A Collegiate 5K Record Falls After 42 Years—And No One Saw It Coming – runnersworld.com

His high school coach still has the notebooks detailing the workouts Dhruvil Patel did his freshman year. There’s the 4-mile tempo run—and next to his name, the ominous letters DNF.

In his first year of running, Patel’s cross-country PR for 3 miles was 20:23, an average of 6:47 per mile, which he ran in the JV race of an Illinois invitational. In those results, which Patel posted to Twitter recently, he finished in 289th place. His first name is spelled incorrectly.

Safe to say, a lot more people know his name now. On April 19, Patel, a senior at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois, ran the 5,000 meters at the Cardinal Classic at Stanford University and finished in 13:51.40, setting a Division III record. The previous record had stood for 42 years.

“The whole point of going to the race was to get better competition and PR, no matter what that PR was,” Patel said to Runner’s World. “I didn’t realize at the time that I broke the record. I was pretty satisfied with the time. I know I could do better. But that was the goal, to go and run fast.”

Running that speed puts him in elite company. A pro career after he graduates appears to be a realistic possibility for Patel, 22, who is an accounting major at North Central. He has also run 28:50 for 10,000 meters, an event he has tried only a few times.

None of that seemed remotely possible 8 years ago, or even as he graduated from high school. His career so far carries a valuable lesson for high school runners: Progress happens at its own rate.

Patel had never done any competitive running when his sister suggested he go out for cross country as a high school freshman. The coach at Niles North High School in Skokie, Illinois, was a beloved young English teacher, Daniel Horyn. Patel at the time was reeling from the sudden death of his father from a heart attack. He joined the team, and on the first day he struggled to complete a mile and a half without stopping. But in the miles and the routine, he found solace.

“Running was this outlet for me,” he said. “I’ve really enjoyed it ever since then.”

By the end of his freshman year, he ran 4:50 for 1600 meters. It was nothing to brag about, but massive progress for a kid who couldn’t run a single six-minute mile at the beginning of the year.

Tragedy struck again before Patel’s sophomore year, when Coach Horyn was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. An assistant coach, Dave Shafron, started helping with the team. He and Horyn thought Patel could develop into a solid runner, maybe one of their top 3 on the cross-country team if all went well.

Horyn died in September of Patel’s junior year. He was only 34.

The two crushing losses gave Patel motivation—and unusual clarity for a teen.

“At the end of the day, whatever I’m doing, it’s for my coach and for my dad,” he said. “And if getting last place in a race is the worst thing that’s ever happened to you, you’re living a pretty good life. It’s really about perspective.”

By his junior year, he was fully committed to running in a way he hadn’t been before. He texted Shafron for advice on how to get better. Shafron told him to be consistent, day in and day out. There will be times you’re not going to want to show up, you’re not going to want to put in the work. The weather is going to be bad. Just show up.

Patel was Niles North’s No. 1 runner in cross-country, but he didn’t qualify for the state meet. He didn’t qualify in track, either. He wasn’t really on the radar of college coaches, who rely heavily on junior year results.

Senior year, Patel finished 26th at the state cross-country meet, missing All-State honors by one place. His track PR was 4:20 for 1600 meters. “I was an average high school runner by the end of my senior year,” Patel said. “There were probably 1,000 other kids who were just like me. I never understood what I could become. To see it happen is just crazy.”

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Patel ended up at North Central, 45 minutes from his home in Skokie, under the guidance of legendary distance coach Al Carius, who is now in his 53rd year at North Central. Patel has seen his PRs come down every year. Last fall, he won the Division III NCAA cross-country championship, and North Central won the team title for the 19th time in its history.

“Dhru has tremendous passion for getting better,” Carius said. “He is a student of the sport. He seeks information to help himself to improve. He’s hungry, he’s passionate, he’s not satisfied. As well as he is running, he’s constantly looking for feedback. At practice, he says, ‘Al, what do you think? What do you see? How can I get better?’”

Case in point: Patel follows the pros and he watches marathons and Diamond League meets. When the Boston Marathon was in progress two weeks ago, he was sitting in a tax class, with one eye on a live stream.

His favorite pro, he says, is Shalane Flanagan: “I respect the passion and drive that Shalane has for the sport,” he said. “It’s been a very endearing characteristic that I really try to imitate.”

At the same time, his DMs are open to questions from high school runners, who often turn to him seeking advice. The message is simple. “You’ve just got to be patient and consistent,” he said. “There are going to be bumps along the road. They’re going to knock you down. That’s okay. It’s part of life, it’s part of running.”

Keep an even keel, he tells younger athletes. When you’re high, don’t get too high. When you’re low, don’t get too low. Be consistent in all aspects of what you do: emotionally, mentally, physically.

Above all, avoid the comparison trap.

“When I started getting good, I wanted to get even better much quicker,” Patel said. “I was looking at people’s different workouts, what they were doing, asking for advice—I just got too caught up in what kind of workouts these professional runners were doing, what these top guys were doing.”

“My college coach tells me, you’ve got to make the workouts work for you,” he continued. “Don’t run somebody’s else’s workouts. Because you’re not them.”

No, you’re not them. If you’re Patel, by now you’re probably better.