-kilometer. It’s all about pacing himself during training leading up to the meet, and once May 7 rolls around, pacing himself in that specific race.

‘It takes a disciplined person to have patience building for the bigger picture,’ said Jan Wishart, his mother. ‘Dave’s had unbelievable discipline. He’s very focused right now.’

Published on April 21, 2005 at 12:00 pm